Do Your Children Believe: Becoming Intentional About Your Family’s Faith and Spiritual Legacy is written for men, but any family member can read it and help promote the concept. By providing both motivation and practical application, the author, Terence Chatmon emphasizes the importance of having a formalized spiritual plan, while charging you to tweak it for the uniqueness of your family.

Excerpts From The Book’s Encouragement

“I’m not championing any certain method…just don’t keep ambling along, doing what is considered normal…and comfortable…while letting your family drift along as well.”

“We’re not talking about merely implementing a program…We’re talking about…helping everyone (in your family) become His active, engaged followers within the various worlds each of you inhabits.”

Excerpts From The Author’s Spiritual Plan

“(Early on) we needed to agree on some commitments that would guard against any slippage in conviction…so we made some covenants…(including) that any future significant others would not agree to marriage (to our children) until that individual had become a part of our family’s devotional experiences.”

“(Now) we and our three children (and their spouses)…from their twenties to their thirties…every other Sunday evening, by shared consent…get together by phone to spend a good hour or more in devotions, prayer, and faith-building with one another.”

“(Once a year) we debrief on what we liked or didn’t like about how things went the previous year. We’ll share with one another what’s most on our hearts and what we’d love to consider doing in the year ahead…and together we work out our spiritual goals, deciding in a group what we want to accomplish.”

Getting Started

• Take it slow. The man who wrote this book did not get to this place overnight and you don’t have to either. And no matter how old your kids are, it’s not too late. Whether you’re the head of the home but have no idea where to begin; or you’re a mom and don’t want to step out of your place; or you’re a single parent and don’t know what this will look like for you, the first step is to read the book with an open posture. Let it inspire you. Prevent the enemy from using it to intimidate you.
• Then, let God shape the plan. As you read each chapter, the Lord will begin to give you ideas for what will and won’t work for your family in the short term. You can have fun creatively experimenting as you set up a system that points future generations of your family to the Lord.
• Later, come back to the book. Once you’ve run your first phase for a while, return to this resource and see how God will work through it next. By this point, others in your family will be accustomed to the new normal, and they’ll even be expecting more development of the plan. Before you know it, your family members will be helping you create and implement your family’s faith and spiritual legacy!

“And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children…” (Deut. 6:6-7a)