Are you a Christian parent wondering how to raise your kids in a godly way? Does it feel like a bit of a mystery to know how to lead your child to Christ?
If you’ve been there before, welcome! This post is written with you in mind.
This post is all about how to raise kids who become Christians. Let’s dive in!
Do you need a resource to use to teach your kids the Bible? Download the NEW Attributes of God 30-Day Family Devotional!
How to Raise Christian Kids
Before I discuss how to raise Christian kids, I’ve got a few disclaimers.
First, the tips I’m going to give you are not a guarantee.
I’m sure you’re already thinking of people you know personally who were raised by Christian parents but aren’t Christians themselves.
From the very beginning, God gave humans free will to choose Him or not, and it’s no different for our children today.
So why even dive into this topic and attempt to make a plan for how we will raise Christian kids?
Because like anything else, we have a better chance of making something happen if we are intentional about it!
Second, I’m defining “Christian kids” as children who commit themselves to following Jesus and continue to follow Jesus as they grow up.
These tips are not for the parent whose aim is to raise moral kids or kids who are especially obedient.
Third, these steps are based on my personal observations of families where the parents are strong Christians and the kids have become strong Christians.
I’ve used these steps in my own Christian parenting, and both of my kids are committed to following Jesus. Because my kids are still relatively young – 8 and 10 – I’m still actively using these steps in my own life and seeing God work in my family through them.
Alright, now that the disclaimers are out of the way, let’s get to the steps to raising Christian kids!
The very first step to raising Christian kids is to be a growing Christian yourself.
You’ve got to grow your faith.
It’s really hard to raise your kids to be something that you aren’t, whether that’s a Christian or a die-hard fan of football.
Kids catch on really fast when we try to tell them to be something that we aren’t or to act in a way they know we wouldn’t act.
So take a second here and ask yourself if you are growing in your own faith in Jesus. Do you practice any spiritual disciplines like Bible study, prayer, worship, and so on, that are helping you grow in your knowledge of God and in your obedience to God?
If you want your kids to embrace Jesus, you’ve got to embrace Jesus first.
If you thought about it and you realized you’re not growing in your own faith, I’m so glad you realized that today! The first thing you should focus on is this very first step. The rest of the list will still be helpful, but this will be your area to focus on right now.
If you’re already growing in your faith, awesome! You’re ready for the next steps right away.
The second step to raising Christian kids is to talk about your faith.
I like to call this practice using your spiritual conversation muscles. I purposely use the word “muscles” because I want us all to think of this as a skill that can be exercised and grown in the same way we exercise and grow muscles in our bodies. This is something that might feel awkward right now … but it doesn’t have to feel that way forever!
Before we go into more on this step, I’m actually going to give you permission to cut yourself some slack.
In our culture, we are actively discouraged from talking about our spiritual beliefs. It’s just one of those topics that we are told has a high potential for creating conflict. We’re told to keep our thoughts on spiritual matters to ourselves!
Even in church, we’re taught that our faith in Jesus is personal – and that’s not wrong. Every true follower of Jesus has a personal relationship with Jesus. And every story of becoming a Christian involves someone’s personal choice to follow Jesus.
But we make a mistake if we take the word “personal” and equate it with the word “private.”
Faith in Jesus was never meant to be a big secret that we never discuss with anyone else.
Romans 10:9 says that if we openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in our hearts that God raised Him from the dead, we will be saved.
That hardly sounds like a faith that we keep secret.
When we read about Paul’s conversion in the book of Acts, we see that once he got his sight back he immediately was baptized and immediately began preaching that Jesus was truly God’s son. Paul … who previously was spending all his time persecuting Christians and had all his earthly status to lose by changing his tune … he immediately makes a public profession of faith and begins talking publicly about how Jesus is really the Messiah.
The disciples most certainly had personal faith – they were in-person friends with Jesus. And they carried out the mission of sharing the gospel. They talked about Jesus, they didn’t just keep it to themselves.
There are more examples, but you get the point! Being able to talk about your faith with others is a big part of being a Christian, and it’s also a big part of raising Christian kids.
This might be the step you need to focus on the most, and if that’s you, I encourage you to begin practicing talking about your faith with someone today.
It doesn’t have to be a full gospel presentation. It could be asking a friend how you can pray for them or sharing a Bible verse with someone to encourage them. As you practice talking about your faith, it will become more natural for you.
The third step is to teach your kids the Bible.
This is where the rubber meets the road. If we want to raise kids who become Christians, we have to talk to our kids about what the Bible teaches.
I want you to think about all the things you have to teach your kids.
You have to teach them how to eat. When to sleep. How to brush their teeth. How to wash their bodies. How to clean up after themselves. The list goes on and on. Skills build upon skills. And it all gets more complex as your kids mature!
Do you think it would be possible to teach all these things to your kids without talking to them?
I want you to really think about that. Do you think you could teach your kids any of the very essential life skills they need without communicating directly about those skills?
What about things that aren’t necessarily skills but are just important to you? Is there a sports team you follow or a hobby you love or a way of being that you value? Chances are high that you’ve spoken real, out-loud words to your kids about those things.
Do you think it would be likely for your child to take an interest in your interests if you never spoke about them?
See, this is the approach many of us take when it comes to spiritual matters. We give direct instruction about most skills our kids need to learn and about knowledge we think they need, but when it comes to spiritual things, we trust that they will just get it when they get it, and we often leave teaching our kids about the Bible up to others!
But it shouldn’t be this way. Just being a good example in your home with no communication about what you believe, why you believe it, or how God is at work in your life is not enough if your goal is to raise Christian kids.
Here are some really practical ways you can talk to your kids about the Bible every day:
- You can talk to them about what you learned in your Bible study that day.
- You can use a devotional book that gives you a verse to read and some thoughts to read and talk about.
- You can use online Bible studies. We have a completely free Quick Start Guide to Family Bible Time on our website, and it includes a free 10-day devotional you can use with your kids. It gives you a verse to read and simple discussion questions broken down by age range that you can use to have a short conversation about a Bible verse each day. That’s on FaithTalksDaily.com if you want to check it out, and I know you can find other options online as well.
The bottom line is that if you want to be intentional about raising kids who follow Jesus, your kids need to know about Jesus. And the Bible is where they will learn about Him.
The fourth step is to rinse and repeat.
You can just repeat these steps from now on – grow your faith, talk about your faith, teach your kids the Bible – and you’ll be on the best path to raising Christian kids.
Again, it’s not a guarantee … we all know that.
What these steps are is an intentional way to approach raising kids who we hope will one day commit to following Jesus.
Take Action to Raise Christian Kids
As I wrap up, I’m going to give you an action step you can take today to get started on raising kids who become Christians.
Here it is: Tell me what step from this post you need to focus on.
- Find me on Instagram and send me a DM to tell me what step from this post you need to focus on.
- Leave a comment on this post
I would love to encourage you and pray for you specifically!
Quick Links
Connect with Faith Talks Daily
- NEW RELEASE: Attributes of God 30-Day Family Devotional: https://faithtalksdaily.com/attributes-of-god/
- For the free Quick Start Guide to Family Bible Time: www.faithtalksdaily.com
- www.instagram.com/faithtalksdaily
- www.facebook.com/faithtalksdaily
Do you need a resource to use to teach your kids the Bible? Download the NEW Attributes of God 30-Day Family Devotional!