How to Make The Faith Warm Your Child’s Soul
Faith: The Warmth of the Home
Faith needs to be experienced by your child as the Warmth of the Home. Really??
Did you know that recent research shows that between 85%-90% kids will leave The Faith by the time they reach adulthood?
How can we make faith ‘warm’ for our kids so that they will stay?
Passing on the ‘Warmth of The Faith’ Effectively
Did you know that in the last few years there has been a quiet Catholic revival in parts of the United States and in parts of the United Kingdom? This last Easter, in 2026, there has been a marked increase in adult baptisms.
At the same time, recent research in the United States has shown that cradle Catholics are taking a different route and that most aren’t making it into adulthood as practicing Catholics. As parents, God parents, priests and teachers what can we do to change the tide for cradle Catholics? Please take a look at this video which explains where we are going wrong. Dr. Greg Popcak is the Executive Director of Pastoral Solutions Institute, and his wife Lisa Popcak is its Vice President. The Institute is dedicated to supporting Catholics find Godly solutions to our problems in relationships - be these in marriage, family or personals. This video is just 6 minutes long.
Make Jesus Real
This is the bottom line! This is our job as adults! Yes, we can take children to Mass, but it won’t mean much to most kids unless you have already shown them that God is real.
- Let them see you pray.
- Tell them how Jesus has impacted your life in ways that they can understand. Tell them how God led you to meet your husband/ wife.
Please take one minute to listen to this YouTube ‘short’:
Pray with your children
This might be the most challenging thing to do. The God that we believe in not only listens to all our prayers, but He answers them too. Sometimes with a ‘yes’, sometimes with a ‘no’ (because God knows what is best for us) and sometimes with a ‘wait till the appointed time’. Sometimes we are open to listening out for His nudges…and sometimes we aren’t. This is because we are human with feelings that change!
To help press into this supernatural area of prayer we mainly need to turn up to pray every day! The more we connect with God, the more we will realise that He is guiding us no matter how we feel. Also surround yourself with friends and family who also believe that God is real and that He is guiding us. Have conversations with them about the Godly guidance you have received and swap stories with them. All in confidence, of course.
Bedtime prayer suggestions:
- Always start by singing a praise song/hymn to Jesus to bring everyone into a realisation of His presence. Maybe try this one…
Then light a candle and say similar words to “We light this candle to remind us that God is right here with us – right here in this room.
Tell your child/family that God loves us with a love bigger than we can imagine.
We know this because of the scriptures and because of His death and Resurrection from the dead. Say that you are all going to listen to God in these precious moments, because He might have something special to tell each of us.
“Tonight we will ask God to kindly show each of us that He loves us. Find a comfortable position in which you can remain still, close your eyes and pray to God aloud or silently: Jesus, please show me that you love me.”
This becomes a good baseline as you will learn where each other’s spirituality lies. And you will see how receptive each family member is. We already know that God loves us deeply. Tonight is a test to see if we can receive God’s word about His love and whether we have any blocks to hearing Him clearly. If your child says
“I feel inside that God doesn’t love me”
Well, we know that this is wrong and is either coming from the devil or from a hurt in the past. It’s a great time to discuss this. If your child says something like…
“When I was all alone in the dark and was scared, no one came to help me..”
Then you can discuss the memory and then pray out loud to God to heal this memory. God wants to heal our memories. Sometimes you may need to seek people who are trained in praying in the area of healing of memories. In the UK Little Way Healing Ministries are a Catholic organisation which I have used myself. The healing I received from Jesus was groundbreaking! There will hopefully be similar ministries in the country where you live. Here is the UK website:
You now also know that this child’s ‘listening to God’ will be tinged with this wrong message and you can support him/her as he/she continues in their faith journey.
Here is another example of not being able to hear that Jesus loves you. Say you are so obsessed with buying a new house and when you listen you see repeated images of houses in your mind? Then perhaps God is asking that you trust in Him more and to leave the timing in His hands. This could be a sign to surrender it all into His safe keeping. I have been in this type of situation, myself! I was so concerned about one particular area in my life that I didn’t leave room for God to talk to me about anything else! Maybe He wanted to heal me of something that happened in the past or just let me feel His nurturing love?
God may/ may not decide that tonight is the night in which He will speak to your family through the senses. That is up to Him! Our job is to be receptive. If God seems to be quiet, you could repeat this on the following night or sometime later on. If it’s the first time that you have engaged in this type of prayer it might take a few attempts to enter into a listening mode.
Perhaps someone might get an anointed (from God) image in their mind or an internal sense that they are loved . That is fantastic! God is speaking! But if someone gets an image of a dinosaur or a car or an ice cream, it’s probably safe to discern that is an image from their own mind, and not from God, as it doesn’t show us about God’s love for us! The mind is powerful and it is always making images or bringing forth ideas. That’s its job! Our job is to discern whether they are from God or from our own human thought processes.
Since I started opening myself to listen to God some 37 years ago, I have received images in my mind, which I felt were from God. I didn’t always discern them aright, especially at the beginning, but as the years rolled on, my discernment got better!
Mental images. This seems to be the main way that God speaks to me. I have, very occasionally, had dreams which were so vivid, that I just knew they were from God. If there is an accompanying sense of peace, joy, love then that’s a positive sign it is probably from God. If there is an accompanying sense of fear or anxiety, then it’s safe to say that this is not from God.
God sometimes shows His presence by causing tingling on the skin or a sense of heaviness or lightness in our arms or hands. In my early days of listening to God, I would feel tingling on the palms of my hands. I was so excited! I don’t seem to experience this now - maybe that was the honeymoon period!
God may allow someone to hear His audible voice. This is quite rare. This has only happened once in my life. It was quite unlike anything I have experienced before: His voice sounded soft and loud at the same time…coming from the right side of my brain and from everywhere around me at the same time!
Receiving a prompting to look at the scriptures in a particular place is another way that God might speak. For example: if someone receives an internal sense of Psalm 136:26 without knowing what this scripture is, this would be a clear sign that it has come from the Lord as it says:
“O give thanks to the God of Heaven, for his steadfast love endures forever.”
I remember once I was praying with a lady at church, as I was part of a charismatic prayer group healing team at the time, and I received an image of an open bible and words from a particular psalm came to mind. It was from psalm 123, but I didn’t know this at the time. I thought the image was too dramatic a thought and probably not from God – so I said nothing. I did mention it to the lady later, privately. She said it was her favourite psalm! I wished I had said something earlier!
I really hope that during your listening time that at least one person has a sense that God is ‘speaking’. But if not, be at peace as we have the scriptures to remind us of His Love. Read them out loud every day.
The videos below are powerful reminders of God’s immense love for us . The first is for adults, while the second is shorter and better suited to children. I recommend that you listen to them. They have really helped me in my life.
Two minutes of the video below might be enough for your child.
The following night, sing a hymn and then light a candle as in the previous night. You can ask the members of your family if there is anything they want to ask God about. Perhaps they are worried about something that happened at school? Then, for example, say to your child “Let’s listen to what the Lord/ God/Jesus has to say about this.
Ask him/her to pray to God from their heart either silently or aloud as they feel most comfortable. Everyone is still and listens to what God has to say. If two people receive similar ‘words from God’ then one would seem to confirm the other as a discerned word from God.
For example, say your child says they think they will fail an upcoming test. Perhaps he/she may receive a sense of peace while you receive a prompting to look at Psalm 131:
This would seem to be a word of ‘peace and trust in God’ to replace the worry and anxiety that your child is feeling. God will make all things well.
Maybe you have a concern that you would like the family to pray to God about? Maybe you are trying to decide if it’s God’s Will that you buy a car? Or where to go for your summer holiday? You could all pray together as a family about this and then listen for God’s answer.
- Sometimes God may not say anything. At these times, my understanding is that He wants us to exercise our ‘faith muscles’ and believe the scriptures that He promises to be with us till the end of time and that He is in control and will take good care of us.
- If you practice this form of listening prayer everyday it will deeply enrich each individual’s personal relationship with God. I really hope that this is helpful to your prayer life. Finding a Catholic prayer group which listens to God would be a great help…or just joining up with another Catholic family once a week would be fantastic. God led me to a Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group and that made all the difference for me. Pray for God to bring you to other people to support you if this is a new form of prayer for you.
- “Lord Jesus, I pray that whoever reads this Reflection and wants some prayer support, that you would lead them to a strong Catholic group/ family who will bring them closer to YOU. I ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.”
PS If you want to help your child to be able to recognise God speaking to her/him in dreams, then my book ‘The Road to Joseph’ will help. You can find some information about it here:
Tammy's Blog
You might also like
