Thy Will, Not My Will

How to raise Kingdom-minded kids.

Train your kids for God’s Kingdom.

Occasionally I’ll hear a father say something like, “I’m not going to interfere with my child’s faith journey, I’m going to let them figure that out on their own.” Can you imagine a parent saying, “I’m not going to interfere with my 2-year-old child playing near the street, they can figure that out on their own.”? No, it’s the responsibility of the parents to set their children on paths that are healthy and fruit-bearing, which includes their physical, mental and spiritual well-being. So how do parents set their children on healthy life pathways? Your child’s sports environments are life laboratories for exploring both healthy and unhealthy paths.

I once heard a Bible teacher say, “More is caught than taught.” In the parenting context, that means children observe what their parents model more than they listen to their verbal instruction. (This does not mean parents should stop verbally teaching their kids, but rather parents should be vigilant in what they are modeling about life, especially their faith life.) Ask yourself, “What am I modeling to my child?”; “What are they learning by observing my life?”; “How does what I say line up with what I do?” If you model loving and serving God, then most likely your child will also.

Another parental teaching principle is, “You can’t pass on what you don’t possess.” That means if the parent does not practice a healthy faith life, they will not be able to model it properly before their child. How would you evaluate your own faith life? Is it something worthy of modeling before your child? You might be interested in an excellent tool developed by FCA to help you grow in your faith life. It’s called The CORE and it covers eight fundamentals of the Christian faith. You can find The CORE under in the Resources tab.

You might consider how your child’s sports environments can be used as a stage for the expression of your love for God and people. This transformation brought on by engagement with God becomes a testimony to those around us. Many opportunities for testimonies occur during sports competition, and the more aware of this you are, the more ready you will be to respond in a manner worthy of one who claims to be a Christ follower.

Ask God to use the following Scriptures to help you lead your child down paths of righteousness for His sake.

Bible Study

1. 1 Timothy 4:7-8 makes a distinction between “training the body” and “training in godliness.” Write down a few examples of “training in godliness.”

2. Colossians 3:21 and Ephesians 6:4 apply to both fathers and mothers. Give some examples of parents exasperating their children to the point of discouragement.

3. What is your big idea or main takeaway from this lesson?

Practice Session

• Ask your Huddle Leader to lead you through The CORE with the intent of you leading your child through it later. (Best practice is for both parents to commit to growing in your respective faith lives, if possible.)

• Initiate a conversation with your child. Ask them to identify several ways they train their body for sports. Then make the connection about how they might train “in godliness.”