All posts tagged Spiritual Formation

Parenting Resource Round-Up

By | April 13, 2011 | Parents, Resources | 2 Comments
Flickr by Whiskeygonebad

Here’s some great parenting resources I found while surfing around the internet this week.  From devotional ideas to craft projects, there’s sure to be something you can use.  Leave me a comment and let me know what your fave is from this list and if you’ve got another great resource to share!

Mark Merril’s Blog:

A Different Way Blog:

Orange Parents Blog: How to Raise a Jerk (take a look!)

Monday Musing: Parenting the Online Generation (Keep your kids safe!)

Frugal with a Flourish: Easter Egg Wreath

Ministry to Children: Family Worship Guide for Easter

iShine: Media Diet Calculator (Are you filling your time with too much junk?)

Facebook: Be the Dad Today

What if my child doesn’t want to go to church?

By | March 2, 2011 | Parents | 2 Comments
Flickr by clairity*

I’ve met some great bloggers through our Ministry Blogger Challenge, and Joey at A Different Way is one of them.  He’s got one of the best parenting blogs I’ve seen out there.  Recently, he published a great article about what to do if your child is resisting going to church.  Here’s an excerpt from his post:

Has your child ever said, “I don’t want to go to church”?  We have been fortunate to be a part of a great church, with a fun and meaningful Children’s Ministry.   Even in the process of our family moving to Allendale, Hannah wondered about what it looks like to drive 3 hours each way to still be at Grace Church worship services.  Our kids are almost always excited to be in their programing.  Almost always.

How to Respond

But each of our children, on more than one occasion, has expressed resistance to going to their programming, and one of them has expressed it plenty of times.  Below are some talking points that we’ve used to engage our children’s hearts on this matter.  It’s important to note that this is how we framed the discussion with our children at the preschool and young elementary age.  For preteens and teenagers, most of the principles are the same, but the conversation would probably need to go differently.

Click here to find out some practical conversation starters and some principles to remember.

What do you do when your child doesn’t want to go to church?

Helping Your Child Get into the Bible

By | February 23, 2011 | Bible Study, Parents, Prayer, Spiritual Milestones | Comments Off
Flickr by Josh Liba
  • Model reading the Bible.  Modeling is the most effective teaching method.
  • Find an age appropriate version with the features that will most appeal to your child
  • Most children tend to just open the Bible and read wherever it opens. Stress the importance of systematic reading – starting and finishing a book of the Bible, or a least starting and finishing a complete Bible story.
  • Elementary age children should mainly focus on reading the Gospels, Acts, appropriate Old Testament stories, Psalms, and Proverbs.
  • Stress consistency rather than quantity.  Reading a few paragraphs a day at least 5 days a week is a great goal.  There is nothing wrong with extrinsic rewards to get them started.
  • Encourage highlighting and marking the Bible.   Drawing symbols like a heart when they see the word “love” or a dove when they see the word “Holy Spirit” can help kids to focus.
  • Teach children to listen to God when they read.   The Bible does not emphasize “studying” Scripture, but rather listening to God’s voice as we read and letting Scripture transform us (The Greek in 2 Timothy 2:15 says to be “diligent” with the Word).
  • Highlighting a verse is a way we acknowledge God is speaking to us about something.   After highlighting a verse, follow these steps:
  1. Quiet yourself by turning your focus on Jesus.
  2. Ask God what He wants to speak to you about this verse.
  3. Tune to the words and pictures that gently light upon your heart.
  4. Write down these spontaneous words and pictures.
  • God speaks to us through the Bible and then we can pray that verse back to God as a prayer.  For example, start by praying Psalm 23.   “Lord, you are my shepherd.  Lead me today into all of your will.”
  • If your child has highlighted verses of the Bible, turn each of these highlighted verses into a prayer.
  • You and your child could put tabs on your Bibles together to mark each book.  You could talk about the book as you add a few tabs each night (very basic background, type of book, etc.).
  • Read the Bible together.  Don’t be intimidated by not knowing all the answers to their questions.   Such is the wonder of the Bible.  Our understanding is constantly growing.
Recently, I was introduced to Pete Hohmann through a class I was taking at Children’s Ministry University Online. He was kind enough to allow me to reprint a few of his articles from his website, including the one you just read, here on Growing Kids Ministry.  Here are a few more to check out:

Also, if you’re looking for a great song to teach the Books of the Bible, check out Bible Book Bop by the Go Fish Guys!

Preschooler Checklist for Spiritual Growth

By | August 24, 2010 | Parents | Comments Off
What Should I Be Teaching My Preschooler about God?

Are you a checklist oriented person?

Want to make sure your “on the right track” with teaching your preschooler about God?

The following guide (starts on page 55 of Raising a Modern Day Joseph) will help you to evaluate your child’s growth and perhaps choose an area to focus on.

KNOWLEDGE: My child understands…

___ God created the earth

___ Dad and Mom also have to obey authority
___ God talks to us through the Bible

___ God knows everything and is everywhere

___ God is different than us

___ God is in charge
___ Dad and Mom also have to obey authority

___ God talks to us through the Bible
___ Sin is thinking, saying, or doing things that God doesn’t like
___ Jesus died for our sins and came back to life

LOVE: My child…

___ knows God loved us so much he sent Jesus to die for our sins
___ knows prayer is talking to God, and prays with the family
___ is thankful to God for things

___ enjoys attending church

___ wants to obey God out of love

___ memorizes simple verses

SERVICE: My child…

___ sings songs of praise to God

___ respects the possessions of others
___ makes pictures or cards for those who are sick

___ listens to parent reading the Bible
___ is learning to sit quietly in church

___ shows kindness to others
___ prays without prompting

___ thanks others without prompting

Lists aren’t for everyone, but if you like to check things off, this newsletter entry is for you! Just remember, spiritual development takes time. Each child progresses at their own pace. This is a guide, not a list of requirements. Use it as a tool, but don’t feel guilty if you don’t check everything off. You should be proud of what you’ve already accomplished!

Want this in a PDF version?  Click here for the Preschooler Checklist.

More Modern Day Joseph Posts:

Book Review

Teach Your Preschooler to Respect God

Ideas for Helping Your Child Love and Respect God

Can You Teach a Baby about God?

Key verses and stories for Preschoolers

Developing a Family Plan

Teaching Your Preschooler about God: Stories & Verses

By | August 4, 2010 | Parents | 1 Comment

Looking for a way to learn more about God as a family?

Wondering how you start to teach your child about God and the Bible?

Here’s some ideas from How to Raise a Modern-Day Joseph:

  • Pray in front of your children (p47): Let your child hear you talking about God about everything, not just rote or memorized prayers.  Pray together about jobs, neighbors, friends, family, and more.
  • Read the Bible to your children (p48): You don’t have to read a whole lot.  Choose a few verses that your preschooler can understand.  (For ideas on reinforcing the lessons they learn at Kids for Christ, see front of Newsletter).  Practice looking up verses in the Bible together.
  • Encourage your children to have an attitude of thankfulness: Remind your child to say thank you when they receive a treat from a friend or another adult and remember to thank your child when they help you with something (like setting the table or picking up clothes).  Even very young children can draw thank you cards for gifts they’ve received.  Thank God for things when you are praying as well.

Biographies  to Consider:

  • Joseph in Genesis 37-39:  Preschoolers will be able to understand Joseph’s brothers being jealous of the colorful coat and extra attention from dad.  Joseph was obedient to his dad when he asked him to check on his brothers.  This would be a great story for sibling rivalry.
  • Josiah in 2 Chronicles 34: Josiah was crowned king when he was only 8 years old! Ask your children what it would be like if they were king or queen.  Josiah was a good king because he followed God’s way.  How does following God help us to make good decisions?
  • David (Psalms, 1 & 2 Kings): David is a key character in the Bible.  There are all kinds of things we can learn from David like bravery, obedience, importance of prayer, and forgiveness.
  • Pick up a Read and Share Bible.   The kids I’ve been providing childcare for (ages 4 & 5) have been loving it.  We read 30-50 pages every day and they are still asking for more!

Bible Verses to Consider:

  • Genesis 1:1 This verse is a great way to remind kids that God is the creator of the world.  When you’re building with blocks or play-dough, talk to your child about how God creator the world in a similar way, only He did it out of nothing!
  • Matthew 28:20 Help kids learn that God will be with them everywhere – at school, church, on the playground, and at a friend’s house.
  • Ephesians 6:1 God wants kids to obey their parents.  They don’t have a choice.  Teach your children this verse to reinforce your authority and God’s authority.

More Modern Day Joseph Posts:

Book Review

Teach Your Preschooler to Respect God

Ideas for Helping Your Child Love and Respect God

Can You Teach a Baby about God?

Teach your baby to love God: Spiritual Formation starts at Birth

By | July 16, 2010 | Parents | 4 Comments

Great Tool for Parents:

Modern Day Joseph Series

Egypt Log

In connection to our church’s upcoming BIG EGYPTIAN EVENT: Joseph’s Journey to Egypt, we’ll be running a summer series in our newsletter (I’ll also post it here) from the book, How to Raise a Modern-Day Joseph.

Life Threads

We’ll be focusing on five main character traits (called Life Threads in the book) and how to develop them at different ages.  They are: (1) Respect for God, (2) Wisdom for living life based on a knowledge of God, (3) Grace in relationship with others, (4) A sense of purpose that comes from God and (5) Perspective for a life based on the sovereignty of God. As we dig into this book, page references will be given.  Feel free to pick up your own copy and follow along.  As we journey together, I’d love to hear your feedback, experiences, and growth as a family.

Introduction

What parents wouldn’t want their children to grow up like a modern day Joseph?  Some are already going a great job nurturing their children’s spiritual life.  Some have handed the job over to the church.   The majority of Christian parents are somewhere in the middle.  They want to be the spiritual leaders, but are not sure how.  They might be intimidated by the important task before them.  They might not know how to make a plan.  This series will give you a starting point.

Fitting it into the Schedule (p17)

When, where and how do we spend time training our children in the ways of God?  This gives us a pretty clear picture:

Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 20 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates,  so that your days and the days of your children may be many in the land that the LORD swore to give your forefathers, as many as the days that the heavens are above the earth. (Deuteronomy 11:19-21)

So, it’s an all-the-time thing — finding moments to talk about God, and it’s a scheduled thing.  Whether you take a few moments at breakfast, at dinner, before bed  — it’s important to find a time to have Family Devotions.  Don’t worry about what other families are doing, and don’t worry about being spiritual champs the first week. Just get started.  You’ll be glad you did.

The Starting Line (Ages 0-2)

Did you know that spiritual training can begin before you child is born?  As your waiting for your bundle of joy to arrive, think about the main goals you want for your child.  When they are 18, what do you want people to say about them?  Start carving out a time for family devotions now.  Even though you’re little one won’t be able to understand for a few years, they’ll grow up knowing God is important.  Decide now if spiritual growth will take precedence over other activities.  Will your child miss a soccer game for church or church for a soccer game?  Will you work as hard at teaching him memory verses as you are math?

Baby is here!  Now what?

  • Pray with baby before meals and bedtime.
  • Read Bible stories from brightly colored, high quality books.
  • Take your baby to church.
  • Start checking out the Children’s Ministries in your church.
  • Don’t underestimate your little one.  Babies begin to learn morality early!

Other Modern Day Joseph Posts:

Book Review

Teach Your Preschooler to Respect God

Ideas for Helping Your Child Love and Respect God