So, it may
be hard to believe, but the unofficial end of summer is here. Football games, cheerleading, and band
practices have already been going for weeks, other sports will also be starting
soon if they haven’t already, and you all know what that means don’t you? The schools are full of students once
again. Exciting isn’t it? O.K. I don’t figure too many students are
nodding in agreement with that comment, but it wouldn’t surprise me if several
parents are. Don’t worry parents; your
secret is safe with me.
Anyways,
since we are on the “Back to School” theme, I thought I would give you a couple
of “basic” math problems and see if you can figure them out. And then we will explore their significance
in just a little bit. The first one is
“1 divided by 8” the second one is “1
divided by 20” Now before reading the
rest of this, if you haven’t figured out those equations, quick, run, get a calculator
and do those a minute...
… O.K. have
them figured out? All right, let’s
explore them a little bit. First, “1
divided by 8”
The correct
answer to that question is “.125” Now if we are to figure that into percentage,
that equals out to be 12.5% Now what is so important about the idea of 12
percent? Well, I’ll tell you. In a study done by the “Search Institute” (a research institute) that was
commissioned by Fuller Theological Seminary; 11,000 teenagers from 561 church
congregations across 6 denominations found that roughly 12 percent of youth
have a regular dialogue with their moms about faith/life issues. 12 Percent!!! But that isn’t all, remember, I
had two math questions. By now you have
probably figured out where I am going with this, but just in case, I’ll address
it anyways. So if you thought that 12
percent was a rough figure, 1 in 20 equals only 5%. Yup that’s right, the conversations with moms
about Faith and Life were 12 percent, the conversations with dads about Faith
and Life is only 5 Percent!!! If you ask
me, that is a very depressing statistic.
So what do
we do about that little piece of information?
We work on improving it and there are a few different ways on how we can
do that. Lets quickly look at a couple.
First:
Most parents miss out on the opportunity to talk about faith with their
kids.
On a nationwide telephone survey of over 3,000
kids and their parents as well as 267 in depth interviews, Sociologist Dr.
Christian Smith from the Univ. of Notre Dame concluded “Most teenagers and their parents may not realize it but… research
suggests that the most important social influence in shaping young people’s
religious lives is the religious life modeled and taught to them by their
parents.” He goes on to say it even more simply in an interview “When it comes to kids’ faith, parents get
what they are.” Have you ever really thought about
that one? What kind of Christian Faith
are you modeling to your students? Are
they seeing the importance that your Faith has on your life? Does it really have importance on your life?
Second:
The best discussion about faith happen when parents don’t just ask
question, but also share their own experiences.
Now I don’t
mean to step on any toes here, but if I do, well, it is a risk I am willing to
take, but I am talking about the “basic questions” of “What did you talk about
in Church today?” or “How was Youth Group” and my personal favorite, “What did
you think of the sermon?” (And we all know usually the answers are
shrugs, grunts, “mehs” and “I don’t knows”)
While asking these questions can occasionally pay off, research shows
that in order for really getting a Faith to stick is when parents share their
own faith. Don’t just “interview” your
kids, but discuss your faith journey, both the ups and the downs. What better way for a kid to seek and
discover the value of faith in their own life when they see how it can impact
lives of those closest to them?
Some of you
may be reading this and wondering, Brent, are you writing this only for parents? Nope, it is for everyone. For the youth who may (and even for the ones who aren’t) if this is something that is hard for your parents to do, take the
initiative, ask them questions about how they might have handled situations
that you might be currently struggling.
And for all the rest of the adults, remember, (I’ve talked about this before) the promise you made during each
students baptism. To help the parents in
whatever ways you can, in raising the child in a Godly and Christian manner
through both prayer, and encouragement.
So are you
as excited for upcoming Education year as I am?
I hope so; let’s make it a great one.
Remember, we are all in this together.
Blessings
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