Raising a Family of Faith
The greatest and most valuable
thing you can give your children is your faith.
Not your love - faith will encompass your love
Deut. 6:4 Hear,
O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.
5 Love the LORD
your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your
strength. 6 These commandments that I
give you today are to be upon your hearts.
7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home
and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind
them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on
the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.
Deut. 6:10 When
the LORD your God brings you into the land he swore to your fathers, to
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you—a land with large, flourishing cities you
did not build, 11 houses filled with all
kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards
and olive groves you did not plant—then when you eat and are satisfied, 12 be careful that you do not forget the
LORD, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
To Raise a Family
of Faith you must
Know your own faith and Live it
Your family starts with
you. Your faith is not a part of your
life, it is your life
If we love the Lord with ALL
our heart, soul, strength
If God is ONE – the language
of is implies that God is the only one
-
Everything else in my life is
subject to God, it is submitted to God, his mind, will and values. He sets the pattern for the rest of my life.
How?
Ø Keep your own faith fresh
6 These
commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts
Today
– Everyday – everyday you read this it is today. You can not pass on to your kids what you do
not have yourself. Your faith can not be
a history lesson or a philosophy lesson, but it must be a cooking class. You make a meal every day, with fresh
ingredients.
Ø Influence your values
6 These commandments that I give you today are to
be upon your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children.
Proverbs
27:19
As
water reflects a face, so a man's heart reflects the man. NIV
The greatest place your
values will be evident is in your relationships
o
Value your relationships –
Marriage #1
"We know religious influences can play a
role in keeping people together," she said.
Often today, the priority can
look like this
Kids - God - Spouse
Ø Determine your actions –
does your family know where you stand in regard to your faith?
Two realms where we live our
faith:
Ø Privately
Talk about them when you
sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you
get up.
o
Family Devotional
/ prayer time?
o
Do you help make
the connection between the physical world and God’s hand at work?
o
Are you kids
involved in making family decisions that factor in what God is doing in your
family?
Kids learn a lot about how to
live out faith in the car or kitchen – they watch and learn how you talk about
people, how you talk to one another,
Ø Publicly
8 Tie them as symbols on
your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of
your houses and on your gates.
Does the way you live make a
statement about your faith. Can your
extended family, friends, co-workers, neighbours see your faith, or is it
conveniently hidden away?
o
Serve others as a
family
o
Let your children see you make your faith
known
Another way we raise a family of faith is by having
a vision of where you are going ~ Start and build with an image of the end in
mind
Ø
Leave a Legacy of Faith
A
track record
For your children to know you
love them is great, but when your gone your love will not sustain them – Faith will sustain them and help lead them to
their own faith
Ø Heritage of Faith – a look
behind
A
noble track record of life experiences lived in faith ~ Israelites had a heritage of faith
10 When GOD, your God,
ushers you into the land he promised through your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob to give you
Who passed faith on to you?
o
Share with your children the heritage of faith
in your family – a journey of lives gone before and how they fit into that
2
Timothy 1:5
5 I
have been reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother
Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also. NIV
You
may not have revieved much of a legacy of faith ~ but you can leave one. Faith is the most valuable thing you can pass
on
You
will leave your heritage behind ~ you will pass your inheritance into the
future
Ø Inheritance of Faith – a
look ahead
Hope
of security in the future
flourishing cities you did not build, 11 houses filled with all kinds of good
things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive
groves you did not plant—then when you eat and are satisfied, 12 be careful that you do not forget the
LORD, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
Ecclesiastes
7:12
12
Wisdom is a shelter
as
money is a shelter,
but
the advantage of knowledge is this:
that
wisdom preserves the life of its possessor.
Set a vision for your family of a future with faith
Let
your children stand on the shoulders of your faith
Love sustains the day – Faith brings life to
the future
God expects us to grow in our
faith in community of others who belong to him
“Hear, O
God made his promise of an
inheritance to a community of people who belong to him – a faith community. He expected his people to stay together, to
live life together, share life together, share their faith together.
Heb
10:24-25
And let us consider how we may spur one another on
toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in
the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another-and all the more as you
see the Day approaching.
Belong to a faith community
One of the ways you will
build faith into your family is to build your family into a faith
community. For many of us ~ our extended
family is far away, physically and or spiritually, and we need spiritual aunts
& uncles. We need grandparents of
faith and that is what our church is to become
Parents – allow others to
participate in raising your children ~ not just serve you as you raise your
children, but participate.
Church – we have a
responsibility to serve & encourage our families and at times speak wisdom
into their lives
Don’t abandon your
children ~ “faith abandonment” ~ give
them something of real sustaining value
God expects you to raise your
family to Know Him, Love Him and make His love known
Live Your Faith
~ Leave a Legacy of Faith
Set a Vision of
Faith for your Family
Grow in a
Community of Faith