What we ARE and are NOT doing with family faith

I know you genuinely want the kids in your life to have a family that grows in faith together.

A family that grows in Christian faith together is a family who talks naturally about faith, reads the Bible, and intentionally prays together so that the Gospel is woven into their everyday life, both now, and for generations to come.

It’s not:

• shoving faith down your child’s throat,
• forcing them to believe,
• or scaring them into salvation.

It’s actual engaged kids who want to grow in their faith, right now, right here in your life. (Not just kids that feel like they have to believe in order to earn your approval.)

I know we’ve all been told “more church is the answer”. Bring your kids to more church programs like Sunday school and AWANA and they’ll turn out just fine, right??

Or maybe they won't.

Research studies from the past 10 years show that’s just not the case. Church is one tool in our parenting toolbox, not a magical solution.

But I have to tell you… it is possible to have kids that care about God! (Even if they're 2, 12, or 22)

You can have the kind of family where you share your faith consistently with your kids in a way that connects with them…without it feeling like an added stressor in your life, or like a legalistic chore.

As humans, we tend to be all-or-nothing. We like to either have a serious plan to disciple our kids OR we just back off entirely and hope our kids bring it up on their own.

Both of those CAN work in some families, but I think there’s a third choice in between “waiting for it to come up” and “cramming it down your child’s throat”.

This is why I talk about creating little intentional faith habits in your home…it’s thinking a bit bigger, by starting little.

FAITH HABITS

When I say “faith habits” what you do you think of? Maybe a family holding hands around the kitchen table while Dad reads the big old family Bible? Maybe you think of singing hymns together or kids pushing their way through long-winded workbooks.

What I actually mean is regular touchpoints in your day where you orient yourselves back to God. These are spiritual disciplines like reading Scripture, praying, devotionals, worship, etc.

INTENTIONAL

When I say “intentional”, I mean that we’re not just waiting for things to come up naturally. These are purposeful. We are prioritizing time and space in our days because we know this is important.

However, it’s the amount of time that makes this method different:

LITTLE

When I say LITTLE, I mean things that take 30-60 seconds. Sometimes we have this idea that we have to have a full lesson for our kids in order for it to count, but over decades of studying family faith, I’ve discovered that it’s the tiny things that make the most difference.

I believe God wants your family to have authentic spiritual growth in your family but I also believe our God is a God who takes our meager offerings and turns them into something incredible. HE does the hard work of shaping hearts.

MY STORY

I have seen this work in my family. My boys spent 5 years in the public school system and 4 years homeschooling. Both are crazy busy.

I was so tired of feeling like I had to do all the things in order to share my faith “properly”.

Books I read made it me feel like what I was doing wasn’t good enough, because there was so much more to do. Like

• worship sessions with my kids &
• in-depth prayer &
• reading chapters of the Bible & memorizing a verse a week &
• knowing the answers to every theological question &
• having my kids do workbook-style Bible studies.

I was tired of the guilt of not doing enough, but I knew I didn’t want to just NOT do anything. I knew there had to be a better way - a way that didn’t lead to guilt, but helped me and my kids grow more toward Christ.

As a parent, I need my faith habits to be sustainable so God can be part of everything in a natural way without feeling like I have to do Bible study all day, every day. I need something simple and sustainable.

So I developed the Growth Path Method.

Every family is different, with different schedules and needs, but habit formation studies tell us that similar strategies can be applied to any situation to help us make change.

I developed the Growth Path Method to help families use the power of habit formation to simply and sustainably reconnect with God at different times of day, no matter what your family’s schedule or needs are.

It’s been my repeatable system that I still use to this day when I need changes in my family. And now I’ll be teaching you over the next few days!

Watch for a newsletter from me on Tuesday! I'll explain the 4 simple steps of the Growth Path Method.

?? Growing with you,

Christie Thomas