What are your plans?

Discussion in 'Faith, Devotion & Formation' started by bwallac2335, Nov 9, 2020.

  1. bwallac2335

    bwallac2335 Well-Known Member

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    I really see the Christian faith at least being frowned upon by society. What are your plans to endure this and pass the faith on to your family?
     
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  2. bwallac2335

    bwallac2335 Well-Known Member

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    I for one am going to increase my families prayer life and wean us off more andmore of secular culture.
     
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  3. Stalwart

    Stalwart Well-Known Member Anglican

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    I hope to continue growing in my faith. I've got 2 little children, and I will strive to catechize them, and be very intentional with devotions and regular liturgical observance, inculcating the love of traditional worship in them. I also pray that they will come to love and follow our lord Christ Jesus in the days to come. My next plans are to acquire a large library of good wholesome childrens books, cartoons, anything from pop culture which can let them enjoy engaging with today's things without missing out.
     
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  4. bwallac2335

    bwallac2335 Well-Known Member

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    We should bounce ideas off of each other. I have one kid an another on the way. Hope to have more. Talk ideas and things that seem to work. I am trying to teach my son the Lord's Prayer right now.
     
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  5. Stalwart

    Stalwart Well-Known Member Anglican

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    That's a great idea. Thanks for starting the thread!

    My thinking on raising up the children in the faith is twofold. On the one hand, I will want to surround them on all sides with Christian/Anglican things. Lord's Prayer, the liturgy, the calendar, the feasts and fasts. Speaking of fasts, I'm mortifying myself because of the US election; while it's too early to teach my 3-year old son about it, it's something which is hopefully teaching me about sacrifice and abnegation. So that in 5 years when I will have become adept at abnegation, I will know how to ask my son to do it, what it means theologically, and so on.

    But on the other side of the intensely Christian upbringing, I am learning from the examples of some of my friends, and clergy families. There are a good 6-8 intensely Anglican young families in my circle of friends, with lots of children, heavy devotion, the whole bit. And what I've learned from those who are older and further along, is that the children can sometimes recoil back. I know this incredibly astute REC priest with a large family of like 6 or 7 kids. He is very wise, deeply formed in the faith. Yet one of his sons is rebelling, and has been caught on online platforms he shouldn't be on. What are you thoughts about how to avoid that?
     
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  6. Shane R

    Shane R Well-Known Member

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    I began both of my daughters with the sign of the cross. An extremely simple prayer and gesture but the beginning of much prayer.
     
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  7. bwallac2335

    bwallac2335 Well-Known Member

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    I plan to heavily regulate the internet. No smart phones until they can pay for it. I do know that you don't want to smother your kids or stifle their individuality but the best antidote to the modern mess of people is to be an example for your kids and always pray for them and let them see you do it. Ask Christ to bless them while you pray for them.

    I will sometimes do Compline with my son before bed and some short and simple prayer/Bible studies. We make talking about our faith a regular part of life. It is not something special we do but something that is part of who we are
     
  8. Fr. Brench

    Fr. Brench Well-Known Member Anglican

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    Knowing and being in community with multiple adults who are good examples in the faith is very helpful for children and teens to retain the faith and make it their own. I really hope my micro-church grows so my young 'uns can start seeing the way of Christ outside our family, otherwise New England secularism will be their "world normal".
     
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  9. bwallac2335

    bwallac2335 Well-Known Member

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    How small is your micro church. Also what do you do with your children to form them in the faith
     
  10. Stalwart

    Stalwart Well-Known Member Anglican

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    What do you do in terms of cartoons, music, and other elements of popular culture? Do you let them plug into whatever's on Netflix or YoutubeKids, or do you curate your own cartoons and thus your own micro-culture within the family?
     
  11. bwallac2335

    bwallac2335 Well-Known Member

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    We let them watch stuff on Netflix. We just will monitor what it is so it is nothing to bad. We don't want to shut out the world we just want to be on guard on what of the world we let in. I am just anti let them having a smart phone and unfettered internet access
     
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  12. Stalwart

    Stalwart Well-Known Member Anglican

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    I hope you know that many Netflix cartoons have regular same-sex romance plot lines, just sprinkled throughout the entire show without any big LMNOP situations that would draw a grownup’s attention. Like a princess who gets awakened by a kiss from a female warrior.
     
  13. bwallac2335

    bwallac2335 Well-Known Member

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    We look for things like that. So far, on what he watches, we have not seen anything like that yet.
     
  14. Fr. Brench

    Fr. Brench Well-Known Member Anglican

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    About 13 in all.

    Our firstborn went to a private Lutheran preschool, which was an excellent foundation in Christ-like community complete with "Jesus time" including a couple staple liturgical elements that are common to the Prayer Book tradition. Our second has started going there too. I've got a Children's lectionary worked out so I can do daily devotions with them (once we get that discipline more firmly in place) and periodically make liturgical calendars with colored-in feast days to help mark time by the Church.

    I cherish our few Christian friends, and hope that a faithful community can survive and grow around our lads.
     
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  15. Moses

    Moses Member

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    For avoiding pornographic content, I have found Covenant Eyes to be dramatically better than anything else. It monitors your screen and sends a report to your accountability partner if it detects anything pornographic.

    If it's a text platform he needs to avoid, a filtering service might help but they usually don't work well.
     
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  16. Moses

    Moses Member

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    I'm not a dad, so take my suggestions with a grain of salt.

    - Back in the 70s, Fr. Seraphim Rose pointed out that hardly any films have Christ as their moral foundation, so it's important after watching a movie for parents to have their children identify the positive and negative aspects. This way, even secular films can become a teaching tool.

    - When I was a kid my mom would make us listen to cassette tapes of Bible songs during car rides. When I have kids of my own I'll play a dramatized audio Bible in the car.

    - Just as the Church "baptized" Yule and other pagan holidays, giving them Christian meanings, it's time to rebaptize our own Christian holidays that are getting secularized, restoring the Christian meaning to them. Not just Christmas and Easter but also thanksgiving, St. Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's day, Halloween, etc. Properly celebrating them is a very valuable teaching tool.
     
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  17. bwallac2335

    bwallac2335 Well-Known Member

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    I am kinda anti technology. I prefer not to use a lot of technology. For my kids I am not getting them smart phones and they will not have internet access away from the family room and lab tops that go to my room when I go to sleep.
     
  18. Stalwart

    Stalwart Well-Known Member Anglican

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    While I personally am very pro-technology (because there's no turning back the clock), with my kids I am strongly low-tech just like you. I've read a study that the Silicon Valley billionaires who have invented things like the iPad, very much do not let their own kids use them. And so my kids play with wood blocks, with legos, with tanks and cars and bridges. And books, lots and lots of books to flip through and start reading :)

    I've also discovered that there's very little good content for girls, and mostly they are told to play with the same stuff as the boys. They wear boy clothes, they play with the boy tanks and trucks, it's kind of a tragedy. No one gives them dolls anymore, or people figures to dress up, or a house with a family that they can roleplay. Girls are much more people-centric than boys, and thus they need their own kinds of toys that aren't just the stuff that boys play with, so I am making an intentional effort to surround my 1 year old girl with feminine toys. She definitely has available to her all the toys that her older brother has, but in addition she's got a few dolls, and we'll be getting more female-centric stuff so she can be more like herself.
     
  19. bwallac2335

    bwallac2335 Well-Known Member

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    I find I am happier without technology for the most part. I don't have girls but it does not shock me that they would try to make us all the same.
     
  20. Shane R

    Shane R Well-Known Member

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    I've begun letting my daughters assist me in the kitchen. I can cook most anything, except homemade gravy and hollandaise sauce, but my baking is somewhat limited. Still, the joy they get from whipping up a cornbread or a pan of muffins and watching it start to rise in the oven is wonderful. We're going to try to do a coconut cream pie soon.

    And they wear dresses to church nearly every week. Their mother never felt right wearing slacks to church. She also veiled with a mantilla most of the time.
     
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