It’s strange to think reading the Bible can be dangerous to our faith. The book Sticky Faith opens by talking about Tiffany. She wanted to do everything at church and was easy to parent. Midway through High School she changed. Soon after High School, she was pregnant and had her son. Her parents wondered what happened. We all know a “Tiffany”. One of the authors knew Tiffany. She’s one “why” the authors decided to research why half of the kids that graduate High School shelve/lose their faith.
Four out of the five Tiffanys didn’t mean to lose their faith. It just sort of happened after High School. Thirty to sixty percent of Tiffanys will return in their late twenties or early thirties. This sounds dismal, but don’t forget a few things. First, God will continue to work through His Word and Sacrament to strengthen the faith given in baptism. Second, when it comes to kids; really do parents matter.
Multiple studies show the faith modeled by parents in the home is the greatest earthly factor of children continuing those behaviors. However, there are also opposite examples to that “rule.”
Faith is a lifelong discipleship process. It doesn’t matter how old a child is; it isn’t too late to role model saving faith. However, focusing on the “doing” part of faith causes danger. College juniors who were in youth groups were asked what being a Christian was about and there were interesting answers. “Two-thirds listed answers related to ‘doing’ the faith, like ‘loving others’ and ‘following Jesus’ example.’ More than one- third did not even mention Jesus, and of those, 35 percent did not mention God or Jesus!”
“Faith, without works is dead.” It’s easy to focus on what to do and not to do because we find that controllable. Is that really faith? Look at reading the Bible. What is the point? Is it because we’re supposed to read the Bible? Is it for God to work through His Word to strengthen and sustain us as He promises? The danger happens when we start trusting in the acts or things being done rather than in Christ. We don’t worship gods like Baal or Molech today (hopefully). We may even avoid gods like sports, career, or pride. However, the idols of work and deeds are subtle. It’s easy to look at the “good” things we’re doing and declare ourselves good and faithful.
Instead, true faith needs an environment to learn and trust in God while practicing the freedom to respond in love. True faith needs models of unconditional and ever-embracing love. God models to us that nothing we can do will jeopardize or lessen His love. We need to see His love in our lives and model His love to others.
Practically, what can we as Christians do for children and others we love? Teach that, “Obedience is our response to trusting God, frame all family discussions and activities as opportunities to know and trust Christ, and respond with grace when your child misbehaves.” The beauty is we have the perfect model in Jesus Christ. He became human and understands what we go through. He understands betrayal, death, hunger, being “used”, and so much more. He even understands being obedient out of love.
Remember Jesus’ prayers in Gethsemane? He’s also infallible and we can perfectly trust God and His promises, unlike others. We can model that trust in all circumstances. This trusting God extends to our relationships, time, and money. This also means Jesus is part of “every day” in our life. Jesus isn’t just for church, Sunday School, Bible class, and prayer time. We can see what it means to trust God in all we say, think, and do.
It is hard to trust and understand how the Holy Spirit works in our lives. Imagine trying to teach this to others. However, we can trust God in all things. That means we can trust God with all young believers. We can trust He will continue to work through His Word and Sacraments. We can also continue to model the trust we have in Christ, both the triumphs and the struggles. We can also help cultivate situations to help young believers grow in their faith.