In the eastern world Parents are very keen to pass on whatever the best inheritance they have to their children. They start saving early in their life for their children’s marriage, education, etc. As a child of our parents, we do inherit good and bad things. We inherit our parent’s genes and the DNAs. Our strength and weakness in our physical body is directly coming from our parent’s genes. There are so many genetic diseases for which, medicines do have any cure and we have no way to avoid it. In summary we inherit many things from our ancestors whether we like it or not.
Important question as a Christian is, can my children inherit my faith? Though this question is not outspoken most us assume the answer positively based on their relationship with God.
Bible gives several instructions to the parents what they should teach their children. As parent we ought to teach our kids on the following:
- Meaning of each of the ceremony and why it is celebrated (Exodus 12:26)?
- How God has brought us through in our life time and great things he has done in our personal, professional and spiritual life (Exodus 10:2)?
- How to fear the lord and the importance of doing so (Deuteronomy 6:2)
- Talk about God and his glorious protection when ever there is a family time (Deuteronomy 11:19)
It is the parent’s responsibility to teach their children on Christian faith. We can not outsource this job to anyone else. But the question to be answered is not yet answered. Can they inherit the faith?
Some of the greatest men in bible had difficult children. The Children of Eli and Samuel were not obedient to them and God. Hence it does not give any assurance our Children will by default inherit our faith. Every parent need to take sincere steps to guide, pray and teach their kids about God. But finally, it’s up to our kids to take a decision to follow God.
Every child start their life by loaned faith from Parents. They end up in church because the parents go there. They learn the art of how to smile and behave as they grow up by keeping their heart not mixed up with truth. But at one point of time the decision has to be made and loaned faith needs to become a personal faith and we call this transformation as salvation experience. Every parent needs to pray, guide and urge our Children toward a personal experience with God.
“Faith cannot be inherited or gained by being baptized into a Church. Faith is a matter between the individual and God.” – Martin Luther
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