Nov 13

Nov 13 When you wonder what God really wants for your family

If you’ve missed it, we are celebrating the launch this week of our brand new resource to help further equip parents. It is a family devotional called Faith Forward Family Devotional. Each devotion features a Bible passage, teaching that's applicable for kids of any age, key ideas to learn about God and His character, questions to spark family discussion, and a prayer.

Whatever season of parenting you are in, journeying through the entire Bible and sharing this devotional time together will help children nourish a faith that lasts a lifetime. Raise faith-filled kids who know, love, and live for God with the Faith Forward Family Devotional.

Grab your copy HERE.

This week, as a part of our Launch Week, we’ll be talking about three ways we can partner with God to pass on faith to the next generation and we are going to dive in deep because this is SO important. You will want to grab your Bible and journal and jot down some notes as you learn with us!

So, where do we start? Today we will be talking about the first step!

We believe that the first step to passing on faith to our kids is to understand God’s expectations for a family.

The Bible presents the family as one of the primary vehicles for passing on faith. The Old Testament book of Deuteronomy contains one of the key passages of Scripture where God describes his purpose for a family, as the ancient Israelite community would have understood it, to pass on their faith to their children. Through Moses, God shared the vision and instructed parents on how to be teachers of his Word.

4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. (Deuteronomy 6:4-7)

First, God commands parents to “impress” his commandments on their children(Verse 7). The focus here is to teach. In Hebrew, the word for “impress” is “shanan,” which means to “sharpen.”

Eugene H. Merrill further points out in his commentary on this passage the following:

The image is that of the engraver of a monument who takes hammer and chisel and with painstaking care etches a text into the face of a solid slab of granite. The sheer labor of such a task is daunting indeed, but once done the message is there to stay. Thus it is that the generation of Israelites to come must receive and transmit the words of the Lord’s everlasting covenant revelation.

The word, “shanan,”also frequently describes the sharpening of a sword or arrow. Again, the idea is that just as someone consistently whets, or sharpens, an object to make it useful and effective, parents are to faithfully “sharpen,”or instruct, their children in God’s words and ways.

Second, God instructs parents that their teaching or “impressing” isn’t just transferring new information to their children.

God desires parents to teach their children within the context of loving relationships in the classroom of life.

This is demonstrated from the passage by the language used in verse seven. Parents are to talk about God’s commands when they “sit at home”and when they “walk along the road”and when they “lie down and get up.”

The language and examples given in verse seven are meant to remind us as parents that passing on faith or teaching God’s commands happen best in a loving relationship.

Family discipleship then is a combination of learning, listening, watching, and doing.

This context provides the opportunity for children to not only learn God’s Word but also grow to love God’s Word and to put God’s ways into practice in every part of life. Ultimately the goal of our teaching as parents is to disciple our children in the Christian faith so they will develop a lifelong personal relationship with Jesus.

If we want to partner with God to pass on faith, then first and foremost, we have to understand God’s expectation. We as parents are called to be the primary spiritual influence in our children’s lives.

This is why we are SOO excited to be releasing our Faith Forward Family Devotional – a resource designed to help further equip you to live out God’s expectation in your home with your children! To learn more <<click here>> and be sure to come back here tomorrow for the second way we can pass on faith to our children!

Passing on faith with you,

Pat and Ruth