10 Contagious Ways to Teach Your Kids Faith

There are many different ways to go about teaching your children faith. While you can try and convince your children that a life with God is more fulfilling, I believe it’s always more effective to lead by example. My wife Tammie and I strive to teach our children faith by living out our faith in front of them and admitting and apologizing when we fail to do that.

It’s not always easy, but when faith forms the framework for the family, and parents genuinely strive to live out their faith and are willing to admit and repent when they fail to do so, then faith is—not so much taught—as caught by children.

Faith is so contagious that faith caught by a child can inspire a parent to even greater faith.

Here are 10 steps for helping your kids catch your faith.

Get Real for the Right Reasons about Faith

Children can spot fake faith. Children can sense when someone is trying to manipulate or sell them on believing something. They may take the deal, but as soon as they don't get what they expected for what they gave, they become disgruntled. It is a fear-based give-to-get trap.

If a child feels a parent values how religious they appear to others more than they value the child or they are most concerned about the child reflecting poorly on the parent, the child is a likely candidate to rebel against faith. Likewise, a child can recognize truth and a parent’s sincere concern for the child’s best interest with regard to their feelings. That realization, for the child, helps them feel loved and elicits their trust of the parent.

Help Them Give Faith Action

Teach bold faith. One day we pulled into a drive-through to receive the worst fast-food service ever. I was prepared to give our waitress an angry piece of my mind, but my kids lived out the faith they had caught, and reminded me how I had taught them to live faith out.

At my oldest daughter Faith’s insistence, I gave the waitress a Shields of Strength dog tag necklace with words of courage from Joshua 1:9. When she read it, instantly the tears starting flowing. She had been having a rough couple of months. As we drove away, I could see her in the side-view mirror. Even though she was crying, she was smiling from ear-to-ear and waving to us with all her might.

Then I realized my kids just saw, right in front of their eyes, faith in action and the fruit of love unfold. When our children see others’ real and raw emotions, they experience faith in action and its amazing results.