For our children’s sake, we ought both live and speak our faith.

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[Moses said,] “And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”
Deuteronomy 6:5-9 English Standard Version

I was recently reminded by an acquaintance that if we say something is important to us, then we also need to act like it is important to us. This is especially true when it comes to communicating the faith to our children and grandchildren.

When it comes to teaching our children about God and his gift of salvation through Jesus Christ, it’s important that we both speak the words that God has spoken in the Bible, and that we order our lives around those words.

What do we communicate to the next generation if we say that marriage is important, but we don’t work hard at our relationships with our spouses?

What do we communicate to the next generation if we say that helping the poor is important, but we do nothing to minister to those in need?

What do we communicate to the next generation if we say that forgiveness is important to us, but we can’t forgive others when we’re offended.

When it comes to communicating what we believe and how our faith affects our lives, what we say is as important as what we do. We cannot have one without the other.

Jesus communicated the faith best when he spoke about the importance of forgiveness, then sacrificed his life that we might experience forgiveness.

This is not a call to quit speaking the faith because we can’t live what we say. Sometimes we need to communicate to our children and grandchildren that we fail to live what speak, and speak what we live. However, this binding together of what we speak and how we act is a call to live with integrity.

Our integrity has a powerful influence on the next generation of people who are growing up in Christ.

Copyright Douglas P Brauner