Let's Talk About... Faith!

Start children off on the way they should go,

and even when they are old they will not turn from it.

Proverbs 22:6

These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts.

7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and

when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

Deuteronomy 6:6-7

The principal role of parents is to disciple our children the truth of the gospel.  This is a big, glorious, challenging, wonderful, and tiring job!  The whole church family needs to encourage, support, and pray for all our parents as they strive to fulfil this vital role.

Whilst our children are young, we encourage them as disciples of Jesus because they belong in our family, and our family is committed to Christ and KCW.  This is good and right. 

 However, at some point we want all our children and young people to take responsibility for their own discipleship, not just because we’re encouraging them, but because they ‘own’ their own faith.  Simply speaking, they’re a Christian disciple not just because of their surname, but also because of their first name.  For instance, at some point, I stopped thinking of myself as a Christian because I belonged to the Matthew family, and started thinking of myself, Pete Matthew, as a Christian.

This change can be seen when they go to church not only because the family goes, but because they want to.  They pray, read the Bible, they have their own living and active faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

So, let’s encourage each other as parents disciple their children and young people.  Let’s share ideas about what we do in teaching our family the Bible - what works, what hasn’t worked, what we’re planning to do.  How do we show our children that God’s word is for all of life?

There is a cultural battle that our children and young people are on the front-line fighting – so...

• How can we help each other to show that following Christ is the best, most joyful, fulfilled life that it’s possible to live?

• Talk with each other after church, share ideas at home group, send a WhatsApp message – let’s help each other as we disciple our children

We know that following the world’s wisdom is like eating mouldy bread, whereas God’s wisdom is like the freshest, softest, most delicious loaf!  Let’s encourage each other to point our children to the ‘feast’ God is offering them.

Below are some ideas – this is not an exhaustive list!  Please share your thoughts, help and encourage each other, let’s be an active church family supporting all our parents to fulfil this key role in bringing up their children in the fear and love of the Lord.

RESOURCES

Bibles & Books & Quiet Times

• Our online church bookstall has a section of brilliant suggestions on Children and Family Life

• 10ofthose.com (who host our online bookstall) have a helpful tab on their homepage for children & youth which gives options for various age brackets – worth looking through

• What works for your family?

• Our twins use the Discover Bible study books, but there are lots of great resources for family Bible times – look at 10ofthose.com and The Good Book Company for loads of options

Paul Tripp’s book on Parenting is highly recommended to help us in this area

Online

• Faith in Kids has lots to offer and a really podcasts on parenting, as well as podcasts for our children

• If you find a helpful article share it with others at churc. For instance, I recently found this online article helpful - 'Let's talk about sex'