Fathers Passing Their Faith To Their Children (Psalm 44:1-2)

Fathers have a the grave responsibility of leading their family and teaching their children about The Lord their God.  Most men focus their teaching on behaviors the children should and should not do.  This is very important information to convey to children, but the best results expected would be weak Christianity with the worst being a form of godliness without a true relationship with The Lord.  What fathers should teach their children is the personal relationship he has with God and how they can have the same.  The Psalmist records a wonderful example of this.

We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, what work thou didst in their days, in the times of old. How thou didst drive out the heathen with thy hand, and plantedst them; how thou didst afflict the people, and cast them out. (Psalms 44:1-2)

You, as a father, would be best to share with your children the trials that you experienced and how The Lord has either delivered you from or through them.  This enable children to see your heart and how The Lord has strengthen and affected you.  Wisdom on the amount of details and types of trials to share should be utilized, but as your children become teenagers, they would greatly benefit from knowing and understanding how you face and deal with fears.  Them seeing the burden you carry and the faith that you demonstrate in God will have a greater impact on them than the rules and standards you teach.  The latter is important for protection from sin, but the former establishes strength in a relationship with God which provides strength for victory living.  If you had to choose between the two, transferring a faith relationship would be better.  It would be better because a relationship with God will develop a heart for God and a hate for evil.  The Lord can easily direct a tender heart more easily than he can a self righteous cold heart.  Was not this the problem with the Pharisees?  Ask yourself, do you want to create a rule keeper with no heart for The Lord or a person with a heart for God who allows Him to develop guidelines for their lives?  The choice is simple.

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