I Believe...

I must start by first acknowledging that I am late in posting.  By the strength of God I am finally feeling better and was quite sick with many flu-type symptoms.  But, we continue on faith...

A couple weeks ago, we talked about how our children would answer the question I am... and how we can influence the answer to that question.  As we have been talking about faith in our house, it occurred to me that even more important that the answer to I am... is the answer to I believe...  So, one day last week after a morning devotional, I asked, "What do you believe?"  I expected wonderful, Godly answers.  I mean, come on.  We do talk about God a lot at home, but I was met with blank stares.  Really though, it is a heavy question for a 9 and 11 year old to answer.  So I narrowed the question a little bit, "What do you believe about God?"  Whew, I actually got a couple answers.  Emma said, "That He is always with us."  Cole answered, "That he listens when we pray and that he says yes to all our prayers."

So, yes, He is always with us, but does he always say yes to our prayers?  We, as adults, know that he technically does not, and that it depends on the prayer and His plan for us and the realistic nature of our prayers in His grand plan for our lives.  But, beyond that minorly mistaken doctrine from my son, it hit me that while we pray and discuss and go to church and spend time serving and send the kids to small groups and try to have their lives sprinkled with God daily, what are their roots?

Colossians 2:6,7 says' "So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in Him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness."  While we as parents do 'sprinkle' God into our children's life, at what point are we focusing on the roots in a purposeful and intentional manner?  I totally group myself in this.  What is it that they believe about God?  When we send them to church, do daily devotionals, etc... they get good things, but they are sprinklings.  What if we made an intentional and purposeful plan to influence what they believe, now while they are in our care.  The bible says, if we do that, then it will not depart from them as they grow.  "Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it."  Proverbs 22:6  Way back in the beginning of my blog, I identified the difference between teaching and training and I love that the word used here is train.

Romans 10:17 says, "Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ."  Another version (HCSB) says, "So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes from the message about Christ."  What do our children hear and what do they take in?  I know I can do a much better job of truly discipling my children and talking about what we truly believe.  That Jesus Christ died for our sins, that he was the son of God, that God gave his only son for our sin, that we are called to be different that the world.  If we can really effect the roots of our children's lives through an intentional training in what they believe, then we will affect the Godly men and women that they can become.  Though not by our might, solely by the strength and focus of the Lord, through us, right?  It takes us humbly submitting to Him, and garnering our strength to continue from him, even in the face of frustration and resistance.

Romans 11:16 (HCSB) says, "Now, if the firstfruits offered up are holy, so is the whole batch.  And if the root is holy, so are the branches."  Firstfruits are the beginnings of anything, the first part of whatever we have, our energy, our talents, our resources.  If we can help our children to give their firstfruits to the Lord, then their fruit will be Godly and they will be able to work out the path God has created for them.  They cannot give their firstfruits to the Lord if they do not know what they believe.  Over the course of this next Thanksgiving week, we are going to start an exercise.  We believe... I am starting a conversation that we will document and we will write down all that we believe about God and his will in our life as a family statement of faith.  This will be an interactive exercise and we will intentionally talk about each point and ground it in scripture.  I will share parts with you, but I encourage you to embark on your own creation of a family statement of faith.

By His Grace