“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise” (Deuteronomy 6:4-7 ESV).

I sat with my three-year-old daughter in time-out, trying to explain why she shouldn’t hit her twin brother in the head. In these moments I find it easy to communicate simple dos and don’ts, but I struggle to explain the better truths of God, grace, and obedience. Truth be told, if you looked at my own life, I’m not sure I’ve grasped it as much as I think. I usually fumble through something about loving each other because God loves us and that God gives grace for us with Jesus. But, I also don’t want my only attempts at explaining the Gospel to be in the context of discipline.

There are plenty of theologically rich resources produced for kids. The New City Catechism provides a truncated version of each question for kids. We’ve immensely enjoyed The Big Picture Story Bible by David Helm. Also the Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally Lloyd-Jones is a favorite at our church. Yet as any parent knows, sitting down to read something isn’t always in the cards.

While I use these resources and more, my twins (and soon my one-year-old) are just on the verge of grasping the basics of a storyline. To help build my children’s theological base, I crafted a catechism with brief, repeatable questions and answers that we can rehearse with thirty seconds to spare.

This catechism, if you can call it that, instills a very basic foundation. Naturally this has a long way to go before it sits next to Westminster or Heidelberg, but that is the point. It’s a great start on which YOU can build. We, as parents, can take a catechism, and make it our own, in order to explain big truths to our small children.

Here are the 7 Questions & Answers that I give to my children:

1) How many gods are there?

There is 1 God. (Hand motion: raise one finger)

2) And what did He make?

Everything! (Hand motion: spread arms wide)

3) And who does he love?

Everybody! (Hand motion: spread arms wide)

4) And how do we know he loves us?

Because Jesus died for our sins and defeated evil!

5) Is Jesus still dead?

No! He’s alive!

6) And what do we look forward to?

Living with Jesus in the new creation.

7) And how should we live now?

Love God and love each other.

I wrestled with how to jam as much biblical truth as I could into these questions and answers. I falsely assumed I could construct something complete (whatever that means) through careful nuance. But, after some thinking, I now prefer the blunt simplicity of very short questions and answers, knowing that nuance and clarity will come later.

Simple answers are easily memorized and internalized. These questions take about 30 seconds while leaving ample opportunity to add content as time goes on. We can quickly go through “good theology,” as we call it, at the dinner table, in the car, or before the next episode of Octonauts on Netflix. The content is simple enough that you can easily pray through it at night as well.

So, when I sit with my son, explaining why he can’t throw a ball at his sister’s head (why is it always a head wound?), instead of fumbling I remind him how we should love God and love each other. Because this phrase already has context and meaning.

If nothing else, I want to encourage you to live out the command from Deuteronomy 6 too. How can you take the knowledge of God – especially shown in Jesus – and form the heart, soul, and strength of your children?