faith unfaded

My Sunday School teacher shared this the other day and it is a great truth:

“Faith flows from one generation to the next- be a pipe not a bucket.”

It went with Proverbs 22:6: Start children off the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.

I understood completely. I went back generations on both sides of my family. Both of my parents’ grandparents raised Christian families. My own grandparents were faith-filled devotees of Christ. My parents raised us in a home where God and church were central, everything else was secondary.

There was free flowing faith from generation to generation. No one stored it up for themselves, paying heed to the passage in Proverbs. No one had a perfect life but they all served Christ through it all.

Then it was my turn.

I didn’t store up my faith in a bucket either, but I had some mighty leaky pipes. Unlike my parents who drew closer to the Lord in times of trouble, I ran.

My children’s faith journey was inconsistent because mine was as well. We’d be at church every time the doors opened until I stumbled. Then it would be months before we were back. Some years playing ball took a backseat to church. Other years they switched places.

Leaky pipes.

So as I read this while sitting in Sunday School I was filled with regret. I broke the line, I wrote in my notes. What do I do now?

I wrote the Lord’s reply in the margin. It is for all parents who may have also missed the mark and whose children are grown now.

“Repair the holes now even though they are grown. They are still watching. You still have authority.”

I remembered one day a couple of years ago when I was praying over a child who’d departed from the faith. I blew it, I’d said. And now it’s too late. She’s grown and gone and I have no more authority.

That’s a lie from hell, the Lord spoke. You will always have spiritual authority over your children, no matter how old they get. Pray down heavenly fire to defeat the enemy’s lies in your child’s mind.

I never once considered that the little voice telling me it was too late was Satan’s. True, it would be harder now that she was grown. But it was false that I couldn’t do anything about it.

My car shook that day with the prayer I prayed, coming against every thing that came against the knowledge of Christ in my child’s head. My prayers are coming against an entire generation that calls good, evil and evil, good. And I’m the one who opened the door by not providing a solid faith foundation for my children.

But I’m also the one who believes in prayer and the old adage…better late than never.

And my pipe is now wielded titanium!