Faith In God Makes For Better Kids...

Mississippi State University did a study of more than 16,000 kids, most of them first-graders, to rate how much self control the kids had, how often they exhibited poor or unhappy behavior and how well they respected and worked with their peers.

Proverbs 22:6 “Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.”

The researchers compared these scores to how frequently the children’s parents said they attended worship services, talked about religion with their child. The kids whose parents regularly attended religious services—especially when both parents did so frequently—and talked with their kids about religion have better self-control, social skills and approaches to learning than kids with non-religious parents.

Deuteronomy 6:6-7 “These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.”

Why does religion have such a positive effect?

First, religious networks provide social support to parents, and this can improve their parenting skills. Children who are brought into such networks and hear parental messages reinforced by other adults may also take more to heart the messages that they get in the home.

Titus 2:3-5 “Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God.”

Secondly, the types of values and norms that circulate in religious congregations tend to be self-sacrificing and pro-family. These are very, very important in shaping how parents relate to their kids, and then how children develop in response.

John 13:34 "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”

Third, religious organizations give parenting sacred meaning and significance, he said. They take the role as a parent on with religious fervor.

Ephesians 6:4 “Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord”

Annette Mahoney, a psychologist at Bowling Green State University in Ohio said, “As for why religious organizations might provide more of a boost to family life than secular organizations designed to do the same thing, that’s still somewhat of a mystery.” Maybe to these psychologists it’s a mystery but we believers know the power of infusing faith into the heart of a child.

Psalms 144:15 “Blessed are the people whose God is the LORD.”

So what should you do?

1. Take your God given responcibility to give spiritual training to your child seriously.


2. Go to church regularly and find support and training to become better parents


3. Take your child to church and have the message of faith you teach reinforced by others


4. Talk to your child about God and build their faith