Ainsley Freeman's new book encourages parents to prioritise modelling their faith - with practical advice as to how.
In our busy, information-saturated world, many parents struggle to find the time, energy and tools to demonstrate faith to their kids.
That’s why mother, author, communicator and pastor Ainsley Freeman wrote her latest book, impress: Why the hard and holy work of passing on faith to our kids is of first importance, and how we can do it better.
Written for busy parents, the book represents much of Ainsley’s own life journey to date.
“As a former children’s ministry pastor, I am passionate about faith in the early years and I’ve thought a lot about the significance of teaching, loving and enfolding children into the life of church,” Ainsley said.
“The reality of having my own children has made me realise that intentional faith formation isn’t a guarantee and is hard to do in our homes. We might like to outsource it to the ‘professionals’, but instead, we need to rediscover it’s importance within our modern families and the significant role we have as parents to pass on faith.”
“If the Good News of Jesus is as good as the first disciples thought it was, then it should really infuse every aspect of our lives – and especially the lives of those who live within the four walls of our home.
"We can’t put this off and think we’ll do it another day because when our children graduate from high school, we will have used up more than 90% of our in-person time with them. This is a confronting reality that we as parents need to contend with.”
Practical Advice
Packed with simple practices and ideas, the book addresses issues such as slowing down the pace of life, opening up conversations, the importance of mealtimes and much more.
As a busy mother herself, Ainsley carved out time to write impress by waking up at 5:05am every morning.
The title’s meaning is twofold: “It strikes me that we live in a world that we are trying to impress,” Ainsley said. “With our shiny social media feeds, curated content, impressive travel diaries and lavish LinkedIn profiles – many of us spend a good deal of time trying to be impressive to ourselves and our audience of choice.
“But there is another role that we have been gifted and another impression we are encouraged to leave. In Deuteronomy 6 the people of Israel are given an encouragement to pass on faith – to ‘impress’ it upon their children.”
impress is available through the Olive Tree Media online store, and instore or online from Koorong bookstores.
Find out more on the @impress.daily Instagram page or head to the Olive Tree website to sign up for Ainsley’s 52 week devotional accompanying the book called impress weekly.