I’m stepping out of my typical frugal living, saving money, family manager tips and ideas “hat” to continue a series I have been sharing this summer.

Honored, Humbled, Humiliated, Frustrated, Loved, Worried, Overwhelmed, Incapable…
In this 4th of five posts on the Faith of our Children, we were asked, “How does our children’s faith affect our own?
I sit at my laptop with a long list to share with you. I pull up various one hour talks that I have given that inspire others on building Character in our Children, or Raising Responsible Kids etc. etc, and yet all that comes right now are tears.
Tears that remind me of the five precious blessings that have been shared with me for this small moment in time, yet tears of unworthiness that I am often not the mom that I should be for them.
And yet that is right where the Lord wants me. I can not be all things to them. My husband can not either.
There is only One who can, and it’s that faith I want our children to cultivate and cling to in a difficult and confusing world. I want them to know and understand this intimate, authentic, and passionate relationship that is available with a Heavenly Father. Not a list of rules; not a bunch of do’s and don’ts or hypocritical patrons that people often confuse with “the church,” but a relationship, a friendship.
I want them to see His love;  His love that is continually demonstrated in so many ways amidst my unloveliness, never ceases to amaze me.
So, how does their faith affect mine? It brings me to the feet of my Heavenly Father because without Him, so much of what I do is in vain.
Their faith is still in process. My faith is as well, but years have shown me that He is the same yesterday, today and forever.

I have children who live and breathe a simple faith – the precious faith of a child whose eyes look to Him for all their answers.

Yet, I also have children who are wrestling it out, and as painful as that is for me, I welcome it. I want them to ask the hard questions. Our desire is this becomes their faith, not ours; a true and vibrant faith born out of absolute Truth, not born from a parent’s desire or modeling of what I think is the “perfect child.”
I don’t want them giving me “Jesus answers” (those answers that kids raised in the church can spout without thinking or internalizing. I want them developing discerning minds with a strong world view, so we ask them, “What do you really think about that? How do you know it’s true? What evidence do you have to back it up?
And sometimes we hear things we don’t want to hear, but that’s alright. We want them wrestling through truth under our roof where we share Life together.
I am going to state something that may not sit well with many, but if there’s one thing that this blog is about, it’s about welcoming the “We agree to disagree” philosophy. In my opinion, “iron sharpens iron,” and if I desire that for my own family, why wouldn’t I desire that for us as a blogging community?
We are rearing our children from the world and life view that there is absolute truth.
Christianity can not be truth if truth is relative, or just true for you and not true for me. Something that is true is true for all people, at all times, in all situations.
If we don’t stand for something, we fall for anything.
Yes, easier said than done in this society where everything is admissible, yet I continue to wrestle that out, not with judgmental airs, not with finger pointing, but with love, gratitude and grace from One who gives it so freely to me.
Be sure to visit all the other moms participating in the Faith of our Children series. Some of us come from various philosophies and backgrounds, yet powerful to see it all points to One: