Nurturing Faith at Home

The 4 Keys

Caring Conversations	Family Devotional Life	Family Service	Family Ritual & Traditions

The four elements of ancient wisdom for passing on faith are brought together by the Minnesota-based Youth and Family Institute as the Four Keys to Nurturing Faith in Home and Congregation. Together, the Four Keys communicate a vision and shape for living out the Christian baptismal journey, so that faith is integrated into daily life and shared dynamically with one another. These four keys, when woven into your family life, are the cornerstones for growing faith at home.

1) Caring Conversations

These days, eating a meal together as a family often qualifies as an extreme sport, for all the schedule-arranging and arm-twisting it takes. But rise to the challenge - it's worth it! Mostly because there is power in the family mealtime. The kitchen or dining room table can be a source of knowledge and comfort for your family, and can be the cornerstone of the caring conversations you need to have with your children. While formal, structured conversation can be helpful, it is often the unplanned spontaneous interactions that have more impact in conveying our heartfelt passions, convictions and values. Use family mealtimes, car rides, bedtime, even bathtime to share your highs and lows from the day, and to really listen to what your children are saying.

2) Family Devotional Life

The first step in developing a rich family devotional life is to cultivate ways of listening to God. God's primary way of speaking to us is through his Word. As we dust off our bibles and put them to use in our daily lives, we hear Him speaking to us and experience Him working within and amongst us. Together as a family, we practice being in the presence of God, and we learn and experience the language of prayer and faith.

3) Family Service

Learning that "faith is caught as well as taught," we understand that we need to be together as a family, linking the generations; to serve as a loving response to what God has already done for us. Together, we have a chance to talk about what we have done, why we have done it, and what we have learned. This is the way to make service a joyous opportunity to love God back, to say "thank you," to be the light of Christ for others. Serving with children makes it a habit, a spiritual practice, and a faithful way of life.

4) Family Rituals and Traditions

Whether we realize it or not, we have already created many rituals and traditions in our own families. How we put our kids to bed, our family mealtimes, the celebration of holidays and birthdays.... down to the recipes we pass down from generation to generation...these traditions give each family its unique DNA. Our job as parents is to link God's story along with the story of our own family, through faith-grounded rituals and traditions. We need to help our children find God in the midst of these daily, or seasonally, repeated experiences to weave family life into God's presence.