From the day a child is born until they turn 18, there are about 940 weeks. When they’re little, the days seem long, but as they grow time seems to speed up. Our influence lessens and grows with the passing of each week.

We recently did a major study with Barna on the major factors influencing the spiritual growth of a child during the formative ages of 6 to 12 years old. We found that where a child and family spend their time plays a major role in determining the child’s future.

“The key is in not spending time, but in investing it,” said Stephen R. Covey.

I sat down with Beth Cunningham, children’s pastor at Church of the Highlands, to talk about the challenges the Church and parents are facing in raising kids with deep faith in today’s culture.

Fear, anxiety, overstimulated and overscheduled, need space.

Treasure of the heart

In Matthew 6:21, we are told that “…where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” We are ultimately responsible for our children and, to a large extent as their transportation directors, where they spend their time.

The importance of spending time in Church, God’s Word, worship, and service together became crystal clear as we began to sift through the results of our study.

This is the tip of the iceberg. There are incredible insights from the study that all parents and youth leaders need to know. We’ve made them available for you to access at bit.ly/OneHopeResources.

Every morning, I wake up and ask God what He would have me do today. Many mornings I’m moved to pray for the spiritual mothers and fathers attempting to raise up sons and daughters who have a deep faith. We are facing the most incredibly complex shift in culture the world has ever experienced, but ours is not the God of the impossible, He’s the God of the inevitable. With His help, we have a guidebook to raise up the next generation strong in the Word, strong in their faith, and able to withstand anything the world throws at them.

Rob Hoskins is the President of OneHope. Since taking leadership of OneHope in 2004 he has continued to advance the vision of God’s Word. Every Child by partnering with local churches to help reach more than 1.5 BILLION children and youth worldwide with a contextualized presentation of God’s Word. Read more by Rob Hoskins at goodnewsfl.org/author/rob-hoskins/