{"id":10043,"date":"2025-12-03T14:52:37","date_gmt":"2025-12-03T14:52:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/strongermarriages\/?p=10043"},"modified":"2025-12-03T14:52:37","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T14:52:37","slug":"melissa-joan-hart-puts-faith-and-family-first-jesus-is-the-reason-for-the-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/strongermarriages\/2025\/12\/melissa-joan-hart-puts-faith-and-family-first-jesus-is-the-reason-for-the-season.html","title":{"rendered":"Melissa Joan Hart Puts Faith and Family First: ‘Jesus is the Reason For the Season’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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@melissajoanhart \/ Instagram<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Melissa Joan Hart has built a career that’s spanned decades \u2014 from her breakout role on Clarissa Explains It All<\/em> to her turn as Sabrina the Teenage Witch.<\/em> But behind the cameras, the actress is most passionate about something far simpler: her faith, her family, and living out her values in everyday life.<\/p>\n

“Faith is the center of our family, of my marriage,” Hart told Fox News Digital<\/em> in a recent interview. “We love going to church every Sunday as a family. I love my Sunday school class, where we have fellowship. And I love going to women’s Bible study on Wednesdays.”<\/p>\n

For Hart, faith isn’t something that stays in church on Sunday mornings. It shapes how she and her husband, musician Mark Wilkerson, raise their three sons \u2014 Mason, Braydon, and Tucker \u2014 and how they move through life as a family.<\/p>\n

“My kids have gone to a Christian preschool. And now, in high school, they are going to a Christian high school,” she explained. “My son just decided he was going to get baptized\u2026 They were all baptized as babies because I was raised Catholic. But now we go to a Baptist church, and my middle child decided he wanted to be baptized. And it was just such a special moment.”<\/p>\n

She added that faith also defines their daily rhythms \u2014 even at mealtimes. “We pray over every meal \u2014 whether we’re out at a restaurant or it’s breakfast, dinner, dessert, or even pizza,” she said.<\/p>\n

While Hart is outspoken about her Christian beliefs, she’s quick to clarify that her faith doesn’t restrict the types of acting roles she takes on. “With roles in Hollywood, I don’t really use my faith to choose roles necessarily,” she said. “I’m not going to only choose really good Christian [roles]\u2026 I just feel like it’s important to tell stories \u2014 and it’s important to tell all the stories.”<\/p>\n

Still, she acknowledges that her values influence how she treats others and how she utilizes her platform. “Acting is about getting into the human experience and learning why someone might act or behave differently than you would,” she added.<\/p>\n

Beyond Hollywood, Hart’s life of service has become a defining chapter of her faith journey. Since 2019, she has served as an ambassador for World Vision, a Christian humanitarian organization that works globally to support children and families in poverty. Through the partnership, she and her sons have traveled to Zambia to visit their sponsored “sisters” and witness firsthand how donations support community-driven programs.<\/p>\n

“I love being an ambassador for World Vision because I can really speak to where the money goes \u2014 how these programs work \u2014 and they are truly sustainable and amazing,” Hart said. “They’re so well thought out.”<\/p>\n

Those experiences abroad have also strengthened her belief in the power of prayer. “We learned a lot of that too \u2014 through World Vision, being in Africa and praying with every family before we met them, after we left them, while we were with them,” she reflected. “It’s amazing \u2014 the power of prayer \u2014 and I think my family really sees that.”<\/p>\n

As Christmas approaches, Hart said she’s especially mindful of keeping her family’s focus on Jesus. She loves World Vision’s holiday gift catalog, which allows donors to purchase practical items such as bicycles, medical kits, or clean water for communities in need. For her own family, she also enjoys giving handcrafted gifts that support artisans abroad \u2014 such as a star-shaped ornament made in Kenya, featured in this year’s catalog.<\/p>\n

Back home in Nashville, Hart admits that she’s been more intentional about slowing down during the holidays. “The step back really comes from the chaos,” she said. “The holiday season, we start so early, we do so much, we’re asked to do so much.”<\/p>\n

She added that social media often makes people feel like they have to do Christmas “perfectly.” “I just want to take that pressure off and just make it about the reason for the season, which for our family is Jesus,” Hart said. “This year, I want to hand people gifts. I really want to give gifts that are meaningful.”<\/p>\n

The actress is also spreading holiday cheer with her new Netflix film, A Merry Little Ex-Mas<\/em>, co-starring Alicia Silverstone. It’s a full-circle project \u2014 written by Holly Hester, one of the writers from Sabrina the Teenage Witch<\/em> \u2014 and produced by Hart and her mother.<\/p>\n

“I really am on a mission right now to bring humor back to Christmas movies,” she said. “They’ve gotten a little vanilla and a little safe. I want to bring the humor back to it, and I think this movie is a great place to start.”<\/p>\n

Whether she’s on set, at church, or around the dinner table, Hart makes it clear her guiding light hasn’t changed: faith first, family always.<\/p>\n

“I just want to keep Jesus at the center of everything we do,” she said simply. “That’s what keeps us grounded.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Melissa Joan Hart has built a career that’s spanned decades \u2014 from her breakout role on Clarissa Explains It All to her turn as Sabrina the Teenage Witch. But behind the cameras, the actress is most passionate about something far simpler: her faith, her family, and living out her values in everyday life. “Faith is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":516,"featured_media":10046,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nMelissa Joan Hart Puts Faith and Family First: 'Jesus is the Reason For the Season'<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Melissa Joan Hart shares how faith, family, and service guide her life, marriage, and parenting \u2014 keeping Jesus at the center of it all.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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