Faith is NOT like Sports

A while back a fellow blogger posted an article which had the underlying message that if you force your religion on your children then they will rebel and reject it. The author of the article equated a religious family to a super sporty family where there is always at least one child who doesn’t want to have anything to do with sports.

I don’t think the blogger agreed with the article but the arguments in the article were persuasive!

That is because, like the serpent in the garden of Eden, the whole basis of the argument was wrong.

First of all, our faith is not like sports. I would equate it more to brushing teeth. Children go through a stage where they don’t want to take baths and don’t want to brush their teeth. But mothers don’t just let their children not practice basic hygiene in the hopes that they will figure it out by themselves. Their children will not thank them later when their mouths are full of cavities!

The same is with our faith. Our children will go through stages where they will maybe not want to do the Bible readings or assert a rebellious spirit about going to Bible class. But this is not about learning how to kick a ball the right way so that they can score a goal, this is about how to live their lives so that they can serve God in his Kingdom- it is more a matter of life or death.

These were some of the reasons I gave in my response in that blog to the article. But I felt like there was a certain aspect that I was missing. My answer didn’t seem complete.

Then today I read a different blog and I realized what it was:

Attitude.

The blog gave (tongue in cheek of course) three easy steps in how you can make your child reject what is the most important things in your life:
Step 1. Make sure your kids know that whatever you care about is so much more important to you than they are.
Step 2. Be grumpy, irritable, and generally joyless.
Step 3. Put lots of pressure on your kids to follow in your footsteps without ever making your beliefs relevant in their lives.

If we inadvertently reinforce in our children’s minds that they are a burden to us as we try to do God’s work, that doing God’s work is stressful and that they should follow God’s word because “mother says so” then they will not understand why they need to make it important in their lives.

Children can be a help and should be part of the work done for God’s house. They will see the times of stress but will also remember the times of happiness and joyful fellowship around God’s word. When they see your eyes light up, then theirs will too. If their questions are answered with Bible in hand, and a prayer together when needed, they will understand why it is such a blessing to have a close relationship with their God.

You can’t equate this to sports.

This is something beautiful, precious that will help them throughout their lives. Directing their paths, soothing their hearts and giving them hope.

By instilling this in their hearts as a child, they will always cherish it.