Talking about the 5 skills to establish faith in our kids. Catch the first 4 here.
Faith Skill #4: Articulate Faith
Create a safe place to discuss and wrestle with what kids believe. This is key for our kids to make their faith their own.
Not just as parents, but as individuals, we can fear doubt. We are scared of questions. Sometimes it freaks us out when people question their faith. We think we might lose them forever. They might go off the deep end.
“Just have more faith. Have more faith!”
I’m not discounting faith. It’s a vital component to your relationship with Jesus. But in order to make something your own, sometimes you’ve got to wrestle it down yourself. I appreciate a good sermon, but I value scripture more when I labor through, question and digest it myself.
Give people in your home the space and the safety to question. Have less faith in your explanations of God… and have more faith in the work God is doing in the midst of the wrestle.
Some of the best parenting advise I’d ever heard came from a 23 year old single man. He said…
Talk less. Pray more.
Do questions make you uncomfortable? Do you allow people to question and wrestle with their faith?
Man, I think about what Tony said that day A LOT. So simple, yet so profound and effective.
Wish I could have been at Orange. Who's session was this?
We had a great discussion a few weeks ago about this in our 3rd-5th grade small group. 252 suggested using a baseball diamond as an analogy for our faith journey. First base is where we all start, not sure about the whole God thing. Second base is when we begin to ask more questions and become a seeker. Third base being the step before accepting Jesus. And home plate is where we become a follower of Jesus. Anyway, the kids started talking about the doubts and questions they have and about all the other influences around them. Creating that safe place is key and letting kids know it is okay to question things will only help them in making their relationship with Jesus personal.
I'm convinced that it will be much harder for me to get on my soapbox when my son is a teenager.
But, for now, he's a toddler and so I TOTALLY agree with you! 🙂
Questions are fantastic.