DISCIPLESHIP STARTS AT THE KITCHEN TABLE

I grew up as the daughter of missionaries, which sounds like it should be enough to form your faith. It wasn't. Growing up around ministry doesn't automatically make you a disciple. My spiritual journey didn't happen because my parents were in full-time ministry. It happened at our kitchen table with my mom.

I'd come home from school with questions that felt too big for my ten-year-old brain. Why did God let bad things happen? If God is love, why does hell exist? Why did God even put the tree in the garden if He already knew what was going to happen? How do we know the Bible is true? What about people who've never heard about Jesus?

My mom never flinched. She never said, "because God said so" or "you'll understand when you're older." Instead, we explored together. She treated my questions like they mattered, like they deserved real, honest, theological answers.

She discipled me without calling it discipleship. She just showed up, day after day, ready to wrestle with hard questions alongside me.

Here's what's remarkable: even in 2025, even in the age of AI and instant answers, kids are still going to their mothers first. OneHope's research on Gen Alpha found that when this youngest generation has questions about religion or God, 84% said they go to their mothers for answers first; not Google, not TikTok, not even their youth pastors. They're going to mothers first.

Think about that. We're raising the first generation to be fully immersed online from birth, kids who can ask Alexa anything before they can tie their shoes. Yet when they have questions about God, they're still walking into the kitchen and asking their moms.

That should terrify us in the best way. Not because we need to have all the answers, but because it means we have a responsibility we can't outsource.

Deuteronomy 6:6-7 says, "And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today. Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up" (NLT).

Discipleship isn't a program. It's not a curriculum you buy or a class you sign them up for. It's the daily, ordinary practice of talking about God when you're sitting at home at the kitchen table, in the car, during dinner, before bed.

My mom didn't disciple me in thirty-minute scheduled sessions. She discipled me in the margins. While we were making breakfast. While we were driving to school. While we were folding laundry. She made space for questions, and she took them seriously.

I think about the mothers reading this who feel unequipped. Who panic when their kids ask questions they're not sure how to answer. Who worry they don't know enough theology to disciple their children well.

Here's what I learned from watching my mom: you don't have to know everything. You just have to be willing to explore together.

Some of the best conversations we had ended with "Let’s find out together." She'd pull out her Bible, we'd read the passage together, and the Lord would always show up in the midst, His presence often felt as we’d discover His Word together. She modeled what it looks like to seek truth, to ask questions, and to not be afraid of uncertainty.

That's discipleship. Not having all the answers but showing your kids what it looks like to pursue them.

The next generation is watching us. They're listening to how we talk about God when we think they're not paying attention. They're noticing whether we run from hard questions or lean into them. They're learning what faith looks like not from what we say on Sundays, but from how we live on a normal Tuesday.

The kitchen table is still the most important classroom. Your willingness to sit with your kids in their questions, to take them seriously, to explore Scripture together—that's how faith gets passed down.

My mom gave me something Google never could: a model of what it looks like to love God with your mind, to wrestle with hard questions, to trust that truth can withstand scrutiny. She showed me that doubt isn't the opposite of faith, it's often the pathway to deeper faith.

That's the gift of a mother who disciples. Not perfection, but presence. Not all the answers, but a willingness to seek them together.

Your kids are coming to you first. Not to the internet. Not to AI. To you. What a holy responsibility. What a beautiful opportunity.

So, pull up a chair at your kitchen table, because discipleship begins at home.

Source: 

OneHope. (October 2024). Gen Alpha: The Next Generation. https://www.onehope.net/research

Bio: 

Valeria Ramirez is a South Florida-based writer who currently serves as a storyteller and strategist for OneHope, where she helps communicate the importance of reaching the next generation with God’s Word.