Religious families-Do your children easily love God?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So, back to OP's original question: how do you get your children to love God? Here is what I do:

1) Model it at home: family prayers before bedtime, grace before meals, conversations about it in our day-to-day life, books, etc.

2) Send my child to Catholic school.

3) Because of #2, this means that some of her extracurricular activities (which are through the school) also have a Catholic bent: CYO sports, her Brownie troop, etc.

4) All of our extended family on both sides is Catholic so our beliefs are confirmed and strengthened on family vacations as we all go to Mass together, her cousins go to Catholic school too, etc.

5) DD, for what it's worth, likes the fact that "catholic" as a word even means "universal" and this seems to mean a lot to her, in emphasizing, that Catholicism is the one, true faith, for everybody. Jesus came for everybody and died for everybody.

6) I pray! I pray to St. Monica that my children learn the faith. St. Monica was terribly worried about her son St. Augustine b/c he had moved far away from the faith, but her prayers were finally heard and he became devout, and, in fact, a saint.

Sorry this has a Catholic bent to is but I couldn't take it out as it pertains to so much of what we do. . .but hopefully it is helpful both to fellow Catholics and others who are trying to raise theirc hildren in their own faith. . .

Good luck - with all the heavy lifting you're doing for God, the least he could do for you is have your daughter become a life-long, devout Catholic. It would be interesting to know the percentage of kids who leave Catholism after this type of intensive, enveloping childhood experience you've created for your child. I know a few.

Thanks for the good wishes! Maybe pray for us, too, if you feel like it! I never turn down any offers of prayer or good wishes! And yes, God is there for anyone who comes to Him. All you have to do is look!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
OK - let's not quibble over words. You interpret God (let's say) as kind and gentle supreme being who would never send anyone to hell despite the dogma and doctrine of Christianity. Another parent teaches their children that God is kind and gentle and also gets angry and sends people to a fiery hell if they displease him - as described in the bible and in Christian doctrine. This is the same god -- maybe even two families going to the same church, but with two very different "interpretations."

It could also be interpreted as different beings defined by parents with different beliefs and child-raising philosophies to handle their children in different types of ways.

I hate to even mention this -- but the Bible does not say God "sends" anyone to hell. It says the wages of sin is death, sorta like people send themselves there. Anyway -- still interpretation, especially when it comes to the definition of "hell".

So why did you mention it? It sounds like trying to get God off the hook for sending people to hell. If god doesn't do it, who/what does? Did god delegate power? relinguish power? what?

[Anonymous]

I grew up in a semi-religious family. (Mom believes apparently, Dad does not) I did not easily love God at all, and as it turned out did not easily believe. After the age of 13 church was no longer required and I stopped going. I explained to my parents my reasons and they accepted my reasons.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So, back to OP's original question: how do you get your children to love God? Here is what I do:

1) Model it at home: family prayers before bedtime, grace before meals, conversations about it in our day-to-day life, books, etc.

2) Send my child to Catholic school.

3) Because of #2, this means that some of her extracurricular activities (which are through the school) also have a Catholic bent: CYO sports, her Brownie troop, etc.

4) All of our extended family on both sides is Catholic so our beliefs are confirmed and strengthened on family vacations as we all go to Mass together, her cousins go to Catholic school too, etc.

5) DD, for what it's worth, likes the fact that "catholic" as a word even means "universal" and this seems to mean a lot to her, in emphasizing, that Catholicism is the one, true faith, for everybody. Jesus came for everybody and died for everybody.

6) I pray! I pray to St. Monica that my children learn the faith. St. Monica was terribly worried about her son St. Augustine b/c he had moved far away from the faith, but her prayers were finally heard and he became devout, and, in fact, a saint.

Sorry this has a Catholic bent to is but I couldn't take it out as it pertains to so much of what we do. . .but hopefully it is helpful both to fellow Catholics and others who are trying to raise theirc hildren in their own faith. . .

Good luck - with all the heavy lifting you're doing for God, the least he could do for you is have your daughter become a life-long, devout Catholic. It would be interesting to know the percentage of kids who leave Catholism after this type of intensive, enveloping childhood experience you've created for your child. I know a few.

Thanks for the good wishes! Maybe pray for us, too, if you feel like it! I never turn down any offers of prayer or good wishes! And yes, God is there for anyone who comes to Him. All you have to do is look!

Not really good wishes -- it looks like a clear-cut case of indoctrination. But perhaps your not the pp who is offended by the term.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So, back to OP's original question: how do you get your children to love God? Here is what I do:

1) Model it at home: family prayers before bedtime, grace before meals, conversations about it in our day-to-day life, books, etc.

2) Send my child to Catholic school.

3) Because of #2, this means that some of her extracurricular activities (which are through the school) also have a Catholic bent: CYO sports, her Brownie troop, etc.

4) All of our extended family on both sides is Catholic so our beliefs are confirmed and strengthened on family vacations as we all go to Mass together, her cousins go to Catholic school too, etc.

5) DD, for what it's worth, likes the fact that "catholic" as a word even means "universal" and this seems to mean a lot to her, in emphasizing, that Catholicism is the one, true faith, for everybody. Jesus came for everybody and died for everybody.

6) I pray! I pray to St. Monica that my children learn the faith. St. Monica was terribly worried about her son St. Augustine b/c he had moved far away from the faith, but her prayers were finally heard and he became devout, and, in fact, a saint.

Sorry this has a Catholic bent to is but I couldn't take it out as it pertains to so much of what we do. . .but hopefully it is helpful both to fellow Catholics and others who are trying to raise theirc hildren in their own faith. . .

Good luck - with all the heavy lifting you're doing for God, the least he could do for you is have your daughter become a life-long, devout Catholic. It would be interesting to know the percentage of kids who leave Catholism after this type of intensive, enveloping childhood experience you've created for your child. I know a few.

Thanks for the good wishes! Maybe pray for us, too, if you feel like it! I never turn down any offers of prayer or good wishes! And yes, God is there for anyone who comes to Him. All you have to do is look!

Not really good wishes -- it looks like a clear-cut case of indoctrination. But perhaps your not the pp who is offended by the term.

No, I'm not really offended by that term . . . . . it's just a word. . . .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Good luck - with all the heavy lifting you're doing for God, the least he could do for you is have your daughter become a life-long, devout Catholic. It would be interesting to know the percentage of kids who leave Catholism after this type of intensive, enveloping childhood experience you've created for your child. I know a few.

Thanks for the good wishes! Maybe pray for us, too, if you feel like it! I never turn down any offers of prayer or good wishes! And yes, God is there for anyone who comes to Him. All you have to do is look!

Not really good wishes -- it looks like a clear-cut case of indoctrination. But perhaps your not the pp who is offended by the term.

No, I'm not really offended by that term . . . . . it's just a word. . . .

Like "God" "St Monica" "transubstantiation" "Sacrament"?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Good luck - with all the heavy lifting you're doing for God, the least he could do for you is have your daughter become a life-long, devout Catholic. It would be interesting to know the percentage of kids who leave Catholism after this type of intensive, enveloping childhood experience you've created for your child. I know a few.

Thanks for the good wishes! Maybe pray for us, too, if you feel like it! I never turn down any offers of prayer or good wishes! And yes, God is there for anyone who comes to Him. All you have to do is look!

Not really good wishes -- it looks like a clear-cut case of indoctrination. But perhaps your not the pp who is offended by the term.

No, I'm not really offended by that term . . . . . it's just a word. . . .

Like "God" "St Monica" "transubstantiation" "Sacrament"?

Shrug. Sure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Love goes both ways. You want to receive, but not give? What about your parents? They love you, but you don't love them? I don't worship God because I have to. I worship God because it fills my life with so much joy. I can't imagine going about my daily life and not loving God at every waking moment. How can you not love such a sweet and gentle being like God?

There's that crafty atheist again! Good job at stirring up controversy, raising the fallacies of religion and trying to make believers look naive.

+1 I am just ignoring him/her from now on. Why don't we get back to the poor OP's question? It has become buried underneath all this nonsense.

I'm the OP, and I'n not trolling. My love for God is authentic. How am I making believers look naive?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Love goes both ways. You want to receive, but not give? What about your parents? They love you, but you don't love them? I don't worship God because I have to. I worship God because it fills my life with so much joy. I can't imagine going about my daily life and not loving God at every waking moment. How can you not love such a sweet and gentle being like God?

There's that crafty atheist again! Good job at stirring up controversy, raising the fallacies of religion and trying to make believers look naive.

+1 I am just ignoring him/her from now on. Why don't we get back to the poor OP's question? It has become buried underneath all this nonsense.

I'm the OP, and I'n not trolling. My love for God is authentic. How am I making believers look naive?

By portraying God as a sweet and loving being that it would be difficult for anyone not to love. In the Christian and Jewish religions, he has a loving side to him, but can also be a terrible brute wantonly murders some people and threatens eternal punishment for anyone who does not please him.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So, back to OP's original question: how do you get your children to love God? Here is what I do:

1) Model it at home: family prayers before bedtime, grace before meals, conversations about it in our day-to-day life, books, etc.

2) Send my child to Catholic school.

3) Because of #2, this means that some of her extracurricular activities (which are through the school) also have a Catholic bent: CYO sports, her Brownie troop, etc.

4) All of our extended family on both sides is Catholic so our beliefs are confirmed and strengthened on family vacations as we all go to Mass together, her cousins go to Catholic school too, etc.

5) DD, for what it's worth, likes the fact that "catholic" as a word even means "universal" and this seems to mean a lot to her, in emphasizing, that Catholicism is the one, true faith, for everybody. Jesus came for everybody and died for everybody.

6) I pray! I pray to St. Monica that my children learn the faith. St. Monica was terribly worried about her son St. Augustine b/c he had moved far away from the faith, but her prayers were finally heard and he became devout, and, in fact, a saint.

Sorry this has a Catholic bent to is but I couldn't take it out as it pertains to so much of what we do. . .but hopefully it is helpful both to fellow Catholics and others who are trying to raise theirc hildren in their own faith. . .

lmfao

b/c Jesus came for the gays, too!

Now I need to throw acid into my eyes after reading your post.

[Anonymous]

There are two things in this world that I love the most: God and children. Combining them both can be so magical. I found this video that I hope will get my point across.

That doesn't seem like evil indoctrination to me. You can just see the joy in their little faces.

[Anonymous]

I love kittens and atheists.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are two things in this world that I love the most: God and children. Combining them both can be so magical. I found this video that I hope will get my point across.

That doesn't seem like evil indoctrination to me. You can just see the joy in their little faces.

Wow. That is SO different from the secular preschool DD is in! DH and I made such a mistake!

Her preschool only has singing, and crafts, and books, and art, and play, and ...oh, wait. That's right, that video looks like pretty much every preschool where kids are happy and playing and there are engaged teachers.

Want to see kids really enthralled? Bring in a real magician who can do close-up slight of hand. That's magic they can appreciate.