Passing the Faith Along

Here is a post I wrote for Green Hill Church on parenting as discipleship. A few tips for passing the faith along:

• Remember we do this in community. We don’t parent in isolation, we parent in community with the body of Christ in our local church. The church is there to equip, strengthen, and resource parents. And parents should learn, grow, confess, repent, and laugh together as they raise their children to love Jesus.
• Rely on the Spirit of God. This job of parenting is bigger than we can handle. This is why we need Holy Spirit power and wisdom. Doing it alone will lead us to burn out or give up on the enterprise all together.
• Resources are our friends. There are many, incredible resources out there that make this job of passing the faith along that much easier. In a follow up blog post, I will highlight a few that have been enormously helpful to our family.
• Rigidity is our enemy. One family’s version of family worship may look different than the next family. What is important is not how you teach your kids, but that you teach them. Some families do this in a more formal way. Others are more spontaneous.
• Rejoice in the privilege of teaching our children. The story we are telling our kids, this beautiful story of the gospel, is the best news in the world. So passing this to our kids is a joy and a privilege.

You can read the whole thing here:

photo credit: Danielle MacInnes