It is difficult for a parent to pass on a faith that he or she does not possess. The best way for you to inspire your kids to have their own faith is for them to witness your faith—not only in your words, but in your actions.
It is also difficult to pass on life skills you have not yet applied in your own situations. To parent well requires intentional personal growth in the art of living well since much of parenting revolves around a child’s innate ability to pattern the thoughts and actions of a parent. The first responsibility in parenting well is that you yourself are growing and developing as a healthy individual spiritually, physically, mentally, and socially.
Through parenting, each of us raises up kingdom kids into kingdom men and women so that God’s purposes are fully manifested on earth, and countless more are ushered into a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. So then kingdom parenting is more than a social enterprise, it is at its core a spiritual and theological imperative. Kingdom parents raise up kingdom kids to fulfill what God’s plans and purposes for families are and not what the culture intends. Our culture is seeking to redefine marriage and family in such a way that it no longer reflects how our Lord designed it, so it is critical that we model godly homes and marriages to our kids so they will have the opportunity to see what kingdom families look like.
Yet unfortunately today, in many ways, our Christian culture has bought into the secular culture in redefining children as burdens rather than blessings. Reducing the sizes of our families by reducing the number of children we bring into the world also reduces our capacity to be blessed. Scripture tells us that children are a gift from God. We read in the book of the Psalms, “Behold, children are a gift of the Lord, The fruit of the womb is a reward” (127:3). Children are a blessing and yet ironically they are the one blessing we often seek to limit in our lives. But if we were to view children through the lens of kingdom dominion and influence—as God views them—I think we would have a different attitude about how many children we bring into our homes, as well as the priority we placed on them once they were there.
In order to raise kids equipped to fulfill their roles in God’s kingdom, we are going to have to be intentional about our parenting. After all, it is far easier to shape a child than to repair an adult.
