Caught, Not Taught
Being a parent can be hard and babies do not come with instruction manuals. And how do we raise kids in the midst of a pandemic and all of the uncertainty in the world that we find ourselves in? How do we help them grow in their love for Jesus?
In this post, I will review a few things that I covered in a message that you can find HERE or the 1 minute recap that I did on a Facebook Live HERE.
And this post will include a couple of things that I had to leave out during the message due to time.
What do we teach?
- God Loves
- God is Good
- The Story of God
o We explain that God invites us into His redemptive story and to co-labor with Him in His Kingdom. We participate with God by doing what He wants done. We use our influence and who He has created us to be, to make the world a better place. Help others have hope and joy in life through Christ!
Kids must know that God is good and that He loves them!
How do we teach these principles? So glad you asked!!!
- We say it – Tell our kids that God is good and that He loves them.
- We show it – We love through our actions, play with our kids and have fun.
- Provide opportunities to experience the faith.
- Pray as a family before meals.
- Listen to Worship Music
- Explain why we do what we do… Be intentional
- Quote Scripture – I pray Scripture over Ethan when a verse comes to my mind.
o Like when I am laying him down to go to bed, I pray Psalm 4:8, “I will lie down and sleep for you alone oh Lord will keep me safe.”
But here is the kicker… This is important…
Faith is Caught more than it is Taught…
Kids and other people catch the faith more than it being taught. Kids pick up on a true and authentic faith by the Church (faithful Christians in general) more than anything.
Now the challenging question… How are you doing in terms of following Jesus? How are you nurturing your faith so your kids or grandkids or nephews or nieces (or others) catch the faith from you?
Quick Story: Right around the time that Janene and I got engaged, we attended a church service in Hesston, KS. On the front of their bulletin, it had a verse that really connected with us! It was Philemon 6, “And I pray that everyone who meets you, will catch the faith and learn from you how wonderful it is to live in Christ.” When we saw that, we knew that this had to be our anthem for our marriage! (And see the picture below of the verse that we had made for our bedroom wall!)
This is my prayer for you as well! I pray that everyone who meets you or everyone that you run into downtown as you are getting groceries or running other errands catches the faith and sees how wonderful it is to live in Christ!
I hope this is helpful! If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to contact me and I will follow up as soon as I can!
Did something stick out or do you want to leave a comment or discuss this? You can do it HERE!
Many Blessings!
Pastor Thayne
