Every year at St. Luke’s we have a group of students who go through Confirmation class in the spring. Confirmation is a time for students to “make firm” their faith. Confirmation gives these students a chance to learn more about God and the church, and finally on Confirmation Sunday to make a profession of faith and become a full member of the church.
Recently, our Confirmation students talked about beliefs and creeds. We get the word “creed” from the Latin word “credo” which means “I believe”. We often say creeds in worship together, and these creeds give us the main points of what we stand for as Christians. It’s important for our students to understand what the church believes and what they believe as we ask them to make this decision. But we asked our students to begin writing their own creed, or statement of beliefs about God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, the Bible, the church and more. Our beliefs are personal and it’s important to articulate those for ourselves, but our faith also comes from what our family believes, what our church believes, and what the historic faith of the creeds tells us.
As we think about how to help our own children to grow in their faith, we must consider all of these aspects of faith as well. What can you do to help your child to understand their beliefs?
- Be a regular part of a church family, which helps our children to know the beliefs of the church and our Christian tradition. They can learn Biblical stories and key components of faith in Sunday School, and can pray and declare or sing praise to God with the family of faith in worship.
- Talk about your faith at home, which helps our children know the important beliefs you have. Give opportunities to for children to express their own beliefs, which helps them to develop their own personal faith.
- Live out what you value. The things you usually value most are how you spend your time and how you spend your money. Your children will know what is most important to you and your family through what you give the most priority. Take some time to assess these things so that what you value and what you are living out line up.
