Unfaithful Children

Yesterday on our "Parents After God's Own Heart" Facebook page, we posted the following:

"One of the biggest reasons for unfaithful adult children is that they were raised by unfaithful parents. If parents practiced a religion of convenience and that was the example shown to the children, the grown children will usually do the same. As time goes on, there are more and more "convenient excuses" and "uncommitted followers" as our society becomes busier and busier.

Put God, Jesus, and His church FIRST. Everything in front of any of those is an idol."

A reader sent this follow up and wanted to share it. It's their personal family situation, but they thought it would help others, possibly.

"I would like to submit the following comment to your post about unfaithful children, if you feel it would be useful to others?

I agree this can be true (*Note....What we posted yesterday). But another perspective, if I may. We would be considered "faithful" because we attended all services and programs offered by our congregation, my husband a deacon, lead singing and I taught bible class. We still have one unfaithful and one who has never obeyed the gospel.

Our lack of personal training in the home and letting them see God was first in everything we did was a mistake we made. We just assumed they would grasp the concept of a loving relationship with God and the church by osmosis, I guess. As parents, we can always second guess our parenting skills, but, please, young parents, take the time to pray, teach the word, morals, etc with your children. You can start as soon as they are born! Use life situations to talk about what the Bible says and it's answer to the situation. Help them grow their love and reliance on God for their everyday needs. I know we can do everything right and some will still go astray.......God gave us a free will to worship him or not. But, I believe your odds will be greatly increased if you raise your child to become a lover of God and follower of Christ, not just a church member. It takes both to make a faithful Christian.

I wish the expecting parents would seek out the advice and wisdom of those who have traveled the road before them. It took me quite a while to understand it takes more than being a bench warmer to be in a right relationship with God. Unfortunately, too late to have much influence on my children's spiritual development."