Pass the Faith, Please

Book excerpt: Children Do Not Live by Macaroni and Cheese Alone. As a parent, you have roughly eighteen years to imprint life's basic lessons onto the heart of your child: from the need to put the milk back in the refrigerator to the value of turning in school assignments on time. Above all, you want your child to have a dynamic, living faith-a rock-solid belief system. How does a parent ascend to such lofty heights while tethered to piles of laundry, unpaid bills, and a yapping dog? It's easier than you may think. Just as Christ did with the disciples, parents impart crucial lessons in the midst of ordinary, everyday life. So, pull up a chair and discover how you can turn seemingly unremarkable, daily moments into opportunities to instill in your child a truly remarkable faith. The Natural Way to Feed Your Child's Spiritual Hunger. Pass the Potatoes. Pass the Meatloaf. Pass the Faith. Since your child was a tiny baby, you have been lovingly providing food for his or her body, stimulation for the mind, love for the heart, and truth for the spirit. Yet it is as you go about the familiar rituals of life-in the very holiness of the mundane-that you may best teach your child about God and His ways. Using the memorable metaphor of the family dinner table-where napkins illustrate the power of forgiveness and placemats protect our tables as Scripture protects our children's souls-author Lori Borgman illustrates how to make the most of the natural teaching times in daily life and find creative, enjoyable ways to interweave spiritual nurture with the struggles and joys of everyday living.