Faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.

As a children’s minister, I am often asked by families how to make faith a way of life. Most importantly, we must first clarify what biblical faith is. Hebrews 11:1 expresses faith this way:

“Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.”

The author of Hebrews is telling us that faith is believing even when you cannot see. Faith is not something you have only when you already know the end results. Faith is believing and trusting that God is good, even in the unknown.

So how do we begin to cover what faith looks like as a family, much less make it an everyday practice? Modeling faith for your family sounds easy. Go to church. Read the bible. Pray together. All of these are good, great even, but it is in the everyday moments of the unknown that you can model faith the best for your family. In those moments, your children can see what faith looks like. As parents, you are the most influential person in your child’s life. Proverbs 22:6 says,

“Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old, they will not turn from it.”

As children grow, they become more aware. They can read between the lines and notice the look of worry on their parents’ faces. Faith does not mean that worry, fear, and anxiety do not exist. Faith does not mean that you have all the answers. Faith is showing up in moments of doubt and uncertainty and having real, vulnerable conversations with your kids. They do not want to be told we believe because we have to. They want to see faith modeled in your life before they will ever want to model it in theirs.

Ultimately, we can model faith for our kids, but we can never be the one who makes that lifelong decision for them. We can pray for and with them. We can love and guide them. We can even help them prioritize church over sports and other idols in our lives. Most importantly, we must display faith in our everyday lives by trusting the One whose plans are far better than our own.

We must be ready to have hard and honest conversations with our kids. Because if we do not, the world will.

Madison Cody is the Children’s Minister at Istrouma Baptist Church – Ascension Campus