Family · for mothers

Faith learned on a mother’s lap

A teaching for mothers · 2 Timothy 3:14–15

¹⁴But as for you, continue in the things you have learned and firmly believed, since you know from whom you have learned them. ¹⁵From infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

2 Timothy 3:14–15 · BSB

Context

Paul writes from a prison in Rome, shortly before his death, to the young pastor Timothy, who was in Ephesus. Timothy was the son of a Greek father, apparently not a believer, and of a Jewish woman who embraced faith in Christ (Acts 16:1). Paul mentions his mother, Eunice, and his grandmother, Lois, in 2 Timothy 1:5. In a time of false teachers, he reminds Timothy where his faith came from.

What the Bible teaches

Paul says: “since you know from whom you have learned them.” Timothy’s faith had faces. Before Paul and before any church, there was a mother and a grandmother opening the Scriptures to a child. The Greek word translated infancy points to the very first years of life, practically the lap. Spiritual formation begins long before a child understands everything.

Timothy grew up in a home where his father, it seems, didn’t share the faith. That is hope for mothers raising their children alone or who are the only believers in the house. It doesn’t take an ideal home for real faith to be passed on. A faithful mother, with an open Bible and a consistent life, is already a channel for God.

Look at the goal too: the Scriptures make us wise “for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.” A mother doesn’t just pass on good values; she points to Christ. And Paul asks Timothy to “continue”: the faith he received must one day become personal conviction. No mother can believe for her child. She sows, prays and trusts.

In practice

Choose a children’s Bible or a short passage and read it with your child for five minutes on three nights this week, letting them ask whatever they want.

To talk about

Who did you learn your first things about God from, and what did that person do that stayed with you?

Prayer

Lord, thank you for the people who taught me about you. Make my home a place where my children know the Scriptures from an early age and see Christ in me. And may their faith one day be their very own, firm and alive. Amen.