Oh, Honey, make up your own mind.

Tuesday October 5th, 2 Timothy 1: 5-7 That precious memory triggers another: your honest faith—and what a rich faith it is, handed down from your grandmother Lois to your mother Eunice, and now to you! And the special gift of ministry you received when I laid hands on you and prayed—keep that ablaze! God doesn't want us to be shy with his gifts, but bold and loving and sensible. I often hear from a young couple that they do not want to influence their children in religion. They want to raise them free to make their own decisions about church when they grow up, and therefore that is why they don’t want to get involved in a church themselves. Let me see how straight I can be with this one. Hellooo!!- think about it!! Think about your teenage and young adulthood years. Did you go to a church or not go to a church because that is what your parents wanted? Once out of the house, I don’t think so. The job of teens and young adults is to establish the self separate from family in society. A friend of mine, who is a Lutheran pastor, has a son who upon meeting and marring the girl of his dreams, converted to her faith, Judaism. Having been brought up in the faith, his adult choices were which faith, not if faith. Not raising them in the faith so they can make up their own mind is making up their mind of no faith for them. It is raising them to not have a faith tradition to which they may rebel, reject, vary or accept. A choice between nothing and nothing is nothing. They may or may not have a choice to be Lutheran, but at least they will have a choice. Raising them to have no faith is your excuse for shirking your duties as a parent and making them pay for your childish play.