I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you.

Genesis 17:7

“Tony” stood before us recounting how he had ended up in prison for murder after a drug deal had gone bad. His testimony was about his conversion from a Mafia family to the family of faith. It was one of the most dramatic testimonies I had ever heard. But as I sat there in the cushioned seats of the Lovett auditorium — a prep school in Atlanta — I felt ashamed that my testimony was not that dramatic. I was a Buckhead kid who experienced the safety and security of the suburbs. In fact, as I left Tony’s story I felt compelled–as only a teenage boy would–that I needed to live more boldly into my sinful nature right now so that when I got older I could have a more compelling story to tell.

Stephen Smallman writes, “So much attention was given to dramatic conversion stories that the ‘boring’ examples of people growing up and receiving the faith passed along to them by their families were considered invalid.” This is one of the challenges in American Christianity; we have radically individualized our faith walks that we champion the Born-Again stories to the detriment of those whose faith journeys may be a slow, steady, faithful walk with Jesus since birth.

As a result, rather than seeking for my kids to have a dramatic conversion experience so that they can claim an “ah-ha” moment, my prayer for my kids has shifted. I pray that their faith would be “boring.” That the Gospel of Grace would be so intertwined into their lives that as they grow up they would never know a moment where Jesus Christ was not embracing them.

I am often asked why I am a Duke fan, and I respond that I grew up in a Blue Devil household because my parents, uncle and brother all went to Duke. There is not a moment in my life that I remember not being a Blue Devil (minus the 60 minutes of desperate prayer and hope I would hold every five years when Davidson would play against Duke). It was not a conscious choice I made; it simply was. It developed through the ritualistic practices of our household: I was allowed to stay up late to watch games against UCLA; I went to my parents friends’ homes for games; walking on the Duke campus I was regaled with stories from their time there; I learned how to lament during football seasons. So if fandom for that team can be instilled into me as a child, how much more important would it be for us to be instilling a fandom for the Lord so that our children would never know a moment apart from Him?

As parents we have the spiritual responsibility of helping to bring forth our children’s faith. Rather than having them choose the faith for themselves, their faith should become a natural continuation of the beliefs, values and practices they witnessed in us so that they may never know a moment apart from the Lord.