Parents, don’t you take the biblical proverb? And treat it as a promise, assuming that if you do all the right things in your upbringing, your children will succeed. Proverbs are general truths, not specific promises. In addition, when we look at In the General Context of the Bible, we see how counterproductive it is to try to educate our children to trust God if what we show them is that we trust in our formation.
But by putting our hope for our children in God, not in our formation, we recognize how this proverb teaches us to seriously train our children, where to guide them, and how to rub their hearts, and part of this pastoral care and counsel includes the effect of a family culture.
- In a new study.
- LifeWay Research taught 2.
- 000 Protestants and non-denominational people who went to church at least once a month and had adult children between the ages of 18 and 30.
- The aim of the project was to find out what parental practices were common in families where young adults remained in the faith What affected their moral and spiritual development ?.
- What factors did they highlight?.
You can expect family worship services to play an important role or the mere habit of eating around the table. You can expect a child who attended a Christian school to be more likely to follow Jesus than a child who studied in a public school. ideas about positive practices for children.
The survey indicated that children who remained faithful as young adults (identify as Christians, share their faith, stay in church, read the Bible, etc. ) grew up in homes where certain practices were present.
The most important factor was reading the Bible. Children who read the Bible regularly as they grew up were more likely to have a vibrant spiritual life as they became adults. I’m not surprised by this statistic. The Word of God is powerful. The Bible reveals the great history of our world and helps us interpret our lives and make decisions within the framework of a biblical worldview. Reading the Bible is a constant reminder that we live as disciples of God. . Our king has spoken. He rules us. We want to walk your way.
Two other factors follow: prayer and religious service. The practice of prayer was not specified, either in private or in congregation, before meals or before bedtime or in the morning; however, prayer was present.
Keep in mind that the church-related factor is service, not just attendance. It wasn’t just that parents took their children to church (where the “professional pastor” could feed them spiritually), but the children were included and integrated into The Habit of Serving Others in church and in the community probably shaped these young adults in a way that prevented them from identifying themselves only as “consumers” of the church , but as contributors to the building up of God’s people. At the bottom of the list, missionary trips to the church appear as another indicator of the power of active service.
What may surprise you is how much this factor was on the list: mainly listening to Christian music, contemporary Christian music today has a bad reputation, usually because it is more inspiring than theological (although I think this stereotype is not true in all cases). However, we must not reject the truth behind Augustine’s old observation that we sing the truth in our hearts. When we sing together in congregations and praise God individually or sing songs that strengthen our faith, we emphasize the beauty of our faith. It was also notable to find below on the list that listening mainly to secular music was an indicator that negatively affected spiritual life. )
For decades, many Christians have assumed that some church programs are the key factors in a child’s spiritual development: bible vacation school, youth group activities, Sunday school, etc. , but this study shows that such programs have an impact when prayer habits, Bible reading, praise, and service are linked. It is the culture of the family and the church, and what matters most is the fact that they integrate children and young people into spiritual disciplines, not how it happens.
The impact of parents’ example on reading the scriptures, participating in service projects, sharing their faith, and asking for forgiveness after sin is also impressive; In other words, the more the penitent and joyful Christian life is illustrated, the more likely children are to remain in the faith.
Research should not be abused to turn children into ‘white pages’. There is no perfect formula for parents and, as I mentioned earlier, no one should assume that there is a foolproof formula or method to ensure the outcome of a believing child. Don’t overeseseses your power. It is the Holy Spirit who saves, not you.
However, do not underestimate the power of the Spirit to act through the environment you create for your home. There is a power in faithful Christian imitation. Children are more likely to repent and apologize when they have seen their parents do so and when they have. The grace experienced in human relationships. Children are more likely to aspire to faithful Christianity when they see joyful service as an exemplary virtue in the home.
Let us ask these questions and implore God to work in us and through us, for his glory and the good of our families.