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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The greatest thing you can do, IMO, is keep strong the domestic church in your home. Live by example be open to talking with your children and taking an interest in them, not just religiously. Build strong connections, create a foundation of love. Pray for them regularly. Keep God in their world so He doesn't seem like a foreign concept if they find themselves seeking Him or wondering more about Him.[/quote]

THIS! Make the Love of the Lord the broad context and foundation of  your family. Each person has to develop a PERSONAL relationship with God. Stop trying to "make it" happen. Make it something they see or you will end up driving them away.[/quote]

And keep in mind that your children may never develop a personal relationship with God, because they simply can't fathom such a being and the society they are growing up in is not as god-centered.

Did you hear that the humanist mayor-elect of Boston had a humanist chaplain (as well as various clergy)  say a few words at a city event?  The humanists were shut out ofter the Boston Marathon killings and the new mayor didn't want it to happen again.

This is the kind of thing that is going to happen more often in your kids' lives. They will see that people who do not not invoke god are part of mainstream society.[/quote]

Uh -- yes -- I know they may not develop a faith or a relationship. That's why I said it is a "personal" relationship. I believe in God, live my life accordingly, not perfectly, but actively working on my faith. That is the foundation of our family and the context in which we raise our kids. We explain that others believe differently and have a right to do so. It is my desire for my kids to have faith in God and have that personal relationship, but I have sense enough to know that I cannot make that happen, only lay the fertile ground for it to  happen. Their lives belong to God, not to me. [/quote]

Or as a humanist would say, their lives belong to themselves, not to their parents.  I hope your fertile ground includes exposure to discussions with other kids and adults who do not believe in a supernatural god or a set of beliefs and doctrines associated with a particular religion.

And I can't help but ask -- if you believe in God and that your children's lives belong to him -- why would they need so much faith-building to believe in him?  Why wouldn't God make it natural and easy for all people to believe in him, especially children of his most devoted followers?

I'm not asking for an answer, but I am curious about this.  [/quote]
Yes, we do not hide that other people have different beliefs, and NO we do not belittle them. We are not afraid, if this is what you are implying --maybe you are not -- that discussion and exposure will weaken our faith. My daughter was recently interested in Judaism and got a "Encyclopedia of Judaism" from the library. One of her close friends has a Jewish mother, and DD thinks it is so cool because she will get to have a Bat Mitzvah. I explained that it is not simply a party, but a rite of passage in their faith that has deep meaning to them. We are Christian, but I did not shun from the discussion. 
As for what you term "faith-building", we do not approach it in quite that way. We attend church(tho we've been slacking in that lately), we pray, study the Bible, have discussions. 
Our kid sees us discussing faith, praying individually, etc. It's just our natural course of actions, not an agenda we set forth for "faith-building". We believe that our relationship with God is just that, a relationship. As in any relationship, it grows, needs to be tended, paid attention to. Because we believe in God as Father, Creator of the Universe, Perfect, it is not like having a relationship with a king, president, a boss who tells us what to do and gets mad when we do wrong. We believe that God is perfect love who has our best interest at heart, and who loved us FIRST. We want to know Him and understand him better, that happens through prayer and studying the Word. As for people believing in Him, God gave us free will. You can choose to believe or not. God makes himself available and is not afraid of you questioning Him, asking Him to show Himself in your life. 
On the other hand, how would you feel if God just "made" you believe Him? I hear many people saying they don't want to someone, a God telling them what to do(because that is how they view religion), but then turn around and ask "if God is real, why doesn't he just make us believe in Him"? You cannot have it both ways.[/quote]

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