Change Your Home in 10 Minutes - FAMILY PLUS Children's

How do you express your faith? Let me ask this a different way. How do your kids see you express your faith? or If you asked your kid the question, “What do your parents believe?” what would they say?

This week I was thinking about the outward expressions of faith that our kids latch onto. For instance, if a kid, somewhere between K-3rd grade, approaches me about their faith they’ll say, “Mr Jared, I want to get baptized.” They are enamored with the outward expression of salvation, baptism. This doesn’t seem to change as your kids get older. The book Parenting Beyond Your Capacity says, “service is more important to the spiritual development of students than worship and bible study combined.” Again, students, middle and high school, are valuing an outward expression of faith over inward expressions. As adults, we are very similar.  We are more changed by a mission trip to a poverty stricken part of the world than by even the best worship experience. People value action and movement. Our kids believe with their eyes.

Take 10 minutes to think strategically about how this looks in your home. 

-In what ways have your kids seen you express your faith?

-Do you value allowing your kids express their faith?

-What do your kids express/talk about on a daily basis?

-Think of one way you can help your kid connect their faith to action this week.

If we think about what our home looks like, we’ll see the truth of what we value. If the overarching value that permeates our homes and lives is anything other than Christ, our kids will know that and their lives will develop around that.  When a child wants to play a sport, we don’t just talk about the sport, teach them the rules of the sport and then throw them on the field expecting them to become a professional athlete. We practice with them.  We play the sport with them.  We put them on a team with others who will will guide them and help make them better.  Each of those things is intentional.  Teaching our kids to act out their faith is no different.  So, go!  Be intentional...about things that matter!