Recently I again interviewed Dr. Richard Hardel about how parents and grandparents can impact the faith of their children and grandchildren. I thought LFL chapter volunteers and members would like to learn more about this topic. One of my questions was, “What can we do to help parents and grandparents pass on their faith to the next generation?” He talked about the four keys for nurturing faith in the home. They include:
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Caring conversations
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Family devotions
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Family service projects
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Family rituals and traditions
So, what are caring conversations? This is when your family overhears you talking about God in your daily life. Dr. Hardel shared, “I was at my daughter’s and my four-and-a-half year old granddaughter asked, ‘Now, grandpa, the angels helped Jesus when he was in the Garden, didn’t they? What else do angels do, grandpa?’” He responded, “What a good question. You have obviously heard your parents having a conversation about this topic. Let’s take a walk and talk about angels some more.”
Remember that we don’t have to have all the answers. Just talk with your children and grandchildren and help them see that the Lord is important to you. One of the things that is important to us is Life from the womb to the tomb. So, we should have caring conversations about life with our children and grandchildren.
The second key for nurturing faith in the home is having family devotions. During over 30 years of doing presentations on parenting and devotions within the home, I have discovered that many Christian families don’t ever have devotions. Sometimes it’s because they don’t know how. Others have tried devotions and found them difficult. Dr. Hardel stated, “Families and family devotions can be messy. That is life! Life can be messy. So if little Jimmy runs and jumps during devotions and doesn’t seem to listen, that’s OK. In the middle of our messy devotions God is with us!
Congregations need to come alongside parents and teach them how to have a devotional life in the home. Hardel recommended that families build a faith chest. It is intended to hold important paperwork and items related to our faith journey. It can also be used as a family worship center. Use it as the home altar. Place the Bible, candles, and a colorful scarf on it. Then create holy moments together.
Devotions should be short and age appropriate. Grandparents and parents can model devotions. Read a Bible story or a devotional. Act out a Bible story together. Confess your sins to one another and offer forgiveness to each other. Teach your children and grandchildren how to pray. Use a prayer from God’s word like the Lord’s Prayer and memorize a Bible verse together.
Another key to nurturing faith is family service. This is when the entire family does a service activity or project together. In this way they are saying “thank you” to God. It doesn’t need to be a major project, simple projects are best. Here are some ideas:
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Shovel snow for an elderly neighbor and pray for her.
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Travel to grandma’s and help with home repair projects and pray as a family for those you serve.
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Cut your neighbor’s grass while they are on vacation and pray for them.
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Make a pot of soup together as a family, make a card, then deliver it together. Then pray with them.
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Take care of a neighbor’s dog while they are on vacation and pray for them.
The final key to nurturing faith is family rituals and traditions. They show children what and who is important to you. They define who you are. In What is a Family? by Edith Scheffer, the author talks about the home being a Museum of Memories. The concept is that a museum has a selection of things worth preserving. A family is to be a museum of memories—collections of carefully preserved memories. She suggests that someone in the family needs to be conscious of the fact that memories are important so they plan memories just as someone might plan a museum. This involves taking lots of pictures and organizing them. Remember that what you do today will become tomorrow’s memories and traditions.