HELPING YOUR CHILD GROW IN FAITH.
One of the major aspects of growth a child needs to thrive, prosper, and excel in life is FAITH. Helping kids grow in faith is an early spiritual marker to instill in kids respect, trust, wisdom, and perspective of God and His authority.
The sustenance of other things we teach our children with from birth through adulthood, and beyond is hinged on the energy deployed towards building a virile Faith in them. Faith in this context represents the operation hub coordinating the degree of energy deployed to mould children into who God wants them to be.
There’s a general believe that we all came to this world innocent of evil and good, ignorant of the choice of Faith, tribe, parents, culture, tradition, and beliefs system to belong. Our lifestyles are patterned after the preset designed products funneled down to us by those we lived with and the primary caregivers
Until a child is 3 to 6 years old, his choice of faith, culture, beliefs, and tradition is nearly the same as his parents. Every child imitates and practices them as they see their parents observe but when they mature from ages 13 and up, they think more abstractly and theoretically; and tend to put whatever they’ve been fed with, teachings received overtime into their own understanding to see whether the faith given to them by their parents is true to theirs or not. At this stage they have friends along the lines of faith and denominations; they see churches, religious sects, mosques, and traditional shrines around and they subsequently begin to relate and identify with this larger group either by virtual or by physical association.
But as parents, part of our oversight functions is not to decide the choice of association to them but enable kids to witness the ills of the world, in manageable and age-appropriate chunks, and later offer them guidance by shaping their thought after the pattern of the faith we have received, believed, and practiced because we have the mandate to train them in the way of The Lord.
Helping them grow in faith is not achieved in the absence of the dominant and personality traits, and temperament the children possess. Doing this will make a great show of the fulfilment of their calling and purpose in life even after they have accepted and grounded in the faith we introduced.
Please let us look together at these specific possible ways we can help them grow up stronger in their faith
1. Expose children to the awesomeness of God early enough and encourage them to participate actively in the services of their local assembly. Sing and read the Scriptures to them, tell them about God’s love. Demonstrate your faith daily through your conducts. Please do not forget that this is better achieved in their best teachable moments
2. Explain your strong conviction about your faith EARLY enough to your kids. It is not enough to tell kids that the reason you practice your faith is because it’s been passed down to you by your forefathers from time immemorial…..don’t be afraid if they question the faith that’s being introduced, this is part of the processes that will help them own their faith going forward and how we react is key. A message of faith as it applies to their lives will be easily comprehended by kids if explained in a lucid and intelligible script. Parents must avoid the temptation of becoming arrogant in knowledge and prideful in the way we treat their questions about our faith. It is a-no-holds-barred conversation. Help them find answers to their ever inquisitive mind. No place for emotional reactions, please.
3. Exact your firm believe in the faith you have accepted and handed to your family; when a mother brings a new baby home, she doesn’t just start to make him/her fend for himself/herself. The baby must be nurtured, and trained. Nurturing in faith requires and demands daily feed in the word of God. We must feed them with intellectual fire with mind challenging materials; books(with good pictures), stories, messages, movies, that make them think deeper about faith.
4. Exalt. Pray, praise, prepare and plan domestic affairs together. They are equally indispensable stakeholders in the home. This will help in no small measure to connect with the faith you want them grow with. Ascribe all that the family has achieved to the divine provision of God alone, even if many are achieved by dint of hard work.
5. Execute. Structured plan of action should follow for the drill of faith to gain traction in kids. The content of the follow up should be scripted after their godly designed dominant spiritual and intellectual pathways. This will make their growth in faith more of joy and less of job.
The expectation of every parent is to have a happy, peaceful, and rewarding retirement life at old age; we want to bequeath a good name, an honorable reputation, financial benefits, properties? Never seen any great parent wants to leave a legacy of debt, shame, poverty, or limited ability to deal with the world. As major as these possessions are, they can be taken away or at least fade with time; but the lasting VALUE we can help them with is supporting them to GROW in Faith of The Lord.
I appreciate your time.
Parenmark School of Parenting Summer session starts in September; please click the link below for registration. https://tinyurl.com/yxqbo7h4
Thank you
Akinropo Akinola
Parenting Development Expert
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