raising christian kids

The Religious Effect: Raising Kids in a Christian Family

Raising Kids in a Christian Family

Welcome to the third and final post in the Religious Effect series. This last post comes to you from Susan. Susan, a music lover, is a mom to 3, its easy to tell when you read any of her blog posts or articles because the warmth just flows. 

Here’s Susan on how she raises her kids in a Christian Family. 

 

My husband and I were both raised in a Christian home.

His mom was single for a while during his childhood, so his upbringing wasn’t as strict as mine. Still, I would definitely say that he is the stricter parent. We have three children, ages five, four, and two.

 

 

Some people are Christians just because their parents were, or they think it’s the right thing to do, or it assuages some deep inner guilt. For my husband and I, our Christian walk is genuine and passionate. Since we were young, following Christ to us was real. Truths from the Bible deeply influenced our life decisions and how we processes things.

 

 

Another huge influence on both of our lives has been music.

Both of us were inspired to learn music from church worship teams at a young age. I went on to graduate with a degree in music that brought me across the country to the state where I met my husband. Since then, the two of us have been heavily involved on church worship teams. My husband is currently the worship pastor at our church.

 

 

For our family, it is a priority that our children are heavily influenced by the Bible. Our oldest is five years old, and we’ve been regularly sharing the Bible with her as well as giving her weekly opportunities to learn from it at Sunday school. She also learned to read when she was three, and now reads the Bible herself. She is also learning piano and loves to make up her own worship songs.

 

 

Protecting our children from external influences while they are still young is very important to us.

We had been planning on homeschooling all our kids, to guarantee their thorough instruction in the Bible and limit potentially unwanted influences from public school, but our middle child was diagnosed with autism two summers ago (in fact, he almost died at birth, and this experience made me realize how important my faith in God is), and we decided that the regular therapy and routine provide by a public school special ed program was the best for him.

 

The religious effect series

 

Another imperative for us is that our children have good Christian friends.

Our kids connect with other kids from church, and strengthen relationships through regular play dates. It is important to us that they spend time with others who have the same values as us.

 

 

It is very important to me that my kids understand their need for God.

It’s easy when living in the comfortable culture that we do, to think that we can be good enough on my own. If there’s one thing I’ve learned in life, it’s that I get nowhere thinking I can handle things without God’s help. It’s when I acknowledge my need for Him and seek Him in humble prayer that I see positive change in my life.

 

 

We know that we can’t protect our kids forever, that eventually they will make their own decisions and walk their own paths. It is our hope and prayer that we can guide and prepare them as much as possible, through affection and quality time spent together as well as teaching through the Bible and our own examples.

 

 

If you’re interested in reading more from Susan, you can find her at the Glorious Mom Blog. If you head over to the blog you have to read 6 signs you might be a good mom

You can also find Susan on Facebook  

For the two previous posts in the series you can find 

Gina talking about raising her kids in a Jewish Family 

and

Breharne talking about raising her daughters in a Muslim Family.