Faith and Family Series - Kimberly's Family

My second post in the Faith and Family series features my cousin, Kim. She lives with her husband and kids in Texas, and although I don't see her often, I love keeping up with her beautiful family on Facebook. Her passion for her faith and her kids is contagious, as I'm sure you will be able to tell!

Let's jump into the questions!

Tell me about your family. 

Drew and I were introduced by his brother Micah, and Micah’s fiance, Jackie, in February of 2005. We got engaged in March 2005, and we got married in December of 2005. Since then we have had 3 kids. We have a 6 year old girl, a 5 year old boy, a 2 year old girl, and we are in the process of trying to adopt. One thing I really enjoy about our family is that we get more family time than most families because Drew is a firefighter who works 24 hours on and 48 hours off. Since we also homeschool our kids, we get a lot of family time, and we wouldn't want it any other way!

Tell me about something your family does that you are very proud of.

One of the most significant things we have taught our kids since they could first talk is what is really important in life in reference to the two greatest commandments: (1) loving God and (2) loving people.  If you come up to any of our kids and say “Hey! What’s important?” They will respond with “Loving God and loving people!” There are times that my 2-year-old will answer that question with “Rae-Rae!” and we all laugh. Apparently she thinks her sister is pretty important. 

This basic belief is important because it’s part of the foundation that we are building their entire life on. We got this right out of the Bible:

"But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him.  “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”  And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  This is the great and first commandment.  And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” ~ Matthew 22:34-40

Tell me about something that your family does that you are still working on.

In an ideal Christian world, your children will sit down and listen to you read God’s word and teach about the life of Christ. They'll take it all in, ask the right questions, and pay perfect attention. We quickly learned that the Enemy is going to do all he can to distract our kiddos from wanting to hear about the God of the Bible. And when it’s not the Enemy distracting them, it’s just kids being kids and we may be trying too hard to make something happen. We are constantly learning and tweaking the best way(s) to feed our children the Word of God throughout the day. 

Our oldest does have some verses she’s memorizing, and she’s doing great. The youngest two will listen to short Bible stories. We also try to bring God’s Truth into every discipline situation. We want them to realize that they have sinned, but that’s why Jesus died for them. Nobody is perfect. That they need to repent of that sin. And to do their best to make a better choice next time because they love God and want to obey him. Of course, this whole process will be a work in progress for the rest of their life; we never reach perfection this side of eternity.

If you were raised in a Christian home, what is something that your parents did when you were a child that made a lasting impact on you and your faith as an adult? Do you do this with your own kids? Did you change it at all? 

My parents did their best to raise us by utilizing the church programs that were available as well as sending us to a Christian school. I learned and grew a lot through my Christian school education. However, traditional Christian school education is extremely expensive so that is not an option for my family. We have opted to homeschool for now. We love the closeness that homeschooling brings as well as the constant daily opportunities to model what it means to be a disciple of Christ. However, we are not saying that this is the way God will always lead us, because we do not know what his plan will be even next year at this time. We follow one day at a time.

What is something that is very important to you when raising your kids that you think a lot of Christian parents miss? 

There is not a formula to raising children. Formulas and Christian programs do not guarantee or necessarily produce Christian kids. God never intended for church programs alone to raise our children or be the primary source of spiritual nourishment, but he gave that responsibility to the parents.  It is very important for a Christian mom and dad to be an example of what it means to be a Christian. Our kids need to see us reading and discussing God’s Word. They need to hear us praying. They need to see us serving. And they need us to train them and walk alongside them in all of the above. I’ve heard the ratio is high for teens who leave the church after they graduate.  I think that some cases (not all) are due to the parents not taking their own relationship with God seriously and so their kids, in spite of the good programs, see their parents’ relationship with God as not a big deal and just let it go. Now that is just my opinion. But even Paul says, in the New Testament, “Follow me as I follow Christ.” We are to be a daily living example of what it means to love God and love people.

What is the number one thing that you want your children always to know about God, faith, and their relationship with Him? 

We don’t want our kids to just believe in God because we say he is real. While we will do everything in our power to pour God and his Word into them, we want them to read the Bible for themselves and let God speak to them and reveal his Truth to them. The reason for this is, if they just take what we teach or what the church teaches and decide to believe it without studying for themselves, their faith is not their own and it’s bound to fail. Also, there is no such thing as a perfect church. Some churches interpret the Bible one way while other churches interpret the Bible another way. We don’t want our children to believe anything solely on the fact that their church said it. We don’t want them to do things because that’s the way they have always done it or because that’s what their church said to do. We want them to read the Bible for themselves and let God convict or teach them in His way. By doing this, they will know if what we teach and what the church teaches aligns with Scripture, and their relationship with God will be made theirs and not just something they have just because of their parents.

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To see future posts in the Faith and Family series, follow my blog by liking Learning to Trust on Facebook or by using Bloglovin or subscribing via email. There will be a couple more posts like this one in the upcoming weeks, and I don't want you to miss any! If you would like to be a interviewed for the series, let me know.

Please check out Melissande's Family guest post from last week as well!