Seven Steps in Raising a Faith Child

God has placed within parents the natural ability to teach their children. As a Christian parent, we must not only teach our children about the physical necessities of life, but we must also train them up so that they will walk in faith. The Word says in Proverbs 22:6 that if we train our children properly while they are children, then when they become older, they will not depart from their instruction.

Here are seven simple steps in training your child to be a child of faith.

1. You must pray for your child.

Your prayers are more powerful concerning your children than anyone else’s. You not only have spiritual authority, but you have the natural authority of a parent.

2. You must speak the Word over your child.

Isaiah 59:21 says, "‘This is My covenant with them: My Spirit who is upon you, and My words which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your descendants, nor from the mouth of your descendants' descendants,’" says the LORD, "’from this time and forevermore.’"
3. Speak the promise and not the problem.

It’s tempting to speak the problem when you are dealing with children by saying things like, "When will you ever learn to . . ." Remember, there must be instruction without condemnation.
4. Encourage your child with the Word.

Isaiah 54:13 says, "All your children shall be taught by the LORD, and great shall be the peace of your children." They must know you stand on the Word unconditionally in faith.
5. Call those things that be not as though they were.

God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did. (Romans 4:17)
For "who has known the mind of the LORD that he may instruct Him?" But we have the mind of Christ. (1 Corinthians 2:16)
Say, "You are intelligent because you have the mind of Christ." Say, "You are strong because the joy of the Lord is your strength." Say, "You are delivered because the children of the righteous shall be delivered."
Remember, you cannot tell them they have the mind of Christ and act like they have the mind of the devil.
6. Let them see faith in you.

As you live your natural life at work and at home, walk by faith in all you do. Your children will see your character. Second Timothy tells us that faith can be transmitted from one generation to the next.
When I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded is in you also. (2 Timothy 1:5)
7. Don’t give up on your child.

Thus says the LORD: "Refrain your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears; for your work shall be rewarded, says the LORD, and they shall come back from the land of the enemy. There is hope in your future, says the LORD, that your children shall come back to their own border." (Jeremiah 31:16,17)