I know that our children who follow us have to learn to trust in Christ themselves. The fact that they are growing up in a home where they hear the gospel gives them an advantage (they hear the truth), and hearing is a big part of gaining faith, but at some point they have to embrace what they hear (they have to believe its true, but then also trust in it as well).
That said, I don't think its enough just to be brought up in a Christian home, but its not always easy to see faith from the outside. I mean, any of us can state the facts and claim to believe them, but I'd say that often, saving faith is not clear from the outside. That's because, in my opinion, exercising faith is not a point, it’s a process. Its very "daily."
Some experience frustration when kids become distracted by peer needs and other temptations, but I think you just have to made sure each one of them heard the gospel clearly, probably many times from many sources. They need to be confronted to acknowledge the truth of the gospel facts -- that happens through debate and discussion of the ramifications of the elements of the gospel and the facts about our condition, God's requirements, Jesus and who He is and what He has done, among other things.
But the final element of faith, reliance, is not something you can do for someone else, even your children, and is not always something you can discern outwardly at every step. Again, I see faith as something that works out over a lifetime. That is, real saving faith is not something expressed simply in one outward act at one point in time. Rather, it is shown through a lifetime of living. It is not a box you check off. It is trusting God's promises in the gospel with every breath we take. The covenant part may be that if you raise them under the umbrella of the gospel, they will know it, retain it, and return to it.
As a roughly analogous example, I'm sitting here listening to Youngest play the guitar and sing. While admittedly, its unlikely that I'm totally objective, I will say without contradiction that he is playing and singing very well. That skill is something that he developed in less than a year, because he wanted it. As a bit of background, you may know that among other things, I love music, and have always played music and kept musical instruments around the house and elsewhere. I grew up in a house filled with music and everyone on my side of the family plays something. I have always been very interested in passing that interest on to Eldest and Youngest, and firmly convinced they each have a predisposition to understand music and use it as a personal form of expression. First, I watched Eldest learn the piano. She started with a strict, performance based technical teacher who demanded perfection, pointed out every mistake and drove her students to recitals where she (the teacher) was in reality the center of attention. Eldest absolutely hated it. She hated the fact that the teacher's emphasis was on performance, and she was never satisfied. She hated the formality of the recitals. She hated being judged based on whether her performance met to a "T" the notes transcribed on the page. Initially, that made her think she hated music and the piano, but we switched teachers to someone who let it be fun, a teacher who used more contemporary selections at first, and who was not concerned as much with performance as she was in transmitting a love for the art. That's not to say she was in anyway less committed to excellence, she just defined excellence as something different that performing like a soldier and drill sergeant. Eldest blossomed. She learned to love music from the heart. She now plays the most difficult classical pieces you can imagine with great precision (so she had to learn the technical side), but she didn't learn it by the crack of the whip, but because she was inspired to love music and she wanted to learn it.
Youngest is the same way. I always wanted Youngest to learn an instrument too so we can play things as a family. We talked about piano, guitar drums, and even signed him up for piano lessons when he was very young. Like Eldest, he absolutely hated it at first. The whole idea of learning yet another discipline just for the sake of discipline made little sense. So instead of prodding him or forcing him to work at it until he learned some technique, I just got out all our guitars and other instruments and put them in a room so they are easily accessible. I bought a bass guitar some electrics and amplifiers and let him fool around with them with his friends. No discernable demands; no expressed expectations other than my encouragement that he experiment. Admittedly, I play the same instruments a lot alone, with Eldest and even with friends. Eventually, he became interested and started picking them up on his own. He started playing with the praise band at church before he was ready, and that total immersion made him want to get better. Now, I'm convinced that if I had tried to force the issue at the piano stage, he would have rebelled to some degree and ultimately hated the whole thing. Of course, as the parent, I could have forced the issue, I could have made him take the lessons, even give him consequences that would encourage him to practice, but I couldn't force him to love the art form.
Well you might ask what does that have to do with faith. A great deal, I think. I think our kids need to learn independence. I think they need to know that their choices, whether they be in recreational activities such as music, or in the more important arena of faith, are their own. You don't want your kids adopting your faith out of fear, or even respect for you. That would be no better than taking music lessons and hating music. As soon as the force that required the lessons is removed, the music dies.
You certainly don't want them rejecting faith out of a need to express their developing independence. You want them to hear the truth, test it themselves, and embrace it because its true. If they wander a bit now, they still have the foundation you gave them. Because you taught them well as children, I think the covenant part is that God will not let them wander too far for too long. I know I want my kids to learn from my mistakes or from my study--to start where I am now rather than to have to start from scratch, but for some, that is not the best way.
If they wander, we can take comfort from the story of the prodigal son, an extreme we don't want, and should be far exaggerated from anything we experience. The obvious lessons come from the story itself. The son rebels, and in the midst of the consequences, humbles himself, seeks forgiveness and returns home. The father loves the son and embraces him back into the family when he returns. In addition, we've all heard sermons on the son's brother and his bad attitude, and there are certainly lessons from that perspective too. Beyond that however, I think there is a story from that parable that hasn't been told relating to the human father (that's probably because the father is usually considered as a picture of God the Father, but I do also see a lesson from a completely human side of the father). That is, while I suspect the outward rebellion of the prodigal and the resentment of his brother resulted from their own weaknesses, I also think they had something to do with the way they were raised by the father (again, this can only apply when the father is not a metaphor for God).
When we as parents raise children who stray or test limits, if they go too far, it often results from mistakes on the part of all involved, and reconciliation comes as a result of unconditional forgiveness on everyone's part. As you say none of us is perfect, and we all need unmerited favor from one another. So, if you can stand back and give that unconditional acceptance to your children at this stage (assuming their actions are not so serious as to require some intervention), I think they will ultimately find their roots.
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