For many of us as Christian parents, we inadvertently give the impression that Christianity is about what we do and don’t do. We say it’s about a relationship with God, but we live a life that exhibits the fact that our Christianity is bound up in two things: rules and busyness. We don’t do certain unbecoming things (at least not openly) and we busy ourselves in the multitude of programs, Bible studies, seminars, so-called “ministry opportunities”, and church events that keep us safely ensconced behind the fortress walls of our church buildings or within our tight circle of Christian friends. We surround ourselves with all the accoutrements of middleclass suburban evangelicalism and we don’t realize that we have traded our passion for glory, we have left the adventure for the country club.
Category: Parenting / Passionate Legacy
Children will grown up and decide for themselves a way of life that seems good and life-giving to them. Parents who live out their walk with God in a way that is attractive and life-giving will find that they can pass on to their children a Christian worldview and the values and habits that will serve them well in their life as adults.
These articles are from a project on Christian Parenting called Passionate Legacy and contain biblical wisdom that has been tested over years of practical application in our own home, and in the homes of countless families we know. Drawn from rigorous research, counseling with whole families as well as parents of teens, school-age children, and young adults; raising two daughters, and serving as foster parents for over 90 children, the principles and practices in these articles have been developed, tested, and refined in the crucible of real life in the modern world.
Passionate Legacy began as a curriculum for parents and evolved into a small ministry with a life of its own, including the more than 80 articles contained in the Parenting section of the Loved Alive website.
A Leader Worth Following
What makes a leader worth following?
What makes a person influential to those around them?
Now ask yourself … do my kids want to be like me? Do they want to follow me? When they are young we can make them follow us … but before long they will make the decision on their own.
I am not talking about being a “buddy” or a “friend” to your child, this is LEADERSHIP here. Effective leaders are people who draw others to themselves through their character, integrity, proficiency and concern for those that follow them. They gain influence by earning trust and respect.
As Christian parents it is our calling to lead our children to choose a godly lifestyle through our godly lifestyle. To do whatever it takes to be the type of Christian leaders of our homes that are worth following.
Convincing or Living?
Some parents see their job as convincing their kids that Christianity is true or trying to push them into adopting a biblical world view. The problem here is that no one is ever “convinced” or “pushed” into a world view. People adopt a world view based on a combination of their observations, experiences and beliefs that they have chosen. For parents to think that they will choose their children’s world view is a fallacy that is extremely detrimental in how they parent their children.
Peter tells Christian wives who are married to unbelieving men … “if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives, when they see the purity and reverence of your lives” (1 Peter 3:1). This idea of winning them over without words, but through the way we live our lives is very instructive for the parent.
Many Christian parents want their kids to share their beliefs, but the lives of the parents often communicate to the kids that “Christianity doesn’t work!” It has to start with us. It has to start with our lives. It has to start with winning them over “without words”.