Just like you’d mark a child’s height on the wall or doorframe as they grow in stature, you can also set spiritual growth markers. Deuteronomy 6:4-9 gives us our marching orders to be intentional in those spiritual growth markers. When Moses proclaimed, “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments (reports) that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children,” he was teaching not only the belief in one God, but also how to preserve that belief.

It’s in the home where life’s most crucial curriculum is taught. Children spend 1% of their time at church, 16% in school, but much of the remaining 83% in and around their home.

Do your kids know where your bible is? Do they know which is yours? Let them see your Bible, used, written in. This is your history with God. Do they know the story of your bible? Where did it come from? When did you get it? I asked Baby Girl why she read her bible the way she does and she told me, “Because you read the cool and exciting stories to me when I was a little girl. Now I want it for myself.”

Just as simple as setting your Bible out and letting your family see you engaged in the Holy Book, let your family see you praying. Suzanna Wesley, the mother of the founder of Methodism, John Wesley, had 13 living children. She spent every morning with the LORD and her children knew it. Each morning and several times throughout the day her children would find her with her apron pulled up over her head and they knew it was her time with the LORD. What a sight!

What does your faith look like for your kids? What are the tools they see that build your faith?