July 11, 2018
Therefore I urge you
to imitate me... For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power. 1
Cor 4:16, 20
Faith is passed on by
the power of imitation, not intimidation.
Parents – we have been deceived! We have been convinced that either we must
command faith out of our kids, or not “push our faith” on our kids. Depending on our upbringing, we tend to think
faith is passed down by intimidation or by abdication.
But that’s not what God instructed us to do. Deuteronomy 6 tells parents to pass along
their faith by IMITATION! When we
imitate people of great faith, it has power to transform our children. When we walk, talk, live it out, they learn
what faith looks like.
One of the greatest lies of our current generation is to
believe that faith is up to our kids. We’ve
been deceived by past pain or overbearing parents to believe that not pushing
our religion on our kids is the best
way. So a generation of children are
growing up WITHOUT knowing God and without learning about Him. They lose out in experiencing the power of
God, until later in life (hopefully).
The previous generation had the opposite approach, thinking
that rules and commands were enough to pass along faith to their children. Rules are often necessary, but do nothing
more than forge a religious mindset
instead of helping grow a relationship with God. So that generation grew up knowing about God,
but not knowing God personally.
Paul gave a simple method to the Corinthian church on how to
pass along faith – imitate a faithful person!
And THAT’S the BEST WAY! Look for
a faithful person in marriage, and imitate what they do to keep your marriage
strong. Imitate a leader to develop your
leadership skills. Imitate a strong
parent to learn more about being a better parent. And imitate a person of faith to grow your
faith. THEN… as we imitate faithful
people, our kids learn to imitate us.
The best way to grow the faith of your kids is to bring them
along as you follow God. They watch your
faithfulness and learn from your faith.
Leverage the power of imitation … it’s much more effective than
intimidation.
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