So first of all, I think it's important to know that religiosity is more than claiming a religion, it is the adherence to a religion, or the way you live your religion.
I'm interested in knowing two things. First, what influence does religiosity have on youth and second, what can I as a parent do to instill religiosity in my children? I looked up some stats about kids that had religiosity.
-Youth with a deeper religiosity were involved in less delinquency.
-Youth from religiously active families reported greater happiness in relationships with their fathers.
-Religiosity in youth creates higher self-esteem and a higher regard for other people.
-Positive characteristics and sense of being are also affected by religiosity.
So obviously I want my kids to have a deep religiosity. How can I help my kids have religiosity? Mike and I have a friend that says all the time that we are brain washing our children at church. He says that our kids do certain things just because we teach them that they should do it and that they aren't getting the opportunity to learn and act for themselves. I was thinking about that and remembered the part in the Book of Mormon where it talks about King Lamoni. In my mind it describes perfectly the process our kids should take to gain a testimony. Once you gain a testimony you will then make your religion a real day to day part of your life.
Alma goes to work for King Lamoni and saves the flocks from robbers. The King is really impressed in Alma for his integrity and his ability to cut off the arms of the robbers single handedly. So, he thinks Alma is the Great Spirit. He tells Alma that he will believe all his words (Alma 18:23). Alma begins telling him about God and about the gospel and King Lamoni believes him. He ends up falling to the ground in a passed out state and everyone thinks he is dead. The scriptures say that "he knew [Alma] that the dark veil of unbelief was being cast away from his mind, which was the light of the glory of God, which was a marvelous light of his goodness" (Alma 19:6). After he wakes up he teaches all the people of his kingdom the things he had learned.
There are a few things about the story of King Lamoni that I can apply to my kids gaining their own testimonies.
1. Just like King Lamoni my kids will begin by listening to my words and believing on my testimony.
2. Later they will have experiences that will lead them to know if what I have taught them is true or not.
3. Finally, the will believe for themselves and not have to believe just off of my testimony. They will in turn want to teach others the things they believe.
I think so things Mike and I will have to do to help this process happen is first find a balance between monitoring our kids behavior and controlling their behavior. They have to be given rules and consequences of breaking those rules. Then once we have taught those, they should be allowed to make decisions for themselves. I think as a parent this will be really hard. What parent wants their kids to make wrong choices?
Next Mike and I have to model positive behavior. We can't say one thing and do another. Our kids need to be able to listen to what we teach them and then see that we truly do believe what we are teaching them because we live those teachings.
Finally, we have to start teaching them from the minute they are born and realize that teaching takes time.
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