Adult Children: How Have Your Parents Affected Your Faith?

In Love & Respect in the Family, I unfold what God reveals to parents about parenting. Each concept is based on key biblical passages on the subject. I refer to them as G.U.I.D.E.S. Parents are to be Giving, Understanding, Instructing, Disciplining, Encouraging, and Supplicating. When parents apply these six revelations from God, they produce the most loving environment that best motivates a child to chose the parent’s faith and values.

But what about the child, or more specifically the adult child, who is now dealing with how he or she was parented?

One major teaching in the Bible to children is something some of us overlook: Children can have faith in the Lord apart from the parent.

Regardless of parents, children can be in the Lord, please the Lord, trust the Lord and have confidence in God’s care.

Consider these Scriptures:

Ephesians 6:1: Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.

Colossians 3:20: Children, be obedient to your parents in all things, for this is well-pleasing to the Lord.

Psalm 22:9,10: Yet Thou art He who didst bring me forth from the womb; Thou didst make me trust [when] upon my mother's breasts. Upon Thee I was cast from birth; Thou hast been my God from my mother's womb.

Psalm 71:5: For Thou art my hope; O Lord God, [Thou art] my confidence from my youth.

Psalm 27:10: For my father and my mother have forsaken me, But the Lord will take me up.

FAITH IN GOD

Your parents cannot prevent your faith in God, nor do they cause your faith in God.

Your faith in Christ is your personal decision.

Parents can influence the decision, but they do not make the decision.

Parents can take us to church, but they cannot force us to believe.

Atheist parents can tell us Jesus was just a carpenter, but they cannot coerce us into rejecting Jesus as the King of kings and Lord of lords.

If your parents were credible believers, they cannot cause you to believe.

If your parents were credible unbelievers, they cannot cause you to disbelieve.

Hypocritical parents do not cause you to disbelieve. They can only push you in the direction of rejecting Christ based on your inclination to reject Christ.

Godly parents do not cause you to believe. They can only push you in the direction of accepting Christ based on your inclination to accept Christ.

Therefore, as an adult, it is understandable if you struggle with your faith due to your parents, but you need to be encouraged to know that your faith is your own. No one can take it from you and no one can give it to you.

You are free in your spirit to believe or disbelieve.