Biblical principles to help your children grow in faith
Of all the jobs I’ve held in my life, parenting is by far the most challenging, rewarding and important. More than anything, I want my children to have a personal relationship with their Heavenly Father. That’s the goal for Christian parents.
Figuring out the best ways to live out faith in our modern world takes some intentionality. The best parenting advice we can seek found in God’s Word.
While nobody is a perfect parent on earth, there are some Christian parenting tips that can helps us stay more in line with Biblical parenting as we raise our children and instill in them a Christian faith.
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Why Christian parenting is important
In order to raise Godly children, we have to be purposeful. Ideally this starts before you have children as you talk about your parenting style. However, no matter what phase of parenthood you’re in, you can move forward with making parenting decisions based around your faith.
And, if we’re being completely honest here, Christian parenting is hard work. Not only are you trying to teach your children how to be good people, you’re also trying to combat the influence of the world. That’s all while figuring out how to teach our kids to be in the world but not of the world.
It’s exhausting! Yet, it’s also worth it. Building a Christ-centered home founded on Biblical principles shows our children what being a Christian is from their time they are a very young age.
My experiences with Christian parenting
In our years of raising kids, so far, we have been through a variety of stages. We are now mostly in the teenage years with a child in middle school and one in high school.
We are still in the thick of parenting. These days, we are working more and more with our children to allow them to make their own decisions and want to be sure we have equipped them to do that God’s way rather than the world’s way.
In building a Christ-centered home, my husband and I have been intentional about raising our kiddos to know God personally.
1. Teach your children who God is.
“And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.”
Deuteronomy 6:6-7 (ESV)
From young children to old children, they need to know about God. This means teaching them about Him in age-appropriate ways.
For example, we started nightly prayers with our children from before they were old enough to say them themselves. We read to them from children’s Bibles. (Our favorite is “The Jesus Storybook Bible!”)
We took them to Sunday School. (Now our oldest is a Sunday School teacher herself!)
We talked about God in everyday life. Of course we didn’t only talk about God — that’s not practical. But when we had a natural chance, we talked about Him.
Now that we have older children, we are teaching them more complex things about God. They know the basics, so now we focus more on what it looks like to really live for God in the modern world.
We strive to give them a Biblical worldview on current events and challenges they face in school. Simply talking to your children about God and who He is gives them a foundation for their own faith and relationship with Him.
2. Talk with your children about how God is working and has worked in your own life.
“One generation commends your works to another; they tell of your mighty acts.”
Psalm 145:4 (NIV)
This second point is also important. For our children to see the relevance of God in their everyday lives, hearing and seeing Him at work in their own parents’ lives is important.
We do this in different ways. When we had little kids, my husband and I would talk about answered prayers for even the little things. Sometimes it would just be saying “Thank you, Jesus” out loud when we found a close parking spot on a frigid winter day.
This continued to evolve as our kids grew. We talk with them about making good decisions and ways we have relied on God for His guidance.
One of the best ways to share about God’s love with others is telling them our own stories. This applies to our children as well. They can see the testimony of God at work in our lives, but they also need to hear about it.
3. Make family worship a priority.
“Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.”
Proverbs 22:6 (ESV)
This Bible verse is certainly a familiar one for most Christian families. We love this promise God proclaims over our children’s lives.
But we also have to do our part. And that means showing them time with God is priority.
While it may not seem like a big deal, taking your children to church regularly is important for their spiritual growth. There may be phases where that’s harder to do than others.
The newborn phase is challenging and was with both of my children. When you have small children, getting everyone up, ready and out the door is definitely difficult. Keeping everyone healthy is another challenge.
We had so many viruses and germs go through our household when my oldest started preschool!
Yet we persisted. And now both of our children know that Sunday morning means church. In fact, sometimes we have had to miss church in person for one of us being sick, and my daughter usually pleads to go in person if at all possible. Even just watching the livestream of the service isn’t enough for her.
4. Pray for your children.
“Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.”
Romans 12:12 (NIV)
One of the hard things about parenting is we can struggle to see our progress. During those early years when we are trying to keep our heads above water and find ways to somehow build Christ-centered homes in the chaos, we can get discouraged.
However, the Bible tell us to have hope in God, be patient during hard times and never stop praying. Praying for our children is so important.
We need to pray for our children’s hearts to be open and receptive to God. We should pray for protection over them in every way: mentally, spiritually, emotionally and physically.
The Holy Spirit is ever at work in our lives and the lives of our children. Through prayer, we can tap into that power and strength — both of which are desperately needed.
While most of my prayers for my children are on my own, I do also pray in front of them for them. For example, one of the practical ways we have combatted bedtime fears is with prayer asking God to help.
I share with my children that’s exactly what I do when I’m struggling with being afraid and need to sleep. Especially when they were younger, I’d ask if they wanted me to pray out loud for them, and usually they would say yes.
I also pray over each of my children on their birthdays. It’s become one of our birthday traditions, in fact.
Check out these 14 powerful prayers to pray for your school children.
5. Encourage your children to find the plan God has for their lives.
“‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.'”
Jeremiah 29:11
Part of good parenting is recognizing our children are unique from us. They each have their own purposes and God has a plan for each child’s life.
From the time I found out I was pregnant, I wondered about the children God was blessing me with. What would they like? What would they want to do?
Now as the mom of an 11-year-old and 15-year-old, I can tell you that I was right about some things and wrong about others. One very obvious way I was wrong was I expected my daughter to have my dark eyes and hair since they are dominant traits. Instead, she has light eyes and red hair.
Yet, the differences in how we look aren’t the only things different about us. She has her own unique gifts and calling from God on her life, just as my son does.
My husband and I have worked to be supportive of their dreams and hopes from the time they were younger children. We don’t know exactly what occupation they’ll each have, but we have encouraged them each step of the way to seek God first and follow His leading.
I know following Christ Jesus will bring them joy and contentment more than anything else in this world. I also know their purpose and His plan for them may surprise me.
The biggest influence I can have in the matter is encouraging them to seek God, have a good relationship with Him and hold strong to their faith as they make major life decisions.
6. Pray for yourself as a parent.
“If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.”
James 1:5 (NIV)
I am a smart person. Way back in the day, in fact, I earned a full academic scholarship to college. But being smart and being wise are two different things.
Wisdom comes with experience. And, boy, parenting takes a lot of wisdom! I don’t have nearly enough of it on my own. Daily I pray God gives me the wisdom and strength to be the mom my children need.
I cannot do it on my own. If I think about the Fruit of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control), I know those are all characteristics I want to display and live out. But I also know, as the Apostle Paul tells us in those Bible verses from Galatians 5:22-23, that I cannot do so on my own.
To do the good work of raising a Godly child, we must seek God’s wisdom, strength and general help in parenting.
Don’t forget in-the-moment prayers as well. Many times we’ve been in the middle of a discussion or challenge with our kids and I simply pray silently, “God, help us” or “God, give us wisdom.” I pray for both my husband and myself that way.
Find inspiration with these prayers:
- 7 Prayers for overwhelmed moms needing peace and strength
- 8 Prayers for joy for moms based on the Bible
- 7 Short prayers for mothers
7. Let your children see you make mistakes.
“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”
Romans 3:23 (NIV)
Past generations of parents held to the opinion they were never wrong and admitting mistakes to their children made them seem weak. I just don’t think that’s a good parenting philosophy.
Just as we need to teach our children how to live, we need to teach them how to make mistakes and fail. One of the best ways we can do that is by letting them see our own mistakes.
The last thing I want is for my kids to think they need to live perfect lives and not mess up. That’s not reasonable and goes completely against human nature and who God says we are.
Instead, I want them to know they will make mistakes, but not only will they have the unconditional love of their dad and me, they’ll also have the unconditional love of their Heavenly Father.
We’ve also talked about how if we were all perfect, Jesus wouldn’t have needed to come and die for our sins. Apologizing to your kids when you mess up is a good thing. It shows them nobody is perfect and how to behave when they do mess up.
One of the principles in our family is the kids will be in bigger trouble for lying to us than for owning up to what they did. Allowing them to see us owning up to mistakes helps them realize it isn’t the end of the world to do so.
8. Encourage open conversations about faith in your family.
“Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.”
Hebrews 11:1 (NIV)
Young people of all ages have questions. Little children want to know a lot of things that are kind of random, like how Noah fit all the animals on the ark or what kind of fish was used when Jesus fed the 5,000.
Older children have deeper questions of faith, like how do we know God is real or why does God let bad things happen.
These are all valid questions and something you can explore together. Because here’s the thing I know for sure about God after my decades of serving Him: He can stand up to any and all questions. If He couldn’t, then He wouldn’t be a God worth serving!
Let your children ask questions, and don’t be afraid to admit you don’t know the answer. Look it up together. Talk to your pastor or other spiritual leader.
Or, in the case of answers nobody knows, talk about your different theories and how some information we won’t know until we get to heaven. Bring the focus always back to what matters most in faith of knowing God loves us, wants a personal relationship with us, sent His Son to die for our sins before raising Him from the dead.
9. Connect them with other Christians to pour into them as well.
“In everything set them an example by doing what is good. In your teaching show integrity, seriousness and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned, so that those who oppose you may be ashamed because they have nothing bad to say about us.”
Titus 2:7-8 (NIV)
We don’t want to only keep our children people who are a bad influence, we also want to connect them with people who are a good influence. Often, our kids will listen to someone else more than us as their parents.
Help your kiddos get connected to other Christian adults who can teach them about God and love on them as well. This includes extended family members, friends and church family.
Taking them to Sunday School or other such offerings as young children is a great place to start. Then finding a good youth group and ministry to connect them with as they are older is important.
10. Pray and study with your children.
“For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”
Matthew 18:20 (NIV)
Some of the best Christian parenting advice is to pray and study with your children. When we read this Bible verse from Matthew that where two or three are gathered, God is there also, we don’t always think about it applying in our families, but it does!
Make prayer time and devotional or Bible study time a priority. One of the ways we helped our children learn how to pray for others when they were young was by using prayer envelopes they would draw from each night.
We’d talk about different ways we could pray for people from thanking God for them, asking God to bless them, asking God to protect them and so one when we didn’t know a specific request.
Now they are older and we still have family prayer time. Getting into the Bible together is also important. Even just having a Bible verse each week, doing a devotional together once (or more!) a week or whatever works best for your family.
(Grab the free “Finding Grace at Home: 7 Days of 5-Minute Devotions!”)
Another practical way to make this happen is discussing church sermons or lessons afterward. We have had some amazing time of connection and growth just by doing that.
Bonus tip: Grow in your own spiritual walk with God
In order to be the mama God created you to be and your children need you to be, you also have to take care of your own spiritual walk. Make prayer and Bible study part of your regular routine.
Another component of spiritual growth is connecting with other believers. Consider joining my free, private Facebook group, Christian Moms with Grace, for daily discussions about life and faith.
And take advantage of this free Bible study just for moms, “Grace-filled Stress Relief.”
God never intended for you to be on this journey alone!
