growing up in a christian home essay

The Blessings of Growing Up in a Christian Home

I consider it the greatest privilege, the highest act of God’s providence, that I grew up in a Christian home. I consider it no small responsibility to ensure my children, likewise, are growing up in a home that is distinctly Christian. Then, it is my sincerest desire and confident hope, that my grandchildren will have this same privilege.

What are the benefits belonging to those so blessed? They are, perhaps, too many to list, and only eternity will fully enumerate them. But these few resonate in my heart today.

The privilege of prayer . To be born into a Christian home is to be born into a house of prayer. Before I even existed, my parents prayed for me. From the moment I was conceived, they prayed for me in particular. From the moment I was named, they prayed for me by name. From the moment I was born, they prayed over me, by me, and with me. I have only ever known a life of prayer, for I was born to praying people.

The privilege of Scripture . To be born into a Christian home is to be born into a house ruled by the Book. As soon as I was able to hear, I heard God’s Word. As soon as I was able to see, I saw my parents studying it. As soon as I was able to understand, they began to read it to me. As soon as I was able to memorize, they led me to store it up in my heart. As soon as I was able to read, they taught me the discipline of daily devotion. I have only ever known a life guided by the Book, for I was born to people of the Book.

The privilege of gospel . To be born into a Christian home is to be born into a house declaring the gospel. From my youngest days I was told of the great Savior and assured of my need for him. As soon as I was able to know names, I knew the name of Jesus. As soon as I was able to grasp my need for forgiveness, I was told of the forgiver. As soon as I was enabled to express faith, I expressed my faith in Jesus. I have only ever imagined a life submitted to Jesus, for I was born to people belonging to Jesus.

The privilege of community . To be born into a Christian home is to be born into a community of believers. Most of my earliest memories are of Christian churches and Christian worship, of songs, sermons, and sacraments. Those saints loved me as their own and love me still today. They prayed for me before I was born, they baptized me after I was born, they told me of my need of Jesus and of being reborn. It may not take a village to raise a child, but it certainly takes a church. I have only ever lived in Christian fellowship, for I was born to people committed to Christian fellowship.

The privilege of godliness. To be born into a Christian home is to be born before examples of godliness. I was born to new believers, but to sincere and motivated ones. They knew their task was to not only describe their faith with their words, but also to display it with their lives. Even as I was growing up under their care, they were growing up under God’s care. I saw them put sin to death, I saw them come alive to righteousness, I saw them serve as examples of Christian wisdom and character. I have only ever lived around examples of godliness, for I was born to examples of godliness.

In these ways and so many others, I experienced God’s grace and enjoyed an inestimable privilege. I hope, pray, and trust my children and grandchildren will be able to say the same.

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What is a “Christian Home”?

by Katie | May 23, 2018 | Homemaking

The definition of a Christian home has nothing to do with how it is decorated or where it is located. Find out what does matter here…

The Christian Home And a Child’s Testimony

“I grew up in a Christian home…” is the way many beautiful redemptive testimonies of the Gospel’s transformative power begin. Mine starts this way. But in our recent discussions about homemaking (check it out here! ) we have talked some about what a home is and what it should be but we haven’t yet defined what a Christian home is. What makes a home distinctly “Christian”? Is there something unique about the structure itself? Is it because the home is located in a “Christian nation”? Is it because the neighbors are Christians? Is it because it is decorated a certain way or is in a “good” neighborhood?

Or is it something unseen? Something that lives on in the life of the home and comes out in myriad ways through word and deed?

I believe the answer comes down to two things:

     1. The faith of the caregivers

The reason I can say that I grew up in a Christian home is largely because both of my parents claimed the Gospel as their own and lived with that in view. I saw them reading their Bibles, singing Christian music, attending Bible studies, being actively involved in local churches, and responding to various situations out of their faith. When incredibly difficult times came my parents fell back on God’s mercy and ultimate control in every situation. I watched them do that.

My home growing up was a Christian home because my parents were Christians.

There was nothing special about any of the houses we lived in that set them apart from any other home in our neighborhood but the faith in our home ran deeper than a Bible on a shelf or an occasional church service attended.

No parent is perfect but God can use us in amazing ways to raise children who love and fear God if we take our faith seriously.

If we want our children’s testimonies of faith when they are older to attest to growing up in a “Christian” home, we need to act like Christians today.

If you are confused by what I mean when I say that, check out this post from Desiring God .

Related:The Labor of Loving the Word – How to enjoy reading the Bible

     2. Whether or not that faith is intentionally imparted to children

I know some people who claim the name of Christ but also say “I don’t want to force my ideals on my children.” While I can appreciate the sentiment of not pressuring our children, that is not the same as clearly communicating and teaching the truths of Scripture.

A home is not a “Christian” home unless the caregivers intentionally pass along their knowledge and love for God.

As parents, we cannot produce faith in our children. That is a job only the Holy Spirit can do. BUT we can give plenty of invitations. We can teach and explain the Gospel day in and day out to our children. We love our children well by teaching them about the Author of love – the One Who is love incarnate ( 1 John 4:8 ).

Scripture commands that we teach our children the It’s truths (check out this post for a defense of that). As parents, this is our primary job. Our primary parenting goal should NOT be that our children become star athletes, fantastic academics, or talented musicians. Our primary goal in parenting should be that our children know about Christ from what they hear us teach and what they see us live. They should see us in the Word daily ourselves and they should be walked through the Scriptures by us daily (check out this post for some ideas on how to do that!).

Our children need to see us love the Word of God and serve the God of the Word and they need to be invited into that and taught all along the way.

Related: The 7 Word Prayer that Changed My Life With Littles

Definition of a “Christian Home” 

So what is it that makes a home “Christian”? It is living near a church? Having some Christian signs around the house or a Bible on the shelf?

No, it is none of those things. A distinctly “Christian” home is Christian because the people in charge love and honor Christ with their lives. They seek to live in a way consistent with their faith and when they wander, they are quick to seek forgiveness. A distinctly “Christian” home is also Christian because the people in charge are honored to share their faith with everyone else who inhabits the home whether for a day or many years.

Consider this a privilege friend. God has brought subjects of our evangelism right into the walls of our homes and they watch our every move. We must exalt Christ in our lives and our speech!

Related: 5 Tips for Family Devotions with Young Children

For our family, a regular time of family worship has been so helpful in this! It has allowed us the opportunity to teach our children and to worship alongside them. We are praying it bears fruit for the long term and have heard so many stories about the cumulative effect of this kind of parental faithfulness! It can be hard to sort through though, especially when you have young children. Check out this post for more about what our family has done to make family worship a helpful time in our home even though we have young children! Family Devotions with Young Children – The Whys and Hows >>

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Home » Family QAs » Get Help » Family Q&A » Relationships & Marriage Q&As » Building a Christ-Centered Home

Building a Christ-Centered Home

J oy is characteristic of a truly christian home..

Having said this, it’s important to understand that joy and happiness are not necessarily the same thing. Happiness is a result of what happens to us. Joy has deeper roots. Every marriage and every family will experience trials and hardships of various kinds, but there is no circumstance that can rob us of our joy if we know that the key to our present welfare and future destiny lies in Christ alone.

A Christian home is orderly .

As the apostle Paul says, “God is not the author of confusion but of peace” (1 Corinthians 14:33). In an important sense, this home is guided by Thoreau’s famous dictum: “Simplify, simplify, simplify!” It is purposely not in chaos. The tyranny and bedlam of the world are required to stay outside. The members of the household regularly review everything that’s allowed in. Should it stay? Does it build up the family? Does it encourage people to value one another over things?

A Christ-centered home should be marked by grace .

It should be a safe place to mess up. Family members need the ointment of grace applied to the wounds of their hearts. They need to remember that love, not perfection, is the goal. There’s enough hostility, judgment, sarcasm, biting humor, and antagonism out in the world. Home should be a retreat where the hurting can find comfort, rest and healing.

A Christian home is a place of service .

Its atmosphere is tempered and flavored with acts of kindness, respect, humility, and love. This is where husbands and wives discover that serving each other in Christ is primary; that service to others in the outside world is built upon an attitude of selflessness at home; and that all of life, including the mundane duties of laundry, housekeeping, and lawn-mowing, can be sacred.

A Christ-centered home is a place where the spiritual disciplines are practiced.

It provides an environment where every member of the family learns how to live by studying the Scriptures, praying, meditating on God’s Word, and spending time alone in the presence of the Lord.

A Christian home is based on God’s purposes for every member of the household.

It’s a place where the family’s goals are founded upon His values and where the corporate vision of the future is consistent with His plan. Developing a family “Mission Statement” can be a wonderful place to start crafting a genuinely Christ-centered home. The guiding principles embodied in this document should be flexible but consistent. From beginning to end, they should reflect your eternal focus and express your deep hope of seeing Jesus face to face one day.

Adapted from The Complete Guide to the First Five Years of Marriage , a Focus on the Family Book published by Tyndale House Publishers. Copyright © 2006, Focus on the Family.

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The Gift of Growing up in a Christian Family

The value of being raised in a Christian home is incalculable.  Children are a gift from the Lord (Ps 127:3).  So are godly parents.  Their worth is immeasurable.  From the moment a child is born, and even while a child is still in the womb (through prayer), godly parents have the opportunity to lead a child from spiritual death to eternal life.  

What greater task, what greater joy!

Leading one’s child to Christ is the primary objective for Christian parents.  It’s more important than taking your child to soccer practice, or to ballet lessons or ball games, or fill-in-the-blank.  It matters more than setting aside money for your child’s college education. 

It’s the one task that God has commanded parents to do.  The other activities or disciplines, as important as they may be in a child’s emotional, physical and educational development, must follow the primary objective.

Think I’m off-base?

Consider Deuteronomy 6:6-7.  I know that I’ve written about this passage before, and I’ll likely write about it again––it’s that important as a foundation for Christian families.  The gist of the passage is this:

Teach your children the Scriptures when you sit in your house.  A home is the primary classroom for a child’s spiritual, emotional, and physical development.  The home is where a child’s character is formed, his Godward and social perspective.  The Scriptures should be the hub for every satellite activity.

Teach your children the Scriptures when you walk by the way.  This has to do with your whole manner of life––as you go to the store, as you walk in the park or along the beach, as you travel on the road, in everything you do together as a family.  Make the most of every opportunity to teach your kids about Jesus, about His wonderful creation, His love and grace.

Teach your children the Scriptures when you go to bed at night.  Every family should have a “family altar,” a time when the family gathers around the Word of God to discuss a verse or passage of scripture.  Prayer is an important part of this too; it’s an opportunity for each member of the family to express his or her needs, and to rejoice together when prayers are answered.  In this they witness God’s love and provision.  If your kids are small read them wholesome bedtime stories.  Bible stories are great, of course, but so are stories that teach what is good, what is wholesome, what is excellent, virtuous and noble (Philippians 4:8).

Teach your children the Scriptures when you rise in the morning.  From the beginning of the day to the end God commands parents to teach their children the Scriptures.  He is very serious about this, and so should we be serious.  In every way we are to be proactive in teaching our kids what is truly important, the Gospel––that we are all sinners and deserve the righteous punishment for our sins.  But by faith in Jesus Christ, by God’s unmerited favor (grace) we can be saved, we can live a life of grace, peace and joy, because of what God’s Son did for us at Calvary. 

Is God serious about how we train our children?  I think so.  Again, they are gifts.  They are special.  God has given them to us that He might be glorified in our families.  We will fail as parents, of course, not once but several times.  Like our children, we are sinners.  We’re selfish.  We blow it.

How then should we live?  

I believe that the most important lifestyle we can teach and model is our daily walking in the Spirit, allowing the Spirit to grow His good fruit in us––love, joy, peace, patience (yes, patience), mercy, kindness, and the rest.  If we are doing so, our children will witness our lives, though tainted by sin, nonetheless transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit.  They will see the light of Christ shining through us.  This is powerful. 

Just as our children must learn the meaning of walking in grace through faith, so must we as parents.  The walk of faith is not burdensome.  It’s not a drudgery.  It should not––rather, must not ––become a legalistic treadmill that neither we nor our children can ever endure.  Pity the child that is taught that we must somehow earn God’s favor, His love.  Such a child will flee the faith at the earliest opportunity.

We as parents must be Christ followers not Law followers.  Without yielding to either legalism or licentiousness, the Bible should be central in our homes, and in our way of life.  It should be lived out with purpose, in grace, mercy, love, obedience, and trusted in every situation, good or ill.  

Finally, if Jesus is our way of life, morning, noon, and night; if He is our First Love, our Rock and Strong Tower, our Savior and Deliverer, our Righteousness and Peace, our Shepherd, our King, our Provider and Sustainer, our Victory, our Blessed Hope, if we are pursuing His righteousness and kingdom in all our ways and by His strength, then our children will see this in us and be drawn to our Awesome God.  Hearing His Word consistently taught and lived out in our homes will bring them to faith (Romans 10:17). 

What a gift it is to children to be raised in such a home.

Michael Joens

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Growing Up in the Christian Community

Children have a natural and evolving relationship to God and to the earth. At birth they come to us from another home, their home with God. With us, they hope to find on earth a memory and a reflection of the home from which they have come.

The Christian Community offers several religious activities for children. First there is the Baptism. In this sacrament, the child is received like a seed into a community that promises to carry this child within itself, and to help nourish the child’s relationship with God. Baptism does not make the child a member of the church; for membership will be his or her free choice as an adult.

With their entry into first grade, children step into the wider community as a learners. Now religious instruction begins. It is given mostly in the form of stories, plays, songs and verses that show the divine wisdom in nature, in  the Old Testament history, and in the New Testament. For school age children, the practice of religion is now widened to include worshipping  together with other children at the Sunday Service for Children. The content emphasizes the importance of learning the great lesson of earthly life: that Christ is love’s teacher in life’s learning and work.

In the Sunday Service for Children, the heart gently awakens the will to worship God. In religious instruction, the heart gently awakens the head to the understanding of the working of God. These two complement and balance one another, developing the child’s religious life from both sides, in a way that will enable him or her later to make a free but informed choice about religion as an adult.

During the summer there are two-week children’s sleep-away camps and in some regions family camps. These constellations provide another level for the healthy weaving of the religious life into a communal life, forming a reservoir of inspiration for the children for the rest of their lives. Confirmation at age fourteen is both a culmination and a new beginning.  The seed of the young person’s religious life, which has been surrounded and nourished by the community, is released into life. The young person attends The Act of Consecration of Man as an independent adult, and at Confirmation receives his/her first Communion. After this, their attendance is their choice. Many still attend with their families. Much depends on whether there is a group of people their own age.

They may later want to become counselors in the children’s camps or to attend Youth Conferences or camps.  There are also International Youth Conferences where older teens and those in their twenties find their own connections before settling down into the more local communities as young adults. Often it is the arrival and Baptism of their own children which stimulates their re-entry as active participants and creators of the life of The Christian Community.

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• One-in-Five U.S. Adults Were Raised in Interfaith Homes
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People from mixed religious backgrounds take a variety of spiritual paths as adults, with many adopting their mother’s religion as their own, some choosing to identify with their father’s faith, and still others opting for neither. Indeed, the survey makes clear that many Americans – even among those raised in a single religion – ultimately adopt a religious identity that is completely different than the faith of their parents.

But one pattern regarding the passing on of religious identity from one generation to the next is clear: Among those who were raised in a single religious background (especially within Protestantism), the family’s religious commitment is closely linked with retaining one’s religion into adulthood. Those adults who say religion was very important to their family while growing up and whose parents frequently discussed religion are more likely than others to continue to identify with their parents’ religion as adults.

The remainder of this chapter provides additional detail on the current religious identity of people raised in a variety of religious backgrounds, and explores the likelihood of carrying one’s parents’ religion into adulthood.

Protestant, Catholic, ‘none’: Current religious identity of those raised in variety of combinations

Among those who say they were raised exclusively by Protestants, roughly eight-in-ten now identify with Protestantism, including 80% of those raised by two Protestant parents and 75% of those raised by a single parent who was Protestant. Most who were raised exclusively by Protestants but who no longer identify as such are now religious “nones,” with smaller numbers now identifying with Catholicism or other religions.

Among those raised by one Protestant and one religious “none,” 56% now identify with Protestantism, while one-third are religiously unaffiliated (34%). Those who were raised by a Protestant and a Catholic, meanwhile, are divided among those who now identify with Protestantism (38%), Catholicism (29%) and no religion (26%).

Roughly six-in-ten people who were raised exclusively by Catholics now identify with Catholicism, including 62% of those who were raised by two Catholic parents and 58% of those raised by a single parent who was Catholic. By comparison, only about three-in-ten people raised by one Catholic and one non-Catholic parent identify with Catholicism today, including 32% of those raised by one Catholic parent and one religious “none” and 29% of those who come from a mixed Catholic/Protestant background.

Analysis of the data shows that among those who were raised by one Catholic parent and one Protestant parent, those whose mother was Catholic are much more likely to be Catholics as adults. Nearly four-in-ten people raised by a Catholic mother and a Protestant father (38%) now identify with Catholicism, compared with just 14% among those with a Catholic father and a Protestant mother.

Nearly two-thirds of people raised by two religious “nones” (63%) are also religiously unaffiliated today. Among those raised by one unaffiliated parent and one Protestant parent, there are more who now identify with Protestantism (56%) than as religious “nones” (34%), though just 24% identify with their Protestant parent’s denominational family (e.g., as Baptists if their Protestant parent was Baptist). Respondents raised by one religiously unaffiliated parent and one Catholic parent are now divided between those who identify as “nones” (42%) and those who identify as Catholics (32%), with a considerable minority also identifying as Protestants (20%).

In single-religion families, religious intensity linked with passing on religious identity

Looking only at those who were raised within a single religious tradition (i.e., by two people who shared the same religion or by a single parent), adults who say religion was an important part of their life growing up are more likely to say they now have the same religious affiliation as their parents. Among people with an exclusively Catholic background, for instance, three-quarters of those who say religion was very important to their family while they were growing up (73%) describe themselves as Catholics today, compared with just 38% among those who say religion was “not too” or “not at all” important to their families. Similarly, among adults with an exclusively Protestant background, nine-in-ten of those who say their parents talked a lot about religion (89%) are Protestants today, compared with 67% among those who say their parents did not discuss religion very much.

Whether one was raised by two people who shared the same faith or by a single parent seems to have little effect on whether that person carries the religion of his or her parent or parents into adulthood. 5  Among adults who were raised by two Catholic parents, for instance, 62% describe themselves as Catholics today, as do 58% of those raised by a single parent who was Catholic.

• The survey did not ask respondents whether the people who raised them were married to each other; undoubtedly, some respondents who say they were raised by two biological or adoptive parents had parents who were divorced, while others had parents who were never married. ↩

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