A Warm and Loving Presence
That’s what it takes according to a four decade study of 350 families with each family having three or four generations. The research was aimed at answering the following questions:
- How is religious faith transmitted to the each generation?
- Why are some families successful at transmitting faith and others are not?
- Can the reasons for success and failure be identified and measured?
An Interesting Project
Social scientists invested 40 years surveying the members of each family’s generations. The same survey was give each year asking about faith and levels of religious commitment. And the results?
This Sunday at the Southeast Church of Christ in Friendswood, TX at 8:30 and 10:45, I’ll be sharing the primary results of the study. You are welcome to come or to watch online from our site: www.southeastonline.org
And if you care to, take a few minutes to watch: VLOG: “I Love Being a Father”
The Dads
How many kinds of dads are there? What kind of dad did you have or still have? What kind of dad are you? Forgive me if the following seems stereotypical:
- The engaged, loving, attentive dad
- The missing in action dad
- The always too busy dad
- The deceased dad
- The dad who is divorced from your mom
- The abusive dad
- The harsh, bullying, uncaring dad
And others.
Ideally
The best scenario is for every family to have two loving parents who are present, engaged and leading their children well. But that’s not always how it is, is it?
I have deep respect for single parents who strive to provide everything they can for their children, doing everything that normally requires two parents to do. God bless them.
The Apostle Paul commended Timothy for his faith, which he said came from Timothy’s mother and grandmother. His dad was mentioned too but not for his faith. Single moms can raise Godly kids. Single dads can raise Godly kids too. But for each, it’s tougher.
What Happens?
What happens to the home, to kids and to families, if the father is present but unengaged? Or if he leaves and has minimal involvement, if any? How much harder is it for everyone?
Each generation has its challenges for passing faith to the next generation. How are we doing in transmitting our beliefs to our kids and grandkids? What’s our report card?
How true is it that we can’t force our children to love the Lord? We can’t make them believe. We must train, teach, mentor, encourage, support and pray for them. We must make sure they have every opportunity to know the love of God. But in the end, its up to them to decide.
In Closing
It’s vital for parents to have strong convictions and a good understanding of how to pass their faith to their children, and to their children, and so on. And having a loving father, or father figure, is still the best case scenario for faith transmission.
A Warm and Loving Presence?
We will see.
Rick Fyffe 