The Core of Your Family Begins With You

After Spring Break, I'm beginning to teach a Faith at Home Necessities class for our congregation- beginning April 14.  It's going to be the foundations of how, when, why and what to teach your children away from the ChristChurch campus. I'm SO excited and this passage from Deuteronomy 6 is going to be the very bedrock of all of our studies come April. This Sunday School class will be for anyone that has interactions with children. Grandparents, parents, teachers, aunts and uncles this is for you. This is my very heart of ministry and I am thrilled to be sharing it with all of you over a period of study. Members of immediate and extended family, studies show, have more spiritual influence on a child than a pastor or children's minister. (reality check!)

Thousands of years ago, before Jesus Christ, before the word Christian was ever uttered, parents were teaching their children ways to follow Yahweh and modeling what it looked like to love God. There were no churches or communities that were educating their children during the week or on the Sabbath like we have now. There were no home devotionals, no curriculum resources and definitely no family ministry blogs.  It was the parents' sole responsibility to care for the education and nurture of their child's faith. 

Verse 5 of Chapter 6 of Deuteronomy addresses parents. Moses is telling parents this: " Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all of your soul, and with all of your strength." Moses makes it very clear that your family's success begins with you and your willingness to let Him into your life and the very core of your family. If you want your children to have a faith that influences the way they live their lives- AND the critical life decisions they make, then you need to model a relationship with Christ outside of church.

A majority of churches are guilty of this, I pray over and over that the leadership in ChristChurch doesn't allow for an unhealthy and unbiblical process where the church usurps the role of the family, and creates an exclusive dependency upon the church for a child's spiritual nourishment. 

My not so subtle point is this: the faith of your family is totally dependent on the faith in your heart. If you want your children to have a personal relationship with Christ, you need to have a personal relationship with Christ. If you want your children to be able to communicate Christ's love to others, you better be showing and telling your children of Christ's love. We need to move from having knowledge about God in your head, to establishing a personal relationship with God in our everyday life. Only then can God affect how you life your life, raise your children and make life decisions. 

To make this head to heart transition, you're not alone. God fully equips and prepares you to be a spiritual champion for your children. It's why He gives us His word, The Holy Spirit and The Church. They are to be used for resources and help. The Lord blesses us to tell stories through His word of generations of people who have gone before us raising children. The Church is to be used for encouragement and to better equip you to live your faith at home in front of your children.