Life Coach: Family Matters

from my message on Oct. 6, 2013, from II Tim. 1:1-7

How many of you have blue eyes?  How many of you have brown eyes?  How many are lucky enough like me to have green eyes?  Did you ask for your color of eyes?  No.  They are just given to you.  Your mom and dad, their genetics determine what color your eyes are.  Can we pass the faith on the same way?  No.  There is no such thing as a Christian gene.

Maybe faith can be passed down by rote.  If you memorize the 10 Commandments, and the Beattitudes, and the Lord's Prayer, then you would be a Christian, right?  No.

Faith is not passed down through genetics or rote.  In fact, studies have been done around this topic of passing on the Christian faith.  The most effective way the faith was continued was through families...not the church or the school, but families.

Here in this letter to Timothy, a young protoge' of the apostle Paul, we find that in the first century, Timothy is already a 3rd generation Christian.  His grandmother and his mother have shaped his beliefs.  How does that happen.

Hilary our director of children's ministries and I teach a class on baptism and faith development.  Hilary shares 3 ways that families can pass on the faith.

First, talk about faith in every day life.  I was visiting with a young mom this past week.  She said her son like rocks.  He gathers rocks.  He stacks rocks.  He throws rocks. He washes rocks.  She could say to him while he is doing his rocking, "Thank God for rocks!"  In hard times, we can say with our children, "We really need to turn to God now."  We use whatever is going on in our lives as a reference to bring God in.

Second, we can participate in family devotions, prayers, Bible reading, and worship.  I bet many of you have grace over meals and prayers at bedtimes.  You may have a children's Bible that is mostly pictures.  You can participate in our Advent workshop coming up  and make an Advent wreath or calendar to mark the season of preparation before Christmas.  You can come to the blessing of the animals service this afternoon.  One little girl coming into worship this morning said, "Do you know what pastor Lynn?  This afternoon, our dogs are going to get baptized!"  I love it.  Family worship times.

Third, families can do service projects together.  You can be ushers at church.  You can help on ReThink Church day by making manna bags together or caroling.  You can make meals together for Mobile Loaves and Fishes.

It is about this point in the message that I got a bit sad. What if you did everything right, and still your child didn't get it.  Or wandered away from the faith.  This is what Cathy and I are feeling. You have modeled the faith, and your child doesn't follow the path.  Here the scripture helps me.  Paul says that he remembers Timothy constantly in his prayers.  And so do I remember our boys in my prayers.  Almost every morning Cathy and I are praying there in the kitchen before I head off to church.  This is my prayer almost daily, "God bless Joel and Matt, and may they come home to you."

Here is the most powerful and effective way the faith is passed down. God's grace.  God's unmerited love for us.  I love our sons so much.  I can only imagine how much more God loves them.  It is a mystery the way grace seeks us out.  God is staying up late, getting up early, looking for all of us.  God doesn't want to lose a single one of his children.  I believe this.

Sometimes, our children get it.  John Michael got it.  I know his grandparents. I know his mom really well.  John Micheal allowed me to use his story. He shared this past Sunday night at the Youth Stockholder dinner.  The youth were telling about their mission trips this summer to those of us who invested in them.  There were funny stories.  One boy pretended that he got hit in the head.  When he awoke, he could only speak German.  Sarah thought it was true for the longest time.  It was hilarious.  They were digging ditches for a sewer line.  Not once, or twice, but three times before they got it right.

John Michael went to ReCre, a youth mission that does home repair in North Carolina.  He went not just for 1 week of work, but 3 weeks as a counselor.  He got up early and stayed up late to resource the other youth coming in to work.  John Michael said, "It wasn't just that Christ was affecting my life.  Christ was affecting other lives through me.  I'd wake up so excited in the mornings, to see how Christ would be using me, working through me to help others."

The faith is passed down.  It is always a gift.  That's the good news I have to share.