Sobering Statistics

Do you have a plan for passing on your faith to your children?

God always has had a wonderful plan for passing on faith down through the generations. Believe it or not, God has the plan for our SUCCESS as a husbands, as wives, children, but most of all, as parents.

A national survey of 1,200 adults with children under 18 at home was conducted by LifeWay Research. And what they found out is that most parents hope their children grow up to live good lives. But for many of these, successful parenting does not include faith in God – even among parents who are evangelical Christians" (Mark Kelly, LifeWay Research Looks at Role of Faith in Parenting).

The study found the most common definitions of successful parenting include:

• Children having good values (25 percent),
• Children being happy adults (25 percent),
• Children finding success in life (22 percent),
• Child being a good person (19 percent),
• Children graduating from college (17 percent), and
• Children living independently (15 percent).

Being godly or having faith in God is mentioned by only 9 percent of respondents. When asked if they have a plan or goal for what they want to accomplish as parents, a full 33 percent say they have no plan or goal at all.

Only 14 percent of all parents (that's only 168 parents out of 1,200) say they feel they are very familiar with what the Bible has to say about parenting, even though 77 percent identify themselves as Christians.

This study may point to why many young adults are spiritually underdeveloped today and are mostly missing from churches today. It’s because their parents have given little focus to matters of faith.

God's Plan

God’s foremost plan for every Christian and every parent is found in Deuteronomy 6:4-9 saying:

“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one! 5You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. 6“And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. 7You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. 8You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates(NIV).


Tomorrow: God's Plan for Discipling Children

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