The bible..
Out of context: Reply #444
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- gramme0
When (or if you already have) have children will they just automatically become christians, or will they be given the chance to decide on their own which faith to follow or whether they want to follow any faith at all.
czawada
(Oct 16 07, 11:31)I will bring my kids with me to church, as does every Christian parent in the world. I will teach them about the faith, about Scripture, about prayer. I will pray with them, love them and disclipine them according to principles found in the Bible. When they are old enough to think for themselves and make intelligent decisions (this varies from one child to the next, but it tends to happen in the mid to late teenage years), I will then let them decide for themselves if they want to be involved in our church or any church. Any younger than that, and they won't know what's good for them. Any younger than that, and I would be an irresponsible parent to neglect their spiritual upbringing. Most teenagers still don't know what's good for them, but at least they are starting to think for themselves. So at that point I would stop enforcing church attendance.
I will never make my kids get involved with extra-curricular church activities like youth group, choir, Bible study etc. unless they want to. I will strongly encourage them to be involved and hopefully model for them what it looks like to be a functioning member of the body of Christ.
If my kids grow up, get to a certain age, and don't share my beliefs, they will be welcome to live with us as long as they want. They can go to church, any church, or not, provided that they toe the line while living under my roof (i.e. respect my wife and myself, avoid the abuse of alcohol/drugs, don't have premarital sex under my roof, etc. etc.). Basically just respect our rules, which is what any parent asks of their children, Christian or not.
Ultimately, we should each raise our children up in the way we believe they should go, but you can't ultimately force someone to believe anything. I hope to raise kids who know Christ as I do, but I also want them to be able to think and reason for themselves. I have no interest in raising robots or caged animals.
Does that answer your question?