When you bring children into the world as a faithful person, you want to make sure that you are instilling good values into them; which means teaching them about your faith. Doing this means that you can grow together as a family in the church. You can try to convince your children that a life with God is a fulfilling one, but as with anyone it’s not something you should have to convince or force. Faith is something that is followed and one day, they’re going to possibly have their own ideas about faith – and that’s okay!
In the meantime, you can use the help of things like the Alpha Christian course to help you to bring faith to the life of your family. You want to teach your children to be as faithful as you are and it’s not always easy but it can help to form the framework of your family. Understanding just how to ensure that your children feel like they have faith is important for you all as a family and we’ve got some of the best steps for helping your children to catch up with your faith below:
- Keep demonstrating your truth and love. You need to live your faith, not just preach it. Demonstrating the right behaviors can help you here because your children will copy what’s modeled for them. Children reject ideas that feel uncomfortable but if they see that you’re happy, involved and comfortable with your beliefs, they’ll follow suit.
- Be real about your ‘why’. Children are inquisitive and you may have noticed this already in your children. You will hear multiple questions about why you have faith and why you believe what you believe. You need to be real about the right reasons to be faithful and why you believe in your God. Remember, you want them to believe because they do, not because they fake believe it.
- Never force your faith. This is where you model rather than pressure. Lead by example and let your children get involved after that. Don’t force prayers and don’t put your children in a position where they have no choice but to do what you do. It’s okay if they don’t want to pray – rebelling against faith is often because someone is telling them that they have to believe in something that they’re not living.
- Share stories. One of the best ways to get your kids in love with faith is to share stories and talk about scriptures. Tell them all about what faith gets them in their lives and you’ll have a whole future of it with your children. Stories are builders of faith and the more they know about it, the happier they will be to learn.
- Be open. Questions should always be accepted and as a parent, you need to be as open as possible to teaching your children by answering any and all of their questions and helping them to find the answers. You could easily help your children to ask their questions in church, too!
