5 Ways Parents Can Model Faith to Their Children
You don’t need anyone to tell you how challenging it is to be a parent or how important it is to encourage your children in your Christian faith. However, you might have more than a few questions about how to go about this sensitive task.
For example, you might have heard some unfortunate stories about kids who were raised in Christian homes, just to wind up denying the faith later in life. How do you support faith without pushing them away from it?
It all comes down to modeling the faith yourself. Here are some practical ways that you can do this while encouraging the faith of your children to grow in a natural and healthy way.
- Read the Bible in front of them and with them.
If you have a regular routine for reading scripture, like every morning or every evening, then your children are going to notice. When they see that you take Bible reading seriously, then they might also. Offer to buy Bibles for them and to read together. If you are the parent of young children, then you might read a children’s bible together.
- Teach your children about prayer.
When prayer is part of your everyday life, then your children are sure to take notice. For example, you might pray before meals, to thank God throughout the day, or to ask Him for help and guidance. When your children ask about prayer, let them know what it is and why it’s important.
From there, you can teach them how to pray, too. You can teach simple prayers to your children that they can use on their own, and you can pray together at bedtime, in the morning, or whenever works for your family’s routine.
- Get involved in acts of service.
Living out your faith through community outreach is a great way to model what being a Christian is about. You can explain to your children the importance of helping those in need and how these actions relate to the teachings of Christ. If your children are old enough, then you can get them involved as well—which is a great learning opportunity and family bonding experience!
- Find a Christian community.
Surrounding yourself and your children with other Christians is a great way to encourage their faith naturally. This provides them with good role models, and a faith-based support system, and can help your children learn about the importance of being involved in a Christian community.
- Parents using faith-based principles.
The way your children interact with you sets the stage for all their future relationships, including their relationship with God. Therefore, one of the best ways to model your faith is by implementing Christian principles as a parent. This includes ideas like maintaining consistent discipline in love instead of anger, asking for and giving forgiveness, teaching and mentoring, and spending quality time together as a family.
Parenting in the faith is difficult, but Christian therapists in Raleigh, NC can help!
Are you struggling to build a faith-based home because you, your spouse, or your child(ren) are struggling with issues related to trauma, depression, or anxiety? Or would you benefit from professional parenting tips from a Christian perspective? If so, then Christian counseling can be a great asset to you and your family!
Need tools for embodying the faith in your home? Christian counseling in Raleigh, NC might be able to help!
Do you want someone to support you as you do your best to support your children? If so, then Christian counseling might be able to help! We can provide tips for helping you build a faith-based home, and we can also help you overcome any personal or parenting obstacles that you or your child(ren) are dealing with.
If Christian counseling in Raleigh is something that you might be interested in, then reach out to Sojourner Counseling. Our team of Christian therapists in Raleigh, NC offers counseling for children, teens, trauma, anxiety, depression, and more.