Believing like my mom and my granny!

2 Timothy 1:5-6  -  “I am reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also.  For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands.”

The well known and respected Dr. Andrew Murray wrote the following profound truth about the importance of being a God-fearing family: 

“Oh, that the eyes of God’s people might be opened to the danger that threatens the church! It is not infidelity or superstition, it is the spirit of worldliness in the homes of Christian families, sacrificing the children to the ambitions of society, to the riches or the friendship of the world — that is the greatest danger of Christ’s church. If every home once won for Christ were a training school for His service, we would find in this a secret of spiritual strength no less than all that preaching can accomplish.”

Paul’s letter to Timothy emphasizes that this young Christian minister’s identity, that Paul commends, is rooted in the faith that his mother and grandmother had left him as a lasting legacy. They shared Christ with him and taught him as only mothers and grandmothers can!  Paul firmly placed the Christian faith and ministry within shared, family settings.

This makes Timothy anything but an independent operator advocating his own brand of Christianity!  No, his faith was rooted in the example and education of his Christian home. It enabled him to be a reliable preserver of the Truth of Christ and the preacher of a sound Gospel-message.

Our faith and calling, our authentic witness, is rooted in and grows from our Christian identity received from devoted, exemplary Christian parenting.

But if parents and grandparents sell out to “the spirit of worldliness and to sacrificing our children to the ambitions of society and the friendship of the world”,  as Dr. Murray puts it, false teachers and heresies and dangerous life styles will rob our children of the cherished gospel and the costly salvation it promises.

No, let the influence and example, the choices and the commitment of families to Jesus, lead our children to the place where they will fan into flame the gifts of God in their lives - and thrive when the church, in laying hands on them, send them into the world to both conserve and share the glorious legacy of our Christian faith – the lasting legacy of our precious Saviour, Jesus, our Lord.