They Got It...Right

 

Our teenagers “got it” right?  After all, we mastered Awana (Cubbies to T&T with the Timothy Award to show for it!).  We took them to church, each and every week.  We even hosted the Bible Bee competition and spent our summer breaks with scripture memory and in-depth inductive Bible study around family bonfires. We started out of the gate running this faith race strong.  Certainly, all our efforts resulted in success. So… they got it, right?  They got our faith…they must have.  We did all the “right” things, right?! I’m learning this lesson over and over myself.  Our children run their own race to a living relationship with the Lord.  Yes, God gives us an important role to play. We get to set a spiritual table before them and invite them to the feast.  We carry the responsibilities as parents to raise them in the “fear and admonition of the Lord”.  But, as a preacher once said, “God has no grandchildren”. OUR faith is not enough to pass the baton of faith to them and give them THEIR faith. Homeschooling is not enough to assure them their faith either.  Sure, it’s a wonderful way to create a greenhouse like environment for their faith to germinate in, and a safe place for tender plants to begin to grow.  Really, I don’t believe there is any better way!  I want to encourage you - don’t stop tending those tender shoots yet.  Don’t make any assumptions that “they got it” - just because you did all the right things in their younger years.  They may have prayed a salvation prayer, or won all the scripture memory awards, or came home from summer camp still damp-headed from a lake baptism.  Don’t stop daily discipling them!  Let me go a step further, I believe that the high school years are the prime time for them to BEGIN to make faith their own.  Yep, I said “begin”.  This is the time when they are developmentally able to make these types of life influencing decisions.  I rejoiced with each step toward God that my young children took.  But it’s when they started taking those faltering first steps into adulthood that I could begin to really see if they “got it”. These years are when they are moving “from innocence to holiness”, a phrase my husband has coined.  They are transitioning from knowing “Jesus Loves Me” and the simple faith of a child to “Yes, I know” and the life-altering decisions that accompany maturity.  It’s a vital stage in the development of their faith.  It’s when we begin to see the fruit of a living relationship with the almighty God.  And, as much as we would love to be able to, it’s not something we can manufacture.  We can only be their coaches and cheerleaders in this race as they run it. Too often, we let the “more important” subjects cut in and take precedence over our intentional faith developing studies when our students get to high school age. We comfort ourselves with thoughts “they got it”, right? The rigors of upper-level classes frequently move their daily quiet-times and intentional Bible studies to a back burner.  Do not give up!  Keep setting the spiritual table before them. This means keep prioritizing the Word in your school schedule and in your daily routines.  Keep on doing it alongside them until you witness them doing it alone - and then, keep studying the Bible together (It will be one of your greatest joys!).  Take it a step further, and make the focus on worldview, apologetics, and scripture memory take precedence over “lesser subjects” like geometry, physics, and dual credit.  Don’t miss these final years with your children to make an eternal impact! Oh…one more thing.  Our teenagers are masters at manipulation, and they can spot a counterfeit a mile away. So, if you are not practicing what you preach - you’re busted.  Take the time to model for them what this living, breathing, active and powerful faith looks like.  Make sure they see the priority the Word takes in your life and decisions you make.  Then, never stop praying and interceding for them as they run their race! Blessings, Renita “You were running a good race. Who cut in on you to keep you from obeying the truth?” - Galatians 5:7