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“I have no greater joy than this, to hear of my children walking in the truth.”
3 John 1:4
What a difficult challenge this verse presents to us as parents. There is no formula, no guarantee that our precious ones will not be drawn into culture by the many voices that speak online every day. While every family has its own story and each puzzle of life is different, there are some practical ways we can make the life of faith tangible to our children and those are the focus of the second half of this chapter!
One of the sweetest gifts of my life is to watch my grown children walk with God. I have asked them why, despite the foibles or failures of our family, despite struggle and imperfect days (and imperfect parents), they caught the faith we were trying so hard to teach them. I find in their answers that it was the spiritual rhythms of our lives, the relational connections between us all, the atmosphere of love and grace, and the way of making God present every day in our home that shaped them most.
“I loved God because of crisp bacon and French toast and real maple syrup,” said Sarah one day. Another child said, it was breakfasts, avocado toast, or scrambled eggs mama style and the welcome into the day, the tastes and smells and love. We ate and celebrated and enjoyed the goodness of God’s world. And as we did we talked about God, we prayed for what we needed, we admitted our struggles, we watched Him work. Faith wasn’t just a subject on the side; it was our whole life.”
Our children have had their own struggles, as Clay and I have, with challenges, doubts, questions in the area of faith through the years. We have learned to live through many rough seasons and each of our children has had to follow a unique journey to find the answers to their personal questions. Yet, as we held fast to the word of God, pondered the attributes of God, the ways of Jesus’ stories daily, we found guidance and wisdom for the ways forward one day at a time.
Whatever becomes a habit of life, a way of thinking, a wisdom that is stored in our hearts is more likely to shape our days throughout adulthood. We seek to live out both the life of Christ through the ways we live and in relationship to one another in organic ways that show His reality and we hold fast together to the wisdom from the word of God as we live through all the seasons of life.
