How to Explain the Trinity to Your Kids: 3 Simple Steps

Also Available on:

A parent recently wrote in:

"My four-year-old asked me, what is the difference between God and Jesus? How do I explain to him that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are three in one?"

This is probably the most common question I get asked about explaining hard things to little ones, because the Trinity is a concept our human minds will never be able to fully grasp. But I think there is a simple way to explain the Trinity to children as young as three years old.

In our Biblical Worldview Curriculum for children ages four to seven, unit two, lesson two covers exactly this. We teach the Trinity in three simple steps, and here are those same three steps you can use at home.

Step 1: Give a simple definition

A lot of times we want to go into deep explanations with our young kids. Instead, give them a simple definition you can say over and over again, so it becomes an anchor for their understanding.

The definition is: God is one being in three persons. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

Say it again. God is one being in three persons. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Practice this with your kids until it is simply a truth they carry, one that anchors any question they have later.

I saw the power of this several years ago while babysitting for my pastor's kids, whose oldest were about three and four. The parents had asked me to read a portion of the Gospel of John with them during evening family worship, and part of that reading was Jesus' high priestly prayer. As I read, the four-year-old stopped me: "Wait, so Jesus is praying to himself?"

That is a very good question for a four-year-old to ask. So I asked back, "How many persons are there in God?" The kids had the simple definition memorized, and the three-year-old answered, "There are three persons in the one true and living God: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit." From there I could ask, "Who is Jesus?" Jesus is God the Son. God the Father is different from God the Son, even though they are one being. So God the Son was praying to God the Father.

That whole conversation was possible because the definition was already in place. Give the definition first, and practice it over and over.

Step 2: Explain how the common examples fall short

The second step is to explain how the popular illustrations of the Trinity fall short. We are never going to have a perfect way to explain the Trinity, because it is a concept our minds cannot fully grasp on this earth. So rather than reach for a perfect picture, we show kids where the familiar pictures break down. That makes clear what the Trinity is not.

We use two examples in the lesson.

First, the apple. Some people say God is like an apple, because an apple has three parts: the core, the flesh, and the skin. But God is not three parts that make up one God. God the Father is not part of God; God the Father is God. God the Son is not part of God; God the Son is God. God the Spirit is not part of God; He is God. For those who have studied theology, the heresy this guards against is partialism, the belief that the Father, Son, and Spirit are each a part of God. That is not what Scripture portrays. The Father is God, the Son is God, the Spirit is God.

Second, water. Sometimes people say the Trinity is like water, because water can be a solid (ice), a liquid, or a vapor (steam), and they say the Father, Son, and Spirit are just different modes of God. But God does not change forms like water. This is the heresy of modalism. God is not sometimes the Father; God is always the Father. God is not sometimes the Son; God is always the Son. God is not sometimes the Spirit; God is always the Spirit. God is three in one, not one God in changing forms.

Step 3: Practice spotting how the examples fall short

The third step is to let kids practice identifying how different examples fall short, so the contrast really sticks and they see by comparison what the Trinity is not.

We turn it into a game with two simple hand signals. If an object is not like God because it has different parts that make up one whole, the kids spread their fingers apart. If an object is not like God because it is the same thing in different forms, they hold up their hands and wiggle their fingers.

Then we show examples. A popsicle is solid when frozen and liquid when melted, so how is a popsicle different from God being three in one? The kids wiggle their fingers: different forms. God is always the Father, always the Son, always the Spirit. A stuffed bear has stuffing, fur, and stitches, so how is it different from God being three in one? Fingers spread apart: different parts. The Father is not part of God; the Father is God, and the same is true of the Son and the Spirit. A pencil has graphite, wood, and an eraser, so again, different parts. Jello starts as powder, turns jiggly when cold, and freezes solid, so again, different forms.

When you give kids practical activities like this, they are never going to fully comprehend what the Trinity is. Neither can we as adults. That is not a mystery God has completely revealed to us. But by helping our kids see what the Trinity is not, they gain a slightly deeper understanding of what it is.

A free resource to start today

If you would like a free worksheet with a coloring page, an activity, some questions, a memory verse, and a few games to help your kids understand the Trinity, you can download it at foundationworldview.com/trinity.

And if you want to take your kids through the full lesson this comes from, our Biblical Worldview Curriculum walks families through the Trinity, and much more, one simple step at a time. You can find it in our shop.