Sticky Faith

I have worked with youth in some capacity for about twenty years.  I have a heart for them.  Their struggles.  Their hopes and dreams.  Even in their failures I pray that they are able to hang on in their faith.  Recently, I read Sticky Faith: Everyday Ideas to Build Lasting Faith in Your Kids.  It was eye opening!  I have two boys both teenagers (the 12 year old is close enough to the teen years) and my greatest hope is that they follow God with their whole hearts.  I will feel that their lives are successful if they end up loving God and knowing how to love people.  To me, that is the most important job of any Christian.  Financial, personal, or career success aren't that important.

There are alarming statistics out there that say the about 50% of kids that grow up in the church will leave their faith.  That is just scary to me!  This past April I heard Dr. Kara Powell speak on what we can do as parents to up the chances of our kids faith sticking with them.

In her book, Sticky Faith, Kara gives tips and ideas of how to structure your family life so that there is more of the likelihood of your kids staying connected to their faith.   One of the interesting aspects she talks about is the idea of "Sin Management". Most of us grew up with this concept.  You know, a list of do's and don't's. A certain way of acting.  And how to manage it all when there are more don't's than do's.  But really, that isn't what the gospel is about!  It is a gospel of grace! Not that we don't teach them right or wrong, but that when they do wrong we teach them that there is nothing that they can do that will make them lose the love of Christ and that Jesus can deal with anything we do, even the worst of things.

One of the tips she gives is to focus on how to trust God.  Trust of God leads to love of God. We need to guide our conversations to get them to think about the trust issue.  In each and every situation in life what does it look like to trust God?  How will we think and act in that certain circumstance if we are trusting God?  What will our thoughts and actions look like if we aren't trusting Him?

If you are a parent who is worried about your kids relationship with Christ or you are looking for ways to parent your kids so that their faith is built then Sticky Faith can offer great ideas toward that goal!