The Most Important Question Ever Asked

The other night I prayed with the kids before bedtime. It wasn't anything new, but my two year old, Happy Feet, had some questions for me. She said, "who is Jesus?" I explained the best I could. Then she wanted to know where he lived. Before I could answer her she said, "in my heart, right mom"? "Yes, that's right" I replied.  I tried to also explain that when she gets scared or sad...anything, she can talk to Jesus about it...that He is always with her.

I tucked her in, and left the room with so much to think about.  I'm glad that she's asking these questions.  Yet, I am so fearful that I won't provide the best answers. 

To me, this is the most important question I will ever be asked.  I want to be able to teach my kids who Jesus is and how much He loves them.  As parents we never know what lies ahead for our children.  What will cause them great pain and sorrow? What will bring them great joy?

More than anything I want to instill in all of my children that:

God loves and cares for them.

That He created them in His image.

That He has a plan and purpose for their lives. 

When I think of my precious Red Shoes, I am reminded of times when kids (and a few adults) have said very hurtful things that have wounded my heart. Words that so far don't seem to bother him much, but that day will come. Much too soon I'm afraid. How do I protect him from that? How do you protect any kid from that? The answer...Jesus. If I can instill in my son that God loves him, that God created him and that he has a beautiful purpose for his life, I know that my boy will be fine. If I can go even further with that and teach him to pray for the kid who is saying those mean things....wow! How powerful is that? I'm not saying there won't be tears shed or sad times, or if I'm being perfectly honest, that I will always want to pray for that kid who hurt my son.  But my hope is that I will nurture my kids' spiritual journey in the best way possible. 

Nothing could ever bring me greater comfort and joy than knowing that my children know and love Jesus. I went to the Focus on the Family website for some guidance and found that:

•  Anywhere from 50 to 70 percent of children from evangelical Christian families won't embrace the faith as their own when they leave for college.

John Trent, the author of this article asked several hundred parents at a big church three questions:

1."Do you think it's important to pass down your faith to your children?" As you might expect, more then 90 percent said, "Yes! It's very important!"


2."Do you think your child will have a strong faith when he or she gets out of college?" Again, 90 percent of those responding said, "You bet!"


3."Outside of going to church, what are you doing intentionally to introduce and build a growing faith in your child?" Fewer than 30 percent were doing anything purposefully to meet that goal during the 166 hours a week their children were at home.


John wrote: "Think about that. These wonderful, godly, well-intentioned parents strongly believed they should be involved in their children's faith development. They also were highly confident that their children would embrace the faith by the time they were on their own. But when it came to actually preparing their kids, they were just dressing them up and dropping them off at church — and setting themselves up for a failure to launch.

As parents we have a critical role in the development of our children's spiritual walk.  I'm going to be reading up on this in the next few weeks.  I've ordered FaithLaunch: A Simple Plan to Ignite Your Child's Love for Jesus by John Trent, PhD, and Jane Vogel from the library.  I'll try to come back and share some of the things I learn.

I would love to hear from you.  Do you have any resources that have helped you in this area of your parenting?  What are you doing to build a growing faith in your child? Please share. Pin It