Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

Q C The Southern Cross, Page 8 Faith AMv®!! Thursday, November 16, 2000 How faith serves as a “resource” for all of life ITU All contents copyright©2000 by CNS By Mary Jo Pedersen Catholic News Service -u E I at your peas,” “Look both ways before you cross the street, “Don’t start smoking or you may never be able to stop.” The litany of parent lessons is endless. What par ent hasn’t recited a daily string of dos and don’ts to his or her child? Parents are compelled to teach their children because it can be a dan gerous world out there, and children are vulnerable and impressionable. 'hildren who know Jesus Christ and his standards for abundant life are less likely to f aU into false idol worship. The courage to make difficult choices in life comes from ... faith in the power of God’s Spirit to sustain you in the tough times.” Our children are bombarded by forces that can be harmful both physically and spiritually. Parents want the best for their children. But a parent’s definition of “best” and society’s notion of what is best may be very different. The popular media would have us believe that the very best thing is to be rich or to drive a particular model of car or to have lots of friends, which you can acquire by smoking cigarettes and drinking a particular beer. We’re led to believe that security in life is all about your choice of an in vestment company; that only pretty/ handsome (and preferably skinny) people have happy lives. The cultural FOODFORTHOUGHT altar is filled with false idols compet ing for our devotion: power, popular ity, wealth, status, beauty. ■ ■ ■ I’ve never met a healthy parent who didn’t want his or her child to be healthy and whole, safe from the dan gers of the world — and happy too. The desire for their children’s security and happiness flows in parents’ veins. This longing for the child’s good is a But it is easy to lose track of what “having abundant life” means and to light our vigil light at the wrong altar. That is why it is so important for parents to include religious faith in their litany of lessons. Christian faith points the way to real human happiness and fullness of life. Christian faith tells us who we are and what life is all about. And it is not about money, status, power and ness. Yet the Search Institute’s study of youth ages 16-18 shows that 35 percent of youth said they rarely if ever talked about faith or God with their mothers, and 56 percent rarely or ever talked with their fathers about faith or religious matters. In his practical and inspiring new book called Raising Faith-Filled Kids (Loyola Press, Chicago), author Tom McGrath provides parents with prac CNS photo by Bill Wittman holy longing inherited from the divine Creator. In this sense, it is much like God’s longing for all creatures. “I have come that they may have life and have it abundantly” (John 10:10). I suppose that everyone believes something. Even if a person believes that “belief is bad, ” he believes it, and it lends some kind of direction to his life. Sometimes it is easy to tell that people have a strong belief. Perhaps they are members of a certain movement, for example, and their investment of time and energy in its “cause” is plain for all to see. The fact that beliefs can shape our actions could constitute a good reason for making an effort to identify what we really do believe — in order to account for our actions, to evaluate them. There probably isn’t much to concern us if our actions are guided by a belief that authentic love of God and neighbor, along with generosity and an understanding heart ought to characterize us. But there are subtle beliefs of all kinds: belief that it is important always to own “the best” products; belief that people who disagree with us are ill willed or slow witted; belief that teen-agers or the elderly are, by definition, difficult people; belief that it is unreasonable to be asked to sacrifice anything. The point is that what we believe tends to shape our actions, since presumably people act upon their beliefs. Furthermore, unexamined beliefs can subtly influence our thinking and our behavior toward others. Do we know why we do what we do? Do we know what we believe? 40 David Gibson, Editor, Faith Alive! “things.” Those are false idols. Extensive studies show that youth who practice their religious faith are less likely to become involved in risky behaviors. The model for “living abundantly” is Jesus. He loved and gave his life to others in very ordinary ways. Children who know Jesus Christ and his standards for abundant life are less likely to fall into false idol worship. The courage to make diffi cult choices in life comes from deep convictions and faith in the power of God’s Spirit to sustain you in the tough times. Faith in God and participation in a religious community are two of the positive building blocks of develop ment which surfaced in research done by the Search Institute in its study of more than 100,000 youth in America (Passing On the Faith, by Merton P. Strommen and Richard A Hardel, St. Mary’s Press, Winona, Minn.). Almost every major study of healthy families has shown that a shared religious core is an essential element of building healthy children and families. Passing on the faith at home is essential both for wholeness and holi tical ideas for nurturing faith in chil dren, from tots to teens. Most parents who say they don’t know enough about their religion to teach their children are unaware of how much teaching is going on by example right in their own living rooms. Even a parent’s simple offer to pray for a child when there is a test at school or a challenge ahead is a lesson in faith. An action as simple as re turning money when a clerk gives back too much change is an effective lesson in honesty. Finding a good religious-forma tion program in a local parish and getting a child there every week is also essential. Sharing a living faith with children is one way of protecting them from negative forces that surround them. Maybe that’s why we call God’s word the “good news.” (Pedersen is coordinator of the Leadership in Family Life Training Program for the Archdiocese of Omaha, Neb., and a co-author with Fathers Thomas A. Greisen and Ronald Wasikowski of “More Than Meets the Eye, Finding God in the Creases and Folds of Family Life,” St. Mary’s Press, Wineno, Minn.)