Background

• As a Catholic life coach, one of the questions I am often asked is, “How do I make sure my children will grow up practicing the faith?”
  • Remember, your children are adults and you have no control over their actions, their thoughts, beliefs, desires, or actions.
• However, you do have at least 18 years to provide them with formation and to teach them right from wrong, moral from immoral, and ultimately, what God’s purpose is for their lives.

The Secret to Children Become Adults Who Practice Their Faith

• The secret to having children be more inclined to live their faith as adults is to teach them to love their faith.
  • Facts and a belief system are necessary, but they do not teach love.
• I’d like to propose that these next few months (November, December, and January) that are filled with holidays, Feast Days, and Holy Days become an excellent opportunity to teach your children to fall in love with their faith.

Advent and Christmas – The Perfect Time to Fall in Love

• We have so many opportunities in the next few months to celebrate, pray, and fall in love with our faith, with God and His gifts to us.
• What kind of growth do you want for yourself and your family and children?
• We can read the truths of the faith and we can speak them, but experiencing them is so much more powerful.
• We teach our children what is important to us by making the effort to spend time experiencing all that the Church offers to us.
  • If it is not important to us, our children will not learn to make it important to them.

Using the Liturgical Calendar

• Plan special traditions related to the liturgical calendar – there are lots of great Feast Days and Holy Days coming up!
  • The Feast of Christ the King
  • Thanksgiving
  • Advent
  • The Feast of St. Nicholas
  • The Feast of the Immaculate Conception
  • The Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe
  • The Feast of St. Lucy
    • Christmas
    • The Feast of the Holy Family
    • New Year’s Day – The Feast of Mary, Mother of God
    • Epiphany
      • The Baptism of the Lord

Final Thoughts – Love Your Faith

• We cannot love what we do not know
• It is so important to be your child’s first teacher in the faith, but remember that experiences can be the greatest teacher and the source of a true bonded love for a life of faith.
• I pray that this holiday and Holy Day season is a season where you also take that journey of deepening your faith through the experiences that the Church is giving so that you can grow in love and can bring your family along with you.