Giving Your Children the Gift of Faith

**It's a little bit past the weekend, but I did it.  I got caught up on my book reading and am ready to delve into the beginning of Training, which is our week 9 reading.  I'll start on it later today, after I finish day 2 of Bible in 90 days.  I'm really glad I pushed myself to catch up and not give up! **

Faith is defined as:

• Confidence or trust in a person or thing.
• Believe that is not based on proof.
• Belief in god or in the doctrines or teachings of religion.

Dictionary also refers the reader to the definition of “confide”, which means:

• To impart secrets trustfully; discuss private matters or problems.
• To have full trust; have faith.

It might seem silly that I'm starting each of these blogs with a definition but I'm loving the intricacy of the words. I think it brings an entirely different level of understanding to what ever it is I'm talking about.

I love that faith is linked so closely to confide, because that is what God wants us to do. He wants us to put our faith in Him and His Word; to trust Him, to rely on Him to meet our needs, to confide in Him with our problems, our worries, our secrets.

When I started thinking last night of what I was going to write about faith, I thought it would be such a difficult topic. Faith is something so internal, so deep, that you have it or you don't. There isn't a happy medium – either you believe in God or you don't, plain and simple. It's always seemed that way to me anyway, but I'm starting to think that maybe there is some middle ground in there somewhere and that's why so many people have so many problems giving their life over to Him.

When I was 6 or 7, a Catholic nun from my private school decided she was fed up with all my assorted questions about God and how He works, and told me, “If you have to keep asking all these questions about God then you must be incapable of having faith.”

Can I just beg you to please, NEVER EVER tell anyone that?? I cannot tell you how much it messed with my mind, with my spiritual journey, and how much longer it took me to find my way to Him because those little words, spoken by someone so important in my life at the time, were never far from my memory. I know now it was the enemy that constantly whispered those words in my ear, bringing them fresh to mind anytime I got to close for his comfort to discovering God. What a joyful, life changing moment it was that September day when I finally did ask Jesus into my heart, but oh what a journey to get to Him!

So as I started to explain earlier, I thought this topic on faith would be difficult. How do you teach someone something so intricately internal?

Sally says it best in chapter 11 of Ministry of Motherhood:

Through His Word, God had given me all I needed to live productively through the challenging circumstances he brought my way. He will do that for my children, too, which is why the Bible must be at the center of all do as parents. One of the central ways we give our children the gift of faith is to base everything we do on the Word of God.

How simple is that? We do what God wants us to do – we live our life faithfully to Him, learn to rely on the power of the Holy Spirit to guide us and give the “patience, love, faith, strength, perspective, and understanding we need” (MoM, p. 131) and by modeling that behavior to our children, they in turn learn to put their own faith in God and the Holy Spirit. And by living a faithful life, we are also deepening and strengthening our own relationship with Him at the same time.

How wonderful that He gives us moms such an easy way to help us raise our kids!

1. Read Psalm 119:105. According to this verse, what will give our children a proper foundation and guidance on their path of life? In what ways does this apply to our calling as ministers to our children?

His Word will be the lamp to their feet and the light to their path. His Word should also be the lamp to MY feet and the light to MY path. My children will see this and desire to do the same.

2. Make a list of five things you could do to incorporate God’s Word more effectively into your everyday family life. Pick one item from the list and commit to applying it faithfully for six weeks.

1. Family prayer time
2. Reading the bible together
3. Sharing moments of God's faith in our life
4. Talking simply about why we need God's faith
5. ??

3. Hebrews 11:6 tells us that without faith, it is impossible to please God. What circumstances has God recently allowed in your own life that call for faith? In what ways are you modeling faith before the eyes of your children so that they are learning how to have faith in God?

We've had some financial struggles lately and have really had to rely on God to know that regardless of the numbers, it's all going to work out the way it should.

4. Think of a time in the past when you have had to walk by faith but now look back to see what God has done. Tell your children about this experience in the form of a bedtime story. (If you can’t think of a time in your own life, look for a children’s book about faithful people. Or tell them the stories of Abraham and Sarah or Joseph in Egypt.)

5. According to Ephesians 2:8, what does God say is the source of our salvation? What does faith have to do with this? Do your children understand that God’s love is a free gift with no strings attached? Plan out how you can communicate this principle to them.

The source of our salvation is God's grace. I do think my children understand that God's love has no strings attached, but I'm not sure they actually truly believe that yet.