Most Growing Kids God's Way families want to raise spiritual champions. But how?
In a new book called "Revolutionary Parenting" by George Barna a researcher gives us
a fresh insight into the secrets. In his research he sought out young adults (21-29) with
excellent values and performance and searched through their upbringing to see if there
were common parenting practices behind their successes.
These values and beliefs included (but were not limited to) things like:

1. they live in ways that are noticeably different from the norm - even compared to the
average churchgoer
2. posses a biblical worldview
3. there are moral absolutes that are relevant to our lives and have dramatic
consequences if compromised
4. believe that our lives should reflect the character of God
5. donate generous amounts of time and money to spiritually driven causes
6. carefully screen media they ingest
7. they have a deep and intense commitment to their relationship with Jesus Christ and
other Christians
8. daily strive to change the world in small but life-impacting ways

Three key assumptions came from interviewing over 10,000 people:

1. It is important to raise children to know, love, and serve God with all their hearts,
minds, strength, and souls.
2. Parents do not have complete control of the shaping of their children, but they do
have substantial influence on who the children become.
3. There are undoubtedly some common factors that are pertinent to the child-rearing
efforts of parents who raise children to become spiritual champions.

"In fact, the greatest influence a church may have in affecting children is by impacting
their parents."
"Your impact on your children's lives is proportional to the depth of the relationship
you have fostered with them."
Parents that produce spiritual champions see parenting as their primary job in life.
"This means that parenting is their full-time job; the job they get paid to do is simply an
addendum to the most important work they will do in life."
"Most Americans respect but do not relate to households in which parenting is taken
so seriously. In fact many parents view such an approach as a challenge or threat to
their own family choices and ways of life."
"The ground level reality, then, is that the decisions these parents make are tied back to
biblical principles. They make choices based on their knowledge and interpretation of
the Bible."
"We read the Bible together, and when we disciplined the kids, we'd often go and look
up a verse to show them that our choices were not random or weird, but just following
the heart of the Lord."
"In fact, the adult children stated that it was the extensive time spent studying the Bible
as a family that made the greatest differences in their emergence as dedicated followers
of Christ and advocates of Scripture."

How much time was spent in dialog between parent and child on a typical day? The
figures ranged between 90 and 120 minutes pre child per day. (Verified independently
by both parent and child). Consider these things as a reminder to not become weary in
doing the right thing because over time we'll have a wonderful harvest for our Lord.