How to Raise a Passionate Jesus follower
I remember the day I realized I had no idea what I was doing as a parent – May 11th 2015, the birth of my first son.
I thought I was prepared. I had been around 100s of babies working in labour and delivery and the NICU. I knew how to care for them, swaddle, feed, burp, and soothe. I know all the cues and developmental phases. I knew the signs for a variety of ailments. I knew all about labour and delivery and postpartum care.
I knew everything but then I knew nothing.
When they placed that slippery babe in my arms for the first time I had no idea what I was doing or what I was truly in for.
I knew at that moment all the knowledge and training I had meant nothing when it came to raising my babies. A wave of fear and stress and “what did we just do” washed over me; now what? My perfectly decorated nursery and downloaded app that would count their feeds, sleep and poops was really only going to take me so far. Now came the hard part. Now I had to raise a little human, a little human that I hoped would be a passionate Jesus follower. They didn’t teach me that in nursing school.
Many of us have no idea how to raise kids that will grow up to be committed and sold out Jesus followers because, if we are honest with ourselves, many of us as adults are not committed and sold out Jesus followers. George Barna found that 61% of kids who were involved in church as recently as their teenage years become spiritual disengaged by their 20s – not actively praying, reading the Bible or attending church. There have been many more studies and individuals who have researched this and have tried to develop ideas and strategies to “get them back” to church. Many stats and ideas have been thrown around but, can I offer my humble and completely unfounded and uneducated opinion?
A lack of true spiritual training in the home has resulted in a featherweight faith and that faith is being easily blown away by attacks from the secular culture.
I know, that whole Freud blaming the mom for everything is kinda old but here’s the thing; many of us received little to no spiritual education and training at home. Although many of our parents and guardians had sincere attempts we were not prepared for what the world was going to throw at us.
Another study by Barna indicated that fewer than 1 in 10 Christian households are reading the Bible together during a typical week and out of 11 000 teenagers only 12% have regular conversations with their parents about faith issues. This means, most kids growing up in Christian homes are not receiving anything remotely close to the spiritual training they actually need to have a lasting faith.
We need to raise our kids with a faith that’s specifically preparing them for the challenges they will face. Think with me for a second – if you were setting out to climb Mount Everest you would do, how long you would walk each day. You would not show up at the base of the mountain having done a few jumping jacks and hoping for the best. This is what most of us are doing as Christian parents – the spiritual equivalent of a few jumping jacks. We have little idea of what our kids will face and are not doing what is specifically needed to prepare our littles.
Simply taking them to church on Sunday is not enough – we HAVE to stop winging our parenting and start getting into shape to prepare our kids for what’s ahead.
We need to have conversations about God, about truth and worldviews, about Jesus and the Bible.
We need to not be afraid to have tough conversations because we, ourselves, have dug deep into His Word and are able to defend our own faith with truth and Gospel.
We need to spiritually equip ourselves so that we can spiritually equip our kids – it’s our job. No one else. Don’t outsource it and embrace this momentous task as the most important thing you will do in your whole life.
Six years later, I still have no idea what I am doing and often wing it and hope for the best. But, when it comes to raising my kids to be passionate Jesus followers there are only two things you really need to do to get started.
- Read your Bible
- Read the Bible with the kids
There's more to it. There are tough conversations to have but if you consistently do those two things you you will figure out the rest.
