The Devotion Difference

Direct your children onto the right path, and when they are older, they will not leave it. – Proverbs 22:6 (NLT)

How do you hope your kids will emerge?

• Would you like to experience a higher quality relationship with your kid(s)?
• Would you like your child to emerge into an adult who is generous in contributing time and resources toward those less fortunate then themselves?
• Would you like your child to emerge into an adult who cares about significant issues such as racial equality, care for the elderly, and the poor?
• Would you like your child to be less likely to get sucked into alcoholism, binge-drinking, drugs, smoking cigarettes, smoking marijuana, or fighting (physical)?
• Would you like your child to emerge into an adult who is more likely to have healthy BMI levels, has a higher sense of self-image, and thinks about the deeper meaning of life?
• Would you like your child to emerge into an adult who is less likely to feel sad or depressed, who feels loved and accepted for who they are, and has overall good mental health?
• Would you like your child to emerge into an adult who has a greater sense of purpose and is quicker to be grateful?
• Would you like your child to emerge into an adult who has a greater life satisfaction?
• Would you like your child to emerge into an adult who is less materialistic?
• Would you like your child to emerge into an adult who has a more safe, healthy sexuality?
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According to Christian Smith, there is one variable that maximizes the likelihood that our highest hopes will materialize.  In Souls in Transition (Oxford 2009),  Smith  gives detailed analysis on the religiosity of young adults in the US, and the correlation of a wide range of feelings and behaviors.  An overarching conclusion was that the more devoted a person was in their faith, the more likely they would experience positive results in significant areas of life, such as those listed above.

The positive difference is devotion:

• Attend religious services weekly or more often
• Faith is very or extremely important in everyday life
• Feel very or extremely close to God
• Pray a few times a week or more often
• Read scripture once or twice a month or more often

Devoted emerging adults make up only  5% of their population.

Negative outcomes tend toward disengagement:

• Never attend religious services, or do so only a few or many times a year and identify as “not religious”
• Faith is somewhat, not very, or not important in everyday life
• Feel only somewhat close to God or less close
• Pray one to two times a month or less often
• Read scripture one or two times a month or less often.

Where we direct our children makes a massive difference on their future (and, consequently, ours).   Raise kids along a less-than-ideal path, and they will suffer the consequences.  They pay for your decisions.

Why does raising our kids “Devoted” make such a difference?

• The ethic they learn provides for a healthy sense of self, respect for others, and service.
• The community they engage provide a support system for learning key concepts and adopting new behaviors.
• The God piece is real – they will more likely experience God in a spiritually nurturing environment than in one that is neutral or biased against God.

The good news: all of the quality of life pursuits we want for our kids can become increasingly ours as well, as we pursue devotion.  As you pursue the best for your kids, your life will improve as well.

For the sake of the kids we knowingly and unwittingly influence, we are called to devotion.

For the sake of our own lives, our own well-being – we will choose devotion?

Choose today whom you will serve. But as for me and my family, we will serve the Lord.  Joshua 24:15 (NLT)