Simple Steps

Just a short blog for today; for the steps here are not difficult to understand. Carrying them out requires effort and creativity, but if you are dedicated to raising your children in the Lord, you can apply the required effort with His help.

1. Get your children to every appropriate church function. Get them to Bible class, ask them every time about their class, what they studied, who was there. Make it an event that is important enough to discuss at some length. When the children have a special program to put on, get your child involved in it. When the teens have a youth rally, get your teen there -- with their friends -- and make it worth their while by giving extra blessings to them (a stop by the ice cream shop? A run by Blockbuster? Be creative) as your thanks for their involvement in Christian things.

NOTE: I was a youth minister for one year (I was terrible at it). We had a very large youth group and I loved those kids. Now, decades later, the kids who are still faithful are those -- without exception -- whose parents made sure they got to every event and were involved in planning and execution of events. The parents who had other priorities, who let their kids roam away from church activities, find that their children are no longer in worship... and neither are their grandchildren. Tragic.

2. Say a good thing about Jesus every day. Find a way to compliment Jesus in front of your children every day, in a way they can understand the comment. It doesn't need to be big and dramatic, but it needs to be a part of your normal speech and lifestyle. Start early enough and it will become a part of their language, too.

3. Find a family mission. It could be a child you 'adopt' via one of the great agencies out there that help children in third world countries. It might be a missionary that you and your children write, prepare CARE packages, etc. for on a regular basis (allowing the kids to have input). It might be a local soup kitchen, homeless shelter, or a shelter for battered women. Whatever it is (and you might need to change it from time to time), it needs to be a part of your family identity. "This is who we are. This is what we do." It doesn't have to be a huge thing. For small children, letting them help make cookies and then distribute them at a nursing home is an easy way to get them caught up in the joy of doing good.

4. Remind your children that you, too, are under the command of Christ. When you have to bite your tongue, or adjust your spending, or turn off a TV show because of content, let them know that you have had to modify your behavior because of who you are in Christ. Discipline yourself or you will never be able to discipline your children.

5. As soon as they can write legibly, get them to help you pay bills. They can fill out the checks, enter the deduction in the checkbook, and do the subtractions as you go through the pile of "payment due" missives we all receive. That lets them see where the money goes and that you aren't made of money. Because we did this, our kids never asked for the hugely expensive things other kids had. They knew our money situation because they were involved in it. By the way, when you write that check to the church and to charities regardless of how poorly you are doing that month, that is an incredible lesson your kids will not soon forget.

More later. Enjoy your children. Especially the difficult ones! Remember -- they get to choose your nursing home.