My sweet friend, Lindy, sent me a link to the Build ’em Up Blog Challenge by Lil Light O Mine. This was great because I want to write more about my children and my family AND I often don’t see a lot of these opportunities in the blogosphere. As I mentioned yesterday, I’ve given myself too much grace as a mother. It is one reason my heart has been cluttered. Writing about the kids and what I am doing with them keeps me accountable, so I am excited to participate in this blogging community.
How to Bring Faith to Life for my children.
Tell Stories
Sometimes, I’ve kept my faith life separate from my kid’s life. You know like how I go to the women’s shelter to teach the ladies. Or when I teach bible studies. The kids usually know what I am doing, but they don’t always know how God is working. My kids are 7, 5, and almost 3. As I’ve studied Deuteronomy, it has become important to remember to tell the stories continuously to the children when I see God working.
For example, I shared here on the blog a post about hearts. I need to tell that story to my children, because that was a great way in which God is working in me to show me Himself and will be fun and easy for them to understand.
My littlest one may not understand what the stories mean yet, but it is never too early to begin to tell the stories. Tell them to your newborns. As you tell your stories even to the babies, you will remind yourself of the great things He has done. <–Click to tweet.
These stories are your stones of remembrance.
Listen to Others Stories
I’ve noticed that I don’t know my mom’s stories of faith. or my grandparent’s stories of faith. And so I’ve made a point to ask for their stories, and I listen. Not only do I ask the stories, I ask while the children are listening so they can take in the stories.
Also the children have started becoming more aware of others in their life who do not know Jesus, and this helps me to be accountable to ask those people if they have any interest in Jesus, and helps the kids learn to do the same.
Reading His Story
We try to take time to read His story. My kids get fed the bible often, but I have to confess that this is sometimes a struggle for us to accomplish every day now that the children are in school. My husband and I know that we’ve got to take it back down to basics and make it a priority! This is a great time to include our own stories to the kids.
Rely on God through Prayer
An easy way to bring faith to life is through prayer. Like when my daughter needs to remove her earrings and she is afraid that it will hurt, she knows to pray. Or when one of the kid’s teachers is sick and doesn’t come to school, we pray. We are not good at remembering to pray through it all, but the kids are learning to lean on Him in prayer somehow or another. We read the Jesus Calling devotional for kids each day, and the kids are learning the discipline of His presence, and I find that really neat, because they are learning to make prayer a constant conversation.
i love this Jamie! my girls are crazy about stories and it seems to be the way they most love growing in faith right now – hearing how God is working in our life, in my sister’s life, grandparents, friends, etc. it’s so fun to share with them that He is real, alive and working! great job.
Thank you, Courtney – it was so fun. I’m glad I got the opportunity to participate. I need the reminder for myself to live my faith out loud for the kids.
needed this reminder — thanks so much, jamie.
any time, sweet friend! I needed it too.
Jamie, this is great! My little Hudson (3.5) loves the Bible stories and calls the characters, “My boys.” Ha! So each night he wants to know which boy we’re going to read about. But I love the idea of telling stories that we’ve lived and that we can pass on. It’s so important for them to see how God is working in our lives and in our families’ lives.
Oh, I love that he calls them his “boys.” That is so cute!
Hi Jamie, it has been a long time since we connected in the blogosphere. Your new design is lovely. I think we do tend to compartmentalize our lives. This is Bible Study. This is family time. But we need to share with our kids what we learn, sins we’ve confessed, times we’ve felt confused by God. It’s what makes faith real.
Amen! Glad to see you again, Laura!
I am just now expecting my first child in June! Almost there! And this is something my husband and I talk about a lot. We work in kids ministry and have the opportunity to watch families young kids for a weekend here and there and learned so much from the time we spent with them. We watched four kids one weekend pre-school through 5th grade and were amazed at how each of them grasped God in their daily lives. We attributed most of that to their parents and really knew we wanted to do the same in our lives with our children. I think it’s great what you’re doing, just little things here and there that open them up to thinking about God on a daily basis in every aspect of life. It’s amazing how much kids actually pick up on!
These are 3 good and practical tips! Thank you so much for sharing and linking!
By telling our kids stories and by living our story as honestly as possible before them. And when they are old they will not depart from it…even if they do for a season…He is faithful to complete the work begun in our children. Blessings to you and your adorable little ones!
sheila