It was taught . . . but was it caught?

My sister visited the other day and we were talking about our family. (What else do you do when not all of your siblings are present? 🙂 We talk about those not there, of course.) We were lamenting that not all of our nieces and nephews have followed in the faith they were taught, despite being raised by parents of faith.

When most of our family was together recently, my sister asked a few who aren’t known to go to church why so many young people seem to have no desire to attend church. She received answers like: “I know what I believe, I don’t have to go to an organization like church to sort that out.” Or: “I work all week and want my days off to do what I want, start to finish.”

Going to church may not be the best measure of true faith, but the fact is there must be some evidence of faith for it to appear important enough in someone’s life to be true.

Which led my husband to recall something he’d heard when a former president came to speak at his school. It isn’t often that I quote President Clinton, but when he said there had to be more to education than just to be taught, that it had to be caught, that phrase stuck with my husband because it’s so true. If there isn’t any interest, involvement or effort on the student’s part, a teacher can be wasting his or her time trying to teach.

That’s sadly true with what we try teaching our own kids. We can raise our children in a faith-filled home, pray for them and teach them the truths of the Bible. But their faith must become their own. To offer a cliche: God has no grandchildren.

So what’s the answer? As we sat talking, my family didn’t come up with one. We’re already committed to prayer, but after our talk we determined to make more effort to lovingly represent our faith so those in the next generation won’t trip over us if they look for God on their own.

That’s my prayer this week: to do more than just not get in the way of God’s love, but to show His love to others, especially those in my family. After the week this world had last week, between the Boston bombing and its aftermath, the Texas explosion, the earthquakes in China and the floods right here in the Midwest, even a smile might go a long way.