Passing the Faith Along

Written in 1995:

"When I die and go to Heaven will I live in a temple with God?"

I was pleased with Tommy's question. He's only recently allowed for the possibility that he would die at all! Maybe everyone else would, but he wouldn't!

We watch our boys work through issues daily. Whether it's coming to grips with the reality that balls are the only toys that may be thrown (and those not in the house!) or what happens after we die, they are continually processing life's patterns and questions. Their expanding world presents them with a barrage of issues that, in time, will need to be resolved. How do I handle it when my brother destroy my castle? Can God really hear through wood? What do I do when kids make fun of me? My friend doesn't believe Jesus loves him. Why don't we watch those TV shows?

The responsibility of helping guide and shape children -- whether we are parents, grandparents, Sunday school teachers, or youth workers -- is awesome. We are called to pass the faith from one generation to the next, demonstrating a vital personal relationship with the Lord that will come to be owned by those who follow after us.

Praise the Lord for the grace and strength which He freely gives to all who ask Him for it.

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That's an excerpt from the "Editor's Desk" column of Family Scrapbook, the magazine that Tom and I published in the 1990s. Our boys were three and four at the time, and these 15 years later we are still answering questions, and asking a few of our own. We realize that it is up to our boys if they will follow Jesus or not, but as we love them, pray for them, seek to know them, accept them where they are, and serve Jesus faithfully and humbly before them, we are nurturing the seeds of faith that were planted long ago. Above all, we leave them in the hands of God, who loves them even more than we do, and trust Him to do his work in their lives and bring them to Himself.