Alexa PenaVega Talks Instilling Faith in Kids: ‘Real Relationship’
By Movieguide® Contributor
Best known for her role in SPY KIDS, Alexa PenaVega has since left Hollywood to teach her kids what it means to live a faith-filled life.
“Obviously, this industry is not set up for faith-based people,” PenaVega told Fox News Digital. “It’s not really set up for families. I mean, if you think about it, most of the time families are leaving for months at a time. They’re split up. It’s really hard. We’ve found a special way to make it work for our family. And because of that our kids are growing up seeing how it works for us.”
PenaVega and her husband Carlos were both child actors who still have many connections in the industry. While they occasionally make time for a new acting project, their primary focus is now their kids.
The couple shares sons Ocean, 7, and Kingston, 5, and daughter Rio, 1, and want to give them a strong foundation in Christ.
“Obviously, we talk about stories of the Bible. That’s fun and exciting. But I think the biggest thing is, what does the relationship with God look like? Because there’s learning about the Bible, but then there’s real relationship,” PenaVega said.
“The best way I could teach them about faith was just operating in my faith in front of them,” she explained.
“I pray out loud all the time. I’ll be cooking, and they’ll hear mama talking to God. I will be cleaning, and they will hear me talking to God. And it’s really great because it’s gotten them to a place where they know they can go to God for absolutely anything and everything,” she continued.
They currently apply this in a silly way – praying for help with video games – but PenaVega knows it is a sign of deeper trust in God.
“They’ll be trying to get through a level, and they’re like, ‘Please God, Jesus, Jesus, please just help me get through this.’ And I’m cracking up because the innocence of their heart behind the ask,” she said. “I love it because I’m like, ‘You know what? No, nothing is too small.’ And I love that they’re going to Jesus just to get past this level in their game.”
PenaVega previously opened up about why she and her husband left LA for their family.
“We’d always talked about moving to Hawaii, but later on in life, like a retirement plan. But we also knew that we didn’t want to raise our kids in Los Angeles,” she said.
“I felt this tug in my heart. I felt it was God going, ‘You guys need to get out of here. It’s time.’ I didn’t want to move. I knew it was the right decision, but it wasn’t something that I was so excited about,” the actress added.
However, the relocation gave the couple “a chance to create those routines with our family. The L.A. mentality is work hard, play hard. We’re all about working hard, but first and foremost, it’s our faith and our family,” PenaVega explained.
Movieguide® previously reported:
Alexa PenaVega is revealing the reason why she decided to leave Hollywood behind and move her family with husband Carlos PenaVega to Hawaii in the couple’s joint memoir “What if Love is the Point? Living for Jesus in a Self-Consumed World.”
In an interview with Fox News, Alexa shared how the couple fell in love.
“I had come right out of divorce and felt that I needed to realign my life,” she explained. “I wanted a deeper relationship with my faith. I wanted a relationship with God. I wanted to attend bible study and just dive into my faith. I wasn’t looking for any kind of relationship other than the relationship I had with my faith.
“I showed up to bible study and I met Carlos,” Alexa continued. “I just wanted to be friends… I didn’t want anybody in the entertainment industry. No actors, no singers… He was everything on my no list. And everything on my no list was everything I never knew I needed. It was the person who could help fill in all the gaps that I was missing in my life. That was Carlos.”
