As a mom I have to teach my girls a long list of things: manners, how to share, how to eat, how to dress themselves, how to count, how to spell, how to ride a bike, how to skip, and the list goes on and on. However, I think the number one thing I need to teach my children is faith. I believe it is our responsibility as parents to expose our children to faith, teach them how to live and be faithful, and then hope that one day they will continue with their journey.
Since it is Lent right now and my mind is extra focused on faith I thought I would share how I'm trying to teach my girls about Christ. This is a really difficult task because I am still growing in my own faith so to be responsible for faith in my children is a major responsibility. First and foremost we had our girls baptized when they were a few months old. We also attend mass every weekend with a few exceptions. It's such a challenge taking young children to church especially when we had two but just like everything else church took practice for Emily. After what seemed like forever she started to behave during mass and stay quiet. Quite the task for Miss Emily Grace.
We also say morning prayers together which usually takes place in the car on our way to wherever. We say grace before meals and to be totally honest this usually only happens before dinner. As a family we say our night prayers right before Emily goes to bed. We always end with, "Thank you Jesus for..." Emily finishes the sentence with whatever she is thankful for that day.
During advent we light an Advent Wreath together as a family and read a passage from the Bible. During Lent we say a decade of the rosary everyday and this Lent I'm watching #shareJesus videos which I try to get Emily to watch with me too.
As with anything in life the greatest way to teach something is to model it and walk the walk. I went to Catholic School until fourth grade, went to church every week, and had great teachings at home but my greatest role model was my grandmother. She was an extremely disciplined and faithful woman. Not only was she extremely involved with her church, she devoted much of her life to her faith. She had a prayer room in her house where she spent many hours. I would watch her and pray with her and I learned thru action the importance of faith.
I hope that I can be a role model for my children as well, just like my grandma and mom were when I was growing up.
I would love to hear ideas on how to pass on faith. What do you do?
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