Want your kids to do well in school and prosper? Take them to church.
Researchers at Notre Dame have found that kids who are active in their church and follow their family’s faith have a significant advantage at school, which leads to a more successful life. For example, church kids are 10% more likely to make straight A’s. The effect on educational performance is the same as moving from the bottom 25% to the top 25% socioeconomic class.
The main factor in the advantage church kids have is their attitude. Overall, they are more cooperative and respectful of authority, following instructions and participating in their own education. It is not surprising that church kids who follow the biblical instruction for success, working, giving, learning, saving and managing, would do better in school and life.
The most pronounced effect of going to church occurs in middle class and working-class kids. Researchers suggest professional-class kids do well because their family values are similar to Christian values of education and work. However, young people who grow up in poverty have so many problems that the Notre Dame study could not sort out the successful strategies.
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Fortunately, a few years back there was a study that focused on poor kids. For them, three steps based on Christian values can lead the way out of poverty:
1. Finish high school. The Proverbs tell us that wisdom brings prosperity (Prov. 8:18) and is the most valuable possession (Prov. 3:13-18).
2. Get a job. The Bible teaches us that God wants us to work and not be dependent on others (1 Thess. 4:11-12), and that work brings promotion and rulership (Prov. 12:24).
3. Get married and start a family. The great preacher Tony Evans of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas said it best: “Remember that God gave Adam a job before He gave him a wife.”
The study found that those from low-income families who followed these three steps escaped poverty 94% of the time. Eighty percent of them made it into the middle or upper income levels. The godly virtues of learning, work and marriage are the greatest anti-poverty program in the history of the world.
The data is in.
If you want your kids to succeed, take them to church.
“Train a child in the way that he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it” (Prov. 22:6, NET).
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Ron Allen is a Christian businessman who is active in ministries spreading a message of reconciliation to God, to men and between believers. He is the founder of American Wake Up Call.
