Christianity and children

[purpleangel17]

Interested to hear the approach other Christians take to sharing their faith with their children.

I tell the children what I believe but I don't present it as absolute truth, I tell them different people believe different things and they can make their own mind up when they are older.

Do you do the same or do you present it as truth and say others are 'misguided?

My elder questions a lot but is respectful. My younger has recently taken to asking lots of other people what their religion is! I think they both believe but they have questions which is normal.

We don't go to church as I believe (in my circumstances) it's better to worship from home, plus there's services you can watch which is good.

Both DC were baptised & received holy communion. The other day someone was being an idiot saying God doesn't exist. PFB or eldest said that's rubbish otherwise how can there be heaven, who would look after it, where would we go when we died. Why would there be churches? Why would people have a job that was working for God.

I've never forced it down their throats but felt so proud that my teen still believes.

I will spend Advent talking about what Christmas is really about, as I'm not keen on it being just a day to receive presents. Younger DC has done about Victorians so knows where the idea of the Christmas Tree came from. I'm sure that'll be mentioned again when we put it up in a few weeks as she was really into the Victorians.

If they have questions I'll answer in a way they can understand. If they do wrong which is seldom, we pray for forgiveness. They always write letters saying sorry too. We don't shout or anything like that, we focus on being our best as God can see into our hearts. Not something that has been said for ages. But they get that in their preparation for first HC.

One thing that made me wonder was the non religious that attend Catholic School, was surprised at how many did FHC. I wonder if they believe or not.

The other day someone was being an idiot saying God doesn't exist.

Sounds eminently sensible to me

how can there be heaven,

We don't know there is one

who would look after it,

We don't know there is a heaven where would we go when we died.

We have no reason to think we go anywhere

Why would there be churches?

^Same reason there are mosques/temples
^
Why would people have a job that was working for God.^

Same reason there are rabbis, imams, psychics, mediums and angel guides.

As a family we are non believers - a scientific background helps with a lot of understanding. We don’t believe in God or heaven. Christmas is about having time with family and friends, good food and drinks, presents and parties. Father Christmas was a big part of our DC’s childhood but Advent wasn’t a part of it. I’m interested in architecture so when visiting other countries we visit the local churches, mosques etc but for non religious reasons.

I feel as a Christian parent that my kids get a good balance of possible beliefs in order to decide. We have taken them to church, prayed with them, read the Bible to them etc but did not have them baptised as babies because we want them to make their own decision about what they believe. Outside of home, via friendships/media/school teachers I feel they are surrounded by the total opposite and that gives them the balance. My kids are at a large secondary school and know very few church going kids there. My oldest was laughed at by a teacher when she stated she was ;religious' (probably because her behaviour at the time was not great). When we moved our youngest to a local primary school aged 10, despite being a 'church school' the HT on our tour went to great pains to reassure us that despite officially being a church school, she was not aware of any churchgoing families in the school so not to worry. My then 10 year old very indignantly told her that we were a 'church going family'!! I think if society/social media/TV and parents all insist there is no God, then a child has no opportunity to make a balanced decision , however my kids do because they see and hear all sides and being raised in a 'faith' environment gives them a natural curiosity about other faiths too.

Vdbfamily - did your DC’s get a choice as whether to go to church, pray, read the Bible?

Parker....they have had the choice of all those things since they were teens but before that they did what we did.
I assume if you think children should get to choose, that every Sunday you offer to take yours to a religious service somewhere if they so wish? Or do children of non-religious parents also get no choice because they just do what their parents do too.

Atheism is not a belief. It's a lack of belief.

Humans, even religious ones, don't go around actively not believing in the infinite number of things which are preposterous. The problem here is that religious people think, subconsciously or otherwise, that there's a special case for religion which makes it right to call it a 'belief' that there are no gods; but to atheists, believing in a god/gods is just as preposterous as any other irrational theory.

Someone once put it this way: 'atheism is not a belief, any more than 'not collecting stamps' is a hobby.

Or any more than not believing in the existence of Game-of-Thrones-like fire-spitting dragons, or not believing that the God Helios drives the chariot of the sun, are beliefs.

vdbfamily - Mine are at Uni now but when they are younger we never took them to regular Sunday service as that wasn't a part of our family life. Not sure what we would have done if they had asked to go. They grew up knowing that DH and I didn't believe in the existence of God but as a family we have visited different religious places such as the Mormon Temple in Salt Lake City, Golden Temple in Amritsar and St Peters at the Vatican so they have been exposed to different beliefs.
As a family we very much look forward to Christmas as family time, lots of parties and presents and generally having a good time.

well I am a Satanist and i strongly force my religion on my offspring (tylanol,oceania,clocky,destynuine,shwymer,gya,ventrialaquist,paint,sri,
the hulk,iron man,shade,sunlight,duck poynd,chineese takeaway arriving at 19:45,electrone,beava hat,led walstrip on purple setting,the letter yiu,cactus,steve all lovley offspring ) specifically that of the Satanist religion i.e the worsship of the devil, satan, lucifer, the antichrist, joe biden, hillerally clinton, obama

Some of the satanists I know are much nicer and more tolerant than Christians like @vdbfamily.

@PhilODox OK, son RC here. We pray as a family and pray the rosary. Weekly mass and if possible Eg not at work we go to daily or Saturday morning as well. We teach about the lives of the saints but we are mildly catholic compared to friends.

You are handling it just right, purple. Many children resent being presented with religion as absolute fact, they want to be free to make their own minds up when they are older.

Hi OP,

My life changed forever a year ago and now I’m a Christian. I also attend an Anglican Church. My experience of Christianity is relationship before religion. I encounter God in my life daily, the way He intended, through the Holy Spirit. The Bible encourages us to teach the next generation. I raise my children to believe what I believe because it is the truth.

My children enjoy learning about faith and ask me questions all the time. If they grow up and decide they want to explore that’s ok too. God gave us free will to decide whether we want a relationship with Him, so I will do the same. I will always encourage them to explore who Jesus is. I plan to share my testimony with them when they’re older - They were integral in my journey to salvation.

I think you’re doing the right thing. Once a month is plenty, if that’s all they want. If you make them go weekly, they’ll just resent it. My vicar lets the children play and run around during the kids services, so they feel comfortable and enjoy being in church. Pray for them and ask God to give them hearts that will know and love Him. Also ‘church’ is about the body of Christ meeting. That can happen anywhere, it doesn’t have to be in the building. You can teach them at home and create your own fun ways of learning as a family.

I had planned to raise my children in the same way I was raised in a Catholic household with a respect for God but no church going because "God knows I love him no matter where I am and mass is only for controlling the people" (german great-grandmother circa 1900).
However I abandoned that and am raising them with an open mind about all religions but in an atheist household because after having my children I can no longer believe in a god that would be so cruel to me and my husband.
Plus I find that in general all the religious people I know are very closed minded and everything revolves around God and frankly I find it annoying.
I tell my children the stories but tell them that some people believe they are true but we have no proof of it but if something in the bible is proven then I'll tell them so

I teach my children about God as absolute truth as I absolutely believe it is. My children are aware of other religions but I would present these as other people's beliefs (beliefs as opposed to truth).

Believing something is true doesn't make it so. See also, belief that Brexit is a good thing.