Are we Innoculating our Children to the Presence of God?
The way we run our Christian homes, Christian schools, churches and kids ministries will cause our children to either be inoculated to, or infected by, the presence of God.
We're standing amongst the church, gathered together for our day of worshipping our Creator. I have a child holding onto each of my legs, a third child with his hand in my pocket, I'm watching with one eye to see if one of my little boys is going to mount the stage in his next breakdancing move, and the other eye to check if my preteen has got a sullen look on her face, all the while wondering what happened to my 6th child, and hoping she's in the building somewhere sitting with a friend. It can be a lot of pressure sometimes bringing up your kids in front of the watchful eyes of the whole community, particularly if I fall into the trap of believing that there's such a thing as a pastor's kid, who is supposed to set the example for other kids. I have to be very careful not to ask them to act or pretend for the sake of impressing others, but to coach them into genuine worship with their own personal journey’s in mind.
I’m not alone - every parent has a responsibility in how they lead their family in worship in public and at home, and in how they choose to live out their Christian faith in front of their children. The thing is, the way we run our Christian homes, Christian schools, churches and kids' ministries will cause our children to either be inoculated to, or infected by, the presence of God.
If there is one thing that this up and coming generation want, it's authenticity. In fact, there has hardly ever been a generation of children who were interested in pretences, and in doing things for show, or because people are watching. One of the major reasons for teens and young adults to leave the church is the realisation (true or perceived) that their parents are 'faking it'. These little people are completely unimpressed by religion - the "Why?" question of the four-year-old does not disappear, but only intensifies as they reach the age where they need to figure out for themselves whether they are going to adopt some of their parents rituals and beliefs, or keep journeying until they find their own.
We need to coach our children, diligently, persistently and with great wisdom, into how and why to worship the Living God. And we better remember that they don't just see us in our public moments, but in the majority of our very private moments as well.
I am by no means suggesting that we need to be perfect - on the contrary, that would be debilitatingly unreachable for our children. But we do need to be genuine, humble, and to communicate freely and openly about our relationship with God. We need to include them in our conversations with Him, tell about our revelations, disclose our moments of repentance, and sing of His endless grace.
Whatever times we have opportunity to share about our Christian faith with children, whether it is with our families at home, as a teacher at a Christian school, at church or at a Kids' Ministry, the most important thing we can do is rely on the prompting and guidance of the Spirit of Christ to breathe life into our words, actions, teachings and songs. Where our deeds are not formed around His very breath, they may seem beautiful, but they are like empty shrouds - a shell that imitates life, but is dead and meaningless inside. It is not good enough to follow a routine or a programme, we cannot be fooled into thinking habits and traditions are good enough to ‘give our kids religion'. Let us give our children the life of Christ, or let us refrain from speaking about God at all, lest we inoculate them to be unaffected and unattracted to the real thing.
