The Power of Christian Values: Building Our Children a Strong Foundation

We know as parents that one of our greatest responsibilities is teaching values to our children.

As Christians, we take that a step further and take our faith-based values into consideration as well.

Today we're going to talk about the undeniable power of Christian values in the role of building our children a strong foundation.

Well first, let's get on the same page about the importance of a foundation. 

An entire multi-million dollar mansion built upon a shaky, crumbling, weak foundation - is only worth as much as the foundation. 

When push comes to shove, the house itself cannot withstand the test of time or face battles with the elements without a strong foundation supporting its structure. 

If the foundation succumbs to the pressure, so does the entire house standing on top of it. Regardless of how fancy, valuable, or strong the house itself was. 

For comparison's sake, let's say the way we are raised is our foundation. And the house built on top is our adult lives. 

I'm not saying there's no hope for those of us with rougher childhoods, but it's a lengthy, expensive, challenging process to repair the foundation once the house is already built on top. 

The point is that we all still have our children's foundation in front of us. 

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God is the foreman, and we are the construction workers. (You'll have to forgive me if I'm getting this wrong. I don't actually know anything about construction. But I do know about raising kids with values. So stay with me.)

He lays out the plan, gives us the materials, and leads us in our job. We do the work. Technically we make the final day-to-day decision whether we do it well, to his standards, or take the easy route and build a shaky foundation. 

 We get to lay the groundwork for their spiritual growth and help them develop a strong foundation that will guide them throughout their lives.

Our Christian values are so powerful in this task.

What makes them so powerful? 

• Christian values are the guiding force in the roots we give our children. They are all the ways that we live in attempt to be more like Jesus. 
  • Love
  • Compassion
  • Forgiveness
  • Honesty
  • Integrity
• These values shape our children's character (for life), their future decisions, and the impact they have on others.

1 Timothy 4:12 tells us to set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, and in purity. 

Philippians 4:8 "Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things."

Personal Responsibility- Are we living right?

Our children's foundation is built more from what they see us do and what they hear us say than it ever will be from anything else. I'll say this time and time again. "Do what I say, not what I do" will never be an effective parenting strategy. You have to walk the walk. 

Every day, ask yourselves if your words, actions, and attitudes reflected the love, grace and humility of Christ. If not, reflect briefly on what could've been done better. Make adjustments as needed. None of us are perfect, and we should not beat ourselves up for our shortcomings. However, we can and should use these values as our direction and guidance, and constantly seek to be the best version of ourselves that we can be. Because this will have a lifelong impact on our children's foundation.

How can we use scripture to help us? 

In my latest podcast episode on The Christian Career Mom, I compared scripture to a compass. I won't use another analogy on yall in this post, but it was a pretty good one. So you can listen to that here if you want: Biblical Principles for a Peaceful Home.

Scripture has all of the wisdom and guidance we could ever need, but we do need to be consistent in utilizing it and exposing our children to it, in engaging ways that they find relevant to their lives so that it sticks. 

Are we creating teachable moments?

Every single day presents opportunities to teach Christian values to our children. It may be a conflict between siblings, an opportunity to show kindness to others, practicing forgiveness... And so on. These opportunities are all chances that we can and should be using to demonstrate these values and to reinforce the relevance of scripture on their daily lives. 

There is so much power in Christian values, and this is just the tip of the iceberg.

It's up to us to build that strong, unshakeable foundation that our children's futures will rest upon. The one that will help them weather the storms that come throughout the rest of their lives. 

^ That is how powerful Christian values are. 

The process requires intentionality, patience, prayer, and personal relationship with God. 

We are to lead by example, teach through Scripture, and create teachable moments to the best of our abilities in order to most effectively build our children a strong foundation. 

You got this! 

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With love,

Katy