Biblical foundation for faith at home

FAITH AT HOME - A guiding word

Faith is integrated into family identity and practice.

God always intended that our formation in faith would sit at the heart of family life. Reading a devotion together is wonderful, but God’s vision sees parents sharing their faith with their children in everyday life. Faith becomes embedded in everything you do as a family. The way you serve each other, your neighbours and friends. The way you speak with each other. The way God is included in your family rituals and traditions.

God’s vision for family life sees parents and children sharing not only their joys, but also the struggles they’re facing and bringing them all to Jesus.

Deuteronomy 6:4-9 is a guide for how families can do this. Here, we are encouraged to share the love of Jesus as he meets us in the everyday events of life in ways that bring his truth, love, and hope to bear on our hearts as only He can.

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

We still live in a world that keeps changing at a rate we can barely keep up with, but family life and practice remain the key to a faith-filled future. God calls parents to be lifelong learners who continue to grow in the faith and develop a purposeful relationship with him.

I wonder what is one thing that you can remember growing up that helped you identify that your faith and that of your family was more than a once-a-week practice on Sunday? This might include family devotions, Christmas, and Easter traditions, serving in your local community.