Looking for the Marriage and Family newsletter? Don't worry—you're in the right place! Coming Home is here to foster conversations around all things family-related. This week we're exploring one of the greatest mysteries of parenting: watching our own children grow up while feeling not all that far from childhood ourselves. Kelly Edmiston, a youth pastor and mother of three, explores this phenomenon in her recent article “How Is Faith Formed?”
She recalls a night of weeping at church camp as a teenager, repeating to Jesus over and over again that she belonged to him.
“I think about that night at church camp and I think about that 15-year old girl often,” she writes. “I remember her tumultuous journey after that night. I remember her deep desire to please God but her inability to do so on her own. I remember the pull of her flesh being stronger than she ever dreamed it would be. I remember those who came alongside her as guides, mentors and friends.”
Through the lens of her own story, Edmiston wonders what it looks like for faith to form in the hearts of young people.
“Is it in a moment?” she asks. “Is it over time? What are the ingredients that must be present for faith in Jesus to grow?”
May God’s creative power in overlapping our faith journeys with those of our children encourage us. God weaves faith in, through, and around us as individuals and as families. We may not always see the threads or be able to grasp them, but do not be afraid: the One who created us to have faith is the One who takes joy in sustaining it, too.
