This is the third part in a series My wife & I thought we would share on parenting. Each blog shares a couple parenting realizations we’ve had. I say realizations because sometimes it feels that way. Like you’re stumbling, but hopefully stumbling forward. Some of the “realizations” are born out of mistakes we’ve made and others are lessons we learned from others. If you missed part one or two, I would encourage you to check them out (part 1 & part 2).
TALK ABOUT YOUR FAITH AS A FAMILY
There are a lot of great parents who will say that you need to do family devotions. In fact, Janelle and I used to think we were bad parents because we didn’t do family devotions. It’s probably a very special time for some families who are having wonderful experiences with their own children. When Janelle & I were growing up, both of our families would do a family devotion from time to time and we didn’t enjoy it at all. (Sorry mom and dad!).
So we needed to try to find other ways to disciple our kids that didn’t require a fixed regular time and format. It’s a little more organic. Depending on your personality, it can be more difficult because you have to look for moments…or make them. So, if family devotions are working for you, please continue, but if (like us) you are looking for an alternative way of discipling your children, here are a few suggestions:
As my kids have gotten older, and all their friends with them, I have begun to have conversations with some fellow parents about where life issues and matters of faith collide. We have friends whose children have decided they no longer believe in God or who make choices that are in conflict with God’s design for our lives.
In addition, my wife and I are starting to see some areas in our faith where we no longer believe what we were taught growing up. We are in the process of untangling some of these areas from our faith.
These two things have caused me to start thinking about how our faith should operate.
As parents, we need to have values for our families that we are instilling in our children. Without defining values you will never know what is important and what is not. And let’s face it, every parent needs to know what hill they are willing to die on, because our children will test everything.
One of the values every parent who follows Christ should be trying to instill in their children is worship. Often, people of think worship as merely singing. Singing can be worship, and is a great place to start, but worship is so much more. I write a lot about worship, so I won’t go into a lot about what worship is, but so that we are on the same page, let me quickly define it for us. Hopefully, this will help us as we define worship for our children.
