Faith from the Mouths of Babes

"Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see."  Hebrews 11:1

Of course, to begin our month of focusing on faithfulness with our children I had to start with the bible's definition of faith as it leads into what is often termed the biblical hall of fame, Hebrews 11.  But how do we pick this apart for our kids and make it tangible for them?  How do we encourage a strong faith in God, so much so that He is their hope and they are certain of Him and His word?  I have been struggling with this over the course of the last couple weeks.  This seems to me to be the least tangible fruit of the spirit, the hardest to explain.  Then, from the mouth of babes...

The kids and I were doing our morning devotional and we started talking about all the fruits of the spirit that we have been focusing on since June, love actions and how they translate into joy, peace, patience and most recently, kindness and goodness.  I mentioned that we were at the end of the month and that we were ready to add our next fruit of the spirit to our list and talks.  They both looked eagerly at me and said, "What's next?"  I said, "Well, it's a little bit harder one, it challenges us to decide what we believe in, it is faithfulness."  To which Cole said, "Oh, that's easy, we just had a story about that at school."  Well, okay then, let's go to the story that Cole told us.  I scripted from his words exactly.

There were two friends named, Pythias and Damon.  Pythias goes against the king's laws, gets put in jail and gets sentenced to death.  So Damon comes to jail and asks the king if he can let Pythias go to do favors for his mother and sister.  The trip is three days away from the jail to Pythias' mother and sister.  So the king is generous enough to let Pythias go but he gives a time span of two weeks to go there and back.  But Damon has to stay in jail in Pythias' place for the two weeks and is Pythias does not get back in the two weeks Damon is killed in Pythias' place.  And so Pythias hardly makes it back before they kill Damon.  When the king sees the two, the king says, "I have never seen this much faith in two people, I can't kill people like this."  So the king sets the two of them free.

Before I talk about the conversation that ensued, you need to know that I went to Google to learn more about Pythias and Damon, like any good mom would do to find an answer.  I was unfamiliar with the story.   It is a Greek story of friendship, and I would assume that the wonderful Christian school my son attends changed it up a little to reflect a story of faith.  One place you can find the original story is: http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/greeks/literature/damon.htm

What my kids and I were able to talk about is the faith that Damon had in Pythias.  He had no assurance that Pythias would return in time to save him from a death that was not his to suffer.  He had no tangible proof that Pythias would return, only the things he knew about Pythias and what he had learned about him throughout the course of their friendship.  Interestingly, the Greek word for faith is pistis (seemed close to Pythias to me) which when used in the new testament means trustworthy, solemn promise, state of being faithful, complete trust, reliance on the Lord's power.  Damon had to have complete trust to rely on the possibility that Pythias would actually come back.  It was black and white trust.  There is no way Damon would have taken Pythias' place in jail, pending execution, is he did not have a black and white trust in Pythias.  I mean, seriously!

So what do our kids have black and white trust, the ultimate faith, in?  In order to truly act in love actions, employing the fruit of the spirit, we must have complete faith in the God we serve.  Don't we?  Otherwise when we bump up against the world, why would we not react in kind, instead of in love actions?  In order for our kids, and us for that matter, to act in love, we have to believe in who we love and have faith that he is the way, the truth, and the life.  How do we know that we have that black and white faith?  In Galatians 5:6b it says, "...The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love."  So by equipping our kids to employ the fruits of the spirit they are acting out their faith in God.  Drawing from speaking them into what they can be from last week's post, we can also encourage them to act into what they can become, strong men and women of faith.  Faith is believing, pisteuo is the Greek word for believe which is the verb version of the noun pistis.  Faith and belief are from the same root.   In addition to being able to complete the phrase I am... We also need to equip our kids with I believe...  For as we believe, from that we will act.  "For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks."  Luke 6:45 
"Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart." Proverbs 3:3  Action into belief, encouraging our kids to work out their faith and to truly be fruitful works in progress is a constant parenting purpose.  It requires our focus and conversation.  One of the things that we will do during this thankful season and month is to write a Family Statement of Faith, we believe... Stay tuned as we move toward that event.