“Unless Yahweh builds the house, they labor in vain who build it.” Psalm 127:1
One day, leaving a Godly legacy will be on the forefront of your mind. That day may not be this day. When that day comes, I hope this is helpful.
Here’s a list of things that the wife and I do regularly to pass our faith and values on to the children given us by God. Basically, we’re throwing a whole bunch of things at the wall to see what will stick.
- We believe the Lord Jesus died for our sins and that He gives eternal life to those who trust in His finished work on the cross. Without faith, the rest of this list is rubbish.
- We do family worship as often as we are home in the evening. This habit is so easy to create when the kids are young. Like most things in life, starting early helps a ton. Once the habit is formed, just keep it. For more on Family Worship, see Joel Beeke’s book. It is fantastic.
- We go to church as often as the doors are open. Also, we participate in the groups throughout the week as a family.
- We keep the Sabbath. The kids know I’m not working that day, and I give them a day off of their chores. We usually find time to walk in the afternoons when it’s nice out. It’s a restful and wonderful day as a family.
- We include the kids in our serving responsibilities. When I set up for the Sunday service (one of the things I do), the kids come and help. When we host people at the house, they help then too. When our neighbor needed help after she broke her wrist, the kids did most of the “help”.
- We live in the same city as our parents. We are here to honor them. We are here since they don’t know Jesus. If we model for our children what it looks like to honor our parents, they will see that and it will become normal to them.
- We homeschool the children. I wouldn’t be opposed to a classical Christian brick-and-mortar school for them, but that isn’t where the Lord currently has us. As I was thinking about it, providing the education for the kids from the home gives us common ground with them as they age. There’s always something to talk about since they are always learning something new.
I teach them as well! I am their music teacher (classical music, not how to play music), and I’ve taught them science this past year. The wife does most of the work here though. - I take a child to breakfast every week. There are three children, so I rotate through them every Wednesday. They have five dollars to spend at the local grocery store. Once they pick something out, we sit and they enjoy their choice. I always take a picture of them with their breakfast. Thanks to C.R. Wiley for this idea.
- I write handwritten notes to each member of the family every month. Four family members, four weeks per month. It’s perfect! I find something to encourage them with, something to challenge them with, or a story I want to tell. I keep them all in their own notebook. I keep scans too, just in case.
- We “fill the house with stacks of books in all the crannies and all the nooks.” That’s a Dr. Seuss line. People of the book (another name for Christians) should love reading. So, we’re raising the kids to love reading. The wife and I are always reading something out loud to the kids or reading something ourselves.
- I built a treehouse (more on that in a future post). Mainly, this was a way to make memories as a family. Lord willing, they will have a lot of time up in the treehouse with their siblings.
- We keep chickens, do our own yardwork, and all our own housework. If it’s true that strong men make good times and good times make weak men, we can’t make life too easy on our kids. They need adversity. I’m hoping that hard work for the cause of the family will provide some of that adversity.
- We eat dinner together as a family every night. The screens are off (as per usual), and we find some things to talk about. Usually, it’s about how the day went. I’ve been trying to work in more about my job; something interesting that happened that day for me. They need the reminder that I am in fact doing something in the basement while they are upstairs.
- We make a record of what we are thankful for every week. This is my favorite idea I’ve ever had. Every Saturday, we go around and share what each of us is thankful for. I then write it down in a notebook. So simple, I know. Well, after we did that for a year, then we could go back to past years (we’re in year three now) to hear what we were thankful for on the same day in years past. I keep scans of this as well.
- We are intentional about our leisure time. If leisure is the basis of culture (Josef Pieper), then pursuing things of lasting value that have stood the test of time should be a priority. Some subjects are worth pursuing for their own sake (theology, mathematics, poetry, music, art, etc). Without these “finer things”, we’re missing out on valuable personal formation of the next generation.
There are probably more, but this is a start. Feel free to comment below to include things your family does that I didn’t write down!
