While living our faith we often struggle with time management, pressures, and the concerns of life. This makes it difficult to keep faith in the foreground, and we may experience it slipping into the background of life’s journey. As faithful Christian couples we want to grow together in our walk with God. As parents we want to nurture our children’s faith. As caregivers we want to keep our aging parents positive in both natural and spiritual outlooks. How can we best live out our faith with our families?

Meaningful family time is mostly experienced in our homes. Apostle Paul writes emphatically to Timothy “But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” (cf. 1 Timothy 5: 8).  We can provide a way to understand each other and better develop faith through engaging conversations. These can be based on statements from a sermon, a Sunday school lesson, a Community magazine article, or our Catechism. Questions regarding faith from our own family may be infrequent and often we wait for someone else to ask. This is when we can take the initiative to be a provider. We also want to open our homes to our ministers and members alike; to enjoy meaningful conversations that build up the faith in them as well as our families.

Outside of the home, we want to show our neighbours the same love, mutual respect, and understanding we share for each other in family life. People will notice this. If we don’t, we may find ourselves bringing worldly attitudes into our homes, such as entitlement, jealousy, or pride. Let us remember that we are in the world, not of it. If we were all to engage spiritually just a little each day, it would give back a long term reward in our circle of family and friends.