Passing on the Faith is Experiential Not Transactional

Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. (Deut.6:4-8)

'Passing on the faith' has to do with teaching Gods commandments to the next generation. That's the WHAT. Thankfully, God also gave us the HOW.

We need to be careful not to treat it as a checklist of information we need to 'serve' to our children. In todays culture, we're used to giving/receiving information, services or products, in the form of transactions. We drive up to Starbucks, place an order, pay for that order, and receive that order. Done. Move on. We log on to Google, type in a request, receive the information, and move on. DANGER in this method: We'll segregate our time into buckets of activities that are 'Christian/holy/faith-based, etc.' and buckets that are 'secular/non-faith-based.' To the Christian, everything we do must be done with a clear conscious and with full dependence on God.
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Teaching our children and the next generation about God and His marvelous works must be a lifestyle. Speak His Word, sing it, live it, listen to it, act it out (for the younger children), ask questions about it, study it, write it, record it, share it etc., as you go about your daily life. When you wake, when you sleep. When you travel, when you're at home. That's what God tells us in Deuteronomy 6. And, not that you need a reminder but...God knows best! BENEFIT of this method: We will develop a holy habit of putting God at the center of everything - faith, family, career, and so on.

Note: This lifestyle method is not about making Him the Lord of your life. That's an overused and misused Christianese phrase. He already IS the LORD! Whether you 'make Him Lord' or not, does not diminish His power or authority. It will, however, diminish yours.

Keep the Fire Burning,
Danny