Try it!

Still thinking about the non-"educational model" question. What does a non-educational model for faith look like? Is faith learned? How is it learned? Is it imitated? Is that learning? Is it contagious? Is that learning? Does it come as a sovereign act of God? All of the above? None of the above?

Romans 10:17 tells us that "Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ." Hearing...

I don't think we can get around the fact that we're called to teach our children, but let's look again. Here are some phrases from that passage.

"Be careful!
Watch yourselves closely
don't forget the things your eyes have seen
don't let [the things your eyes have seen?] slip from your heart
Teach [the things your eyes have seen?] to your children and to their children after them.

Remember the day you stood before the LORD your God
when he said to me,
'Assemble the people before me
to hear my words
so that they may learn to revere me as long as they live in the land
and may teach them [What God said to them? What they heard?] to their children.'"
So they [the children, the parents or both?] may learn to revere Me...

What kind of resources will help us remember what our eyes have seen and not let those things slip from our hearts? Apparently sharing our memories with our children (what we've seen and what we've heard of God] helps them grow faith. When I gather with other grown-ups and hear God's words what can I do to remember and how do I teach what I've heard to my children and my grandchildren? The result being children who revere God.

We're not talking expensive or complicated here.

Deut 11:18-21 - another teaching passage for parents -

"Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds;
tie them as symbols on your hands
bind them on your foreheads
Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. [speaking, hearing]
Write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates . . ."

How creative can we be with this mandate? God's words firmly attached to the feeling part of me, to the thinking part of me.

God's words tied and carried across my forehead (Guess what. People can see that. I can only see it if I look in the mirror.) His word-symbols on my hands. Not only can other people see them every time they look at my hands and at what my hands are doing but so can I. How is this supposed to grow faith in my children?

The thing about whatever God tells us to do is that we'll never really know how it works until we try it!