If you don’t teach your children what the Bible says, who Jesus is, and the life and eternity God wants for them, they may never learn. If you rely on your church’s children’s and student’ ministries to teach your children these truths, you are at the mercy of ministry scheduling. Having worked in a few churches, To complete my review and encouragements form Jenna Hallock’s book, What is Family Time? Exploring God’s Plan for Engaging in Biblical Home Discipleship, I will start with a question she poses in chapter 4.
“Take a moment to consider this: What if you and I don’t teach our children about Jesus at home? What if we don’t learn about the Bible together? What if we neglect praying as a family or never memorize Scripture?”
Jenna states continues with “for starters, we’re being disobedient to God who gives us clear instruction in Deuteronomy 6, Psalm 78, and Ephesians 6 on the topic of passing the faith to the next generation from parent to child.” Then she talks about what our children could miss out on.
let me tell you that, unless your children’s and student ministries work on a scope and sequence, it is likely some of the lessons your children need to learn may not be taught often enough to remind them of these truths. Often children’s and student ministry leaders choose curriculum and series topics based on what has come out recently or what they haven’t taught lately (they are people who can get bored, too).
PLEASE don’t leave your children’s spiritual training to your church. Teach your children what they need to know and let their spiritual training at church be a vitamin to the meals you are already serving.
Who do you want your children to become? People of integrity, honesty, compassion, faith, love? Those character traits don’t happen without nurture and modeling. They are empty and performative without Biblical foundation. These character traits in their purest form flow from a heart that has been returned to God and accepted His salvation.
Jenna ends chapter 4 with these statements, “Remember that salvation is a one-time event – believe in the Lord and be saved (Acts 16:31). But the process of sanctification is a lifetime pursuit – we learn and grow until we enter into eternity. Take this journey together as a family and trust God that your work and faith is not in vain.”
“…being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” Philippians 1:6
What is the next step you need to take to start or continue to intentionally pass your faith on to your children?