Parental guidance required

Let’s imagine for a moment that you are thirsty, really, really thirsty. Think Sahara Desert thirsty. No. Wait. Don’t go get that drink of water just yet. Before you get up, let’s imagine that you have a choice of how to quench your thirst. Your choice is between a fire hose and an eyedropper. You can quench your parched mouth with a fire hose or you can seek to soothe your dry palate with an eyedropper. Which would you choose? Ok. Now you can go get your drink, but think about how you would answer while you are away.

Feel better? Great. Which did you choose: the fire hose or the eyedropper? It almost doesn’t seem like a fair comparison. The fire hose can deliver a steady stream of water and the eye dropper can’t. The fire hose gives a whole lot of H₂O, while the eye dropper. . .well, it just doesn’t. You can fill a pool in a short while with a fire hose. Don’t even try that with an eyedropper, not unless you have a whole lot of time on your hands. Great, fire hose it is. So, here is what you get. Drumroll, please! With a fire hose you get 150 gallons per minute all at a wonderful 100 pounds of pressure per square inch! Open wide!

Wait?!?! What do you mean the eye dropper doesn’t sound so bad? I thought you were thirsty. Alright. I get it. No level of thirst is worth the pain of trying to drink more than 2 gallons coming at you every second at that pressure. The slow and steady method sounds a whole like more reasonable and satisfying. You might actually get a drink.

Now, the choice between fire hoses and eyedroppers sounds ridiculous, something more akin to college hazing incidents than an actual choice; but the choice is one we make every time we choose how we nurture our children in the faith. Think about it. We hear that we as parents have the God-given role of nurturing faith in our children. All we have to do is decide how best to do it. Hearing this challenge, many of us will rush home and in our zeal for nurturing faith pick up the fire hose. We inform our family that there will be some changes, big ones coming. Life is going to be different. There will now be family devotions, every day. Every family member will be required to memorize four Bible verses each week and to share their faith with at least one new person. Personal devotions of at least 30 minutes are now required and there will be a weekly family prayer journal sharing time. It sounds great. We are so encouraged that now we have faithfully answered the call to nurture our children into the faith. We hear the bells of Heaven and the choirs of angels singing our praise. Our children hear, “Here, I have this fire hose and I want to give you a drink. Open wide!” Is it any wonder that three days into our new role as nurturer of faith we are tired, our children are cranky, and by the end of the week things have gone back to normal? The problem isn’t that you can’t nurture the faith of your children. The problem isn’t that you didn’t go to seminary or don’t know enough about the Bible. The problem is you tried to give your family a drink by spraying them with 150 gallons per minute. There is another way. There is the way of the eyedropper.

Parents are those who have the God-given role of nurturing faith in our children, but we don’t have to do it all at once. We have the rest of our lives to do it. We don’t have to start with a weekly family prayer marathon. We can start with a short prayer at bedtime. We don’t have to start with hour-long family devotions. We can simply read a short snippet from one of the Gospels mixed in with the rest of the books we read to our kids. We don’t have to have everyone journal. We can simply ask what the highs and lows of each day were and then pray for one another as we offer thanks for the evening meal. Handing off faith is not about getting it all at once but about handing off what can be received in the moment. It is the process of teaching our children to live grace-driven rhythms around God himself. It is pouring in of a deep ocean of faith, one drop at a time.

A fellow traveler,

Blake

What’s my next step?

We encourage you to consider engaging in the following as a way of handing off faith in your family.

Pray with your children:  Faith is nurtured in our children one drop at a time as we instill grace-driven rhythms of a life centered around God. One easy grace-driven rhythm to teach is the rhythm of prayer. In prayer we commune with God, nurturing an abiding relationship with him. You might consider instilling this by taking time each day to pray out loud with your child. This need not be an elaborate prayer but one appropriate for the age and faith journey of each child. Model prayer by praying first and then encouraging them to talk to God in their own words. Seek to establish this as a rhythm, making it an important and necessary part of each day.

We encourage you to consider engaging in the following as a way of deepening your own faith.

Nurture your own faith:  Parenting involves impressing faith upon our children, but we cannot impress what we do not first possess ourselves. Consider your own faith journey and how you are nurturing your relationship with Christ. What rhythms have you established to point you to God? What are rhythms that you might need to pick up or set down to deepen your relationship with God? Pick one possible rhythm and seek to make it a part of your life this month. Don’t attempt to add anything else until you have established this rhythm, recognizing that faith is nurtured, not forced.