Focus on the Family Magazine - April/May 2020

FAITH & INSPIRATION / FOR HER
a taste of faith
Share the love of God with your children
around the family table
BY SHERI ROSE SHEPHERD
WHEN I WAS RAISING MY
SON, Jake, I wanted him to have
faith in God, and I feared I wouldn’t
be able to successfully pass that faith
on to him. I realize now that faith
is not something that can be given
away. Rather, when we parents talk
daily about God and live a life of faith,
our children will come to crave intimacy
with God.
Jesus said that He wants little children
to come to Him (Matthew 19:14).
In Deuteronomy 6:7 we’re shown how
to pass along spiritual truths to our
children. This passage tells parents to
add spiritual teaching to everyday life.
One way to do this is to initiate
faith talk while eating meals together
as a family, which satisfies both
your child’s body and soul. Try these
three ideas to share the love of God
with your children around the family
table:
Let your children pray
If your children are toddlers, say
the mealtime prayer one line at a
time and let them repeat it after you.
Encourage them to talk with our
heavenly Father about everything
through prayer. If your children are
older, encourage them to take turns
praying aloud before the meal. When
their prayers have been answered,
remind your children about God’s
faithfulness so you can rejoice
together.
Read a Bible story after
meals
An easy way to instill faith knowledge
is to store Bible storybooks in the
kitchen where kids can reach them. If
you have more than one child, rotate
who picks the story to read after a
meal. Once you have read the story, sit
for a moment and let your kids share
what they learned from the story. As
children get older, graduate from picture
books to storybooks to the Bible.
Clean and worship in the
kitchen
You can make meal cleanup more
fun through worship. Once you’re
done with dinner and story time, play
upbeat kids’ worship songs and
transform cleaning into a time of
praise. Complaining diminishes when
kids sing to worship music. Suddenly
cleaning up becomes less of a chore.
Now my son is raising his own
child, and I’m seeing the faith traditions
being passed on to the next
generation—one meal at a time. •
Sheri rose Shepherd is a speaker and the
author of the “Adventures With the King” book
series for children.
HIS MIGHTY WARRIOR
NEW
BY
ShERi RoSE
ShEPhERd
ILLUSTRATED BY
JeNNiFEr ZiVOiN
FROM FOCUS ON THE FAMILY
ADVENTURES WITH
THE KING
This delightful picture book series will charm
children ages 4 to 8 while helping them
understand their identity in God. Each book
conveys a single biblical principle in a fun way
and ends with an applicable scripture verse.
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FOCUS ON THE FAMILY
April / MAy 2020