Family Discipleship Modeling

On the thirteenth episode of the Family Discipleship Podcast the hosts (Adam Griffin, Chelsea Griffin, and Cassie Bryant) talk about family discipleship modeling, what it looks like for parents to have a genuine walk with God themselves and repent where they fall short.

Questions we addressed in this episode:

• What are modeling, time, moments, and milestones?
• Why is having a personal faith a critical component of leading a family?
• Are we asking parents to be perfect or at least pretend they are for their kids sake?
• If someone took a look at your calendar or read a transcript of everything you said in a week, what would they conclude are the most important things going on in your life?
• Do you see any inconsistencies between what you tell your kids is right and what they see you doing or saying?
• What do you think it looks life for a parent to be “diligent in caring for their own soul”?
• What are the biggest challenges that parents face when it comes to personal spiritual disciplines?
• To the parent who says, “I’m too busy” or “I’m too uneducated” or “I’m too… anything” what encouragement or challenge can you offer them?
• Howard Hendricks used to say that one of the best ways to love your kids is to love your spouse well. For our listeners who are married, what could spiritual discipline or a walk with Christ together look like for them?

Some of our favorite quotes from this episode:

• “If it’s a reality that my greatest joy is my union with Christ. If that’s where my truest identity is, that’s where my hope is, that’s where I gain freedom, and I desperately want my kids to have that same freedom, then I need to be able to model for them what that looks like. I want them to see something truly great, that there really is freedom in Christ. That there really is joy in the midst of grief. That we have hope in a broken world. That needs to be true for me before I could possibly try to tell my kids about it.” - Chelsea Griffin
• “You are modeling something totally unattainable for your kids if you aren’t showing them your failures, mistakes, hardships, or challenges.” - Cassie Bryant
• “Don’t hide your failures from your kids in an attempt to keep from tarnishing your reputation with your child, use them as an opportunity to show your kids how a man or a woman of God fails and repents.” - Adam Griffin
• “Kids are watching and that’s why modeling is so important because they’re little sponges.” - Cassie Bryant

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Habits of Grace
• The Common Rule
• Liturgy for the Ordinary
• The Gospel Comes with a Housekey
• The Bible Project
• The Dwell Bible App
• Streetlights Bible

To keep up with the Family Discipleship Podcast, follow us on Instagram, Facebook, & Twitter. 

To read more about family discipleship, check out the book Family Discipleship: Leading Your Home Through Time, Moments, and Milestones by Adam Griffin and Matt Chandler. 

The Family Discipleship Podcast is a podcast of Training the Church.