Growing Multigenerational FaithSample

What a special honor and huge responsibility for us as Christian fathers to impact the lives of our children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. While there is no guarantee our attempts will ensure that our loved ones will commit their lives to Christ and follow Him, all prayerful efforts made will be used by the Holy Spirit to make an impact and stifle the efforts of the evil one. Being a positive influence by praying daily for each person is where it needs to begin.

I have found that being a PAL has been very influential in the lives of my children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. I need to be Present, Available, and Listen.

Present means being involved in their lives physically, as this builds rapport and establishes an open door for a strong relationship. Available means they need to feel free to contact me anytime, knowing I will not put them off being too busy with my own selfish things. Listen means that while I am with them, I am actually hearing what they are saying and making sure I totally understand what they are really communicating. I don’t want to interrupt with my stories and speak only when asking questions to clarify their thoughts.

A good tool to enhance the efforts in connecting with my kids was to begin a monthly text with them, which we called the Monthly Connection (MC). This allowed me to reach out with thoughts, video clips, or advice, and I always asked them a question or two to get their response. This needs to be age-appropriate, as there is a wide variety of ages involved, which means I need to write or prepare more than one MC each month. This opened the door for them to feel totally free to contact me anytime and share their lives with me.

I have been encouraged by them, inviting me to their extracurricular events and asking me for advice. We stopped doing the MC for a period as they got really busy, but they have since asked to continue it, even requesting that their friends participate!

Ken K. - Prayer Ministry

Questions to Consider

• How can you better connect with your family in natural, meaningful ways?
• What meaningful scriptures and examples can you share?

Actions to Take

• Experiment with a weekly or monthly message to some family members that encourages them to interact over faith in God.
• Practice being a PAL to your family - Present, Available, Listen

Prayer to Make

Holy Spirit, help me to be completely present with the people you put in my path today. Help me be a person who is available and listens well so they know they are important and loved.