Make a Difference in the Other 165 Hours

While taking the children we love to church and teaching them what we believe are things which matter and give us opportunities to impact lives and make a difference, our church - regardless of if they have an effective Children's Ministry, or not - is limited by time. A week has 168 hours - 168. Of these 168 hours, even in the best situation, the children are only at church, at the most, for three of those 168 hours - just three. Yes, our church is able to make a difference in those three hours, but they are greatly limited as they are not able to be with the children we love for the other 165 hours of the week - or anywhere close to those 165 hours. But parents are. And we grandparents have the potential to influence them for many of those 168 hours as well.

So, if our churches really want to be as effective as they possibly are able to be, then yes, they want to be certain the three hours they are with the children we love are hours where they are engaged and no time is wasted. But, we parents and grandparents must address those other 165 hours. We are able to make a significant difference in those other 165 hours - IF we focus upon handing down confident faith to the children we love. 

We must not ignore those other 165 hours of the week. And we must do more than only teach the children we love what the Bible says. Many of them do make professions of faith, but far, far too many of them are turning away from the faith they had as a child when they grow up. We are able to make a difference by focusing upon handing down confident faith, by engaging the children we love in ways which make a difference. We are able to do this this. We must do this.

Josh McDowell says, "Belief is knowing what you believe. Conviction is knowing why you believe it." We must help the children we love develop a confident conviction because they know "why" they believe what they believe. Barna says - "In fact, the percentage of young-adult dropouts has increased from 59 to 64 percent. Nearly two-thirds of U.S. 18–29-year-olds who grew up in church tell Barna they have withdrawn from church involvement as an adult after having been active as a child or teen." If we don't want the children we love to be part of this statistic, we must be ask our church to focus upon engaging them when they are at church for those three hours and we must not lose sight of handing down a confident conviction during the other 165 hours in each week.

So find resources you are able to use to to hand down confident faith and ask your church to focus upon equipping parents and grandparents with these resources. Yes, I know, there are not many such resources, but there are a few. Check our bookstore and you will find the following - 

• Life on the Goldilocks Planet curriculum/book series
• Praying Deeper series
• Cultivate the Faith

And check out Generations Quest at this link for another resource you could use to hand down confident faith.

We parents and grandparents need to to hand down confident faith in our 165 hours each week. It is time we commit to take back the other 165 hours - so no more of the children we love grow up and leave their faith.

#grandmas#handingdownconfidentfaith#itmatterswhatwedo#grandparentingonpurpose