Are you and your family connecting with God outside of church? As a family unit and as individuals on their own time? Are you checking the church box and calling it good? Are you, as parents or guardians expecting someone else to spiritually guide your children? Are you aware that your kids and youths’ Spiritual Practices are mostly taught by them watching you?
As Christians, we talk about being a steward, what it means and how when God gives us a gift, it comes with a responsibility. Children are the biggest gift that God can give, meaning the biggest responsibility that He can ask you to take on. As a steward of your kids, your job is to raise them up, to teach them how to know and connect with God.
Start children off in the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not run from it. Proverbs 22:6
Here are 5 Spiritual Practices that you can model and invite your children to participate in, together as a family.
1. Pray Together
As adults we try to have good prayer lives and incorporate prayer into our everyday but that is a skill or a Spiritual Practice that at one time, we knew nothing about and had to be taught. How you model prayer at home will have the single biggest impact on your kids’ prayer lives.
Try
-Setting aside some time to sit down as a family and talk about what you should pray about, then taking turns praying.
-Keeping a prayer list on the fridge or a little book or jar in living room.
-Adding prayer into their bedtime routine.
-Praising God in prayer when a good thing happens.
-Praying for your kids, in front of them and ask in return that they pray for you or their siblings.
-Using prayer prompts: “I am so grateful that it was sunny and . . .”, “Thank you Jesus for . . .”, “Lord I feel . . . and am asking for help with . . .”.
Try to not
-Make prayer a check-list item that you have to get through to do the next thing.
-Stop the silly, you’re the adult, you make the call, but kids thanking God for lasagna for dinner or asking God to help them not hit their brother because they keep getting in trouble teaches them to not properly honour God.
Remember
Sometimes children’s prayers seem inconsequential or odd, but the creator of the universe listens to them, the same as He listens to yours.
2. Read and Study the Bible Together
This is another Spiritual Practice that takes time and diligence. How as the spiritual leader in your kids and students lives can you guide them to love connecting with God through studying His word?
Try
-Being intentional; setting aside time where your family sits down, reads, and discusses the Bible together.
-Memorizing verses together.
-Doing crafts or activities that teach about a person or idea in the Bible.
-Incorporating scripture into prayer, decor, and routines.
-Combating conflict and bad behaviours by searching together for a story of how God does or doesn’t not want us to behave.
Try to not
Shy away from the harsh or bad. The world isn’t perfect, we are all broken and sinful, teaching kids that allows them to understand why Jesus lived, died and why we need him to.
Remember
Your kids don’t need a full 72 slide Powerpoint with footnotes and an appendix. They need to see and hear you living and learning from the Bible. Has everyone been fighting or calling each other names? Read a passage about how Christians are supposed to treat each other and come up with one actionable idea to implement that week that would help everyone not fight or call names.
3. Spend Time in Nature
Experiencing nature is a great way to teach kids and youth about God and study his character. Even the super hot and super cold, though maybe not the weather that we love, has something wonderful for us to experience.
Try
-Going for a walk and looking for the most intricate things you can find. Discuss their beauty, discuss how they are designed, how they are good and play a roll in the world.
-Planting a garden or flowers, work together to nurture God’s creation.
-Doing crafts, experiments, and activities involving different things from outside.
-Visiting a zoo, discussing how the animals are designed by God for a purpose
-Looking under rocks and between paving stones, seeing the insects and bugs and talking about why they are so important
-Taking your teenager for a drive out where you can check out some landscapes and talking about what you see, what you appreciate and model praising God for the wonders He has made.
Try to not
-Fight the play, being outside makes children want to run, play and experience nature. Guide them, discuss and teach, but also let them be.
-Say “get off the phone”, phones are often what youth experience the world through, instead use the phone. For example, have them take photos or videos, ask hard questions that require a Google search or let them look up and guide you to new locations.
Remember
-We don’t worship nature, we worship the Creator and when teaching children, it is important to remind them that we enjoy the trees, flowers, animals and weather, but we praise God for creating those things, not the actual things.
-This is one of those tiny moments kind of things, you don’t always need a big plan or any preparation, just start looking for everyday things that are incredible and appreciating them out loud to your children, model praising God and guide your kids to do the same.
4. Be Alone with God
This is a difficult one for kids, they are little social creatures, who can struggle to stay ‘on task’ without guidance, for teens it can be a struggle to turn away from the notifications and focus. Model this by reminding your kids about when you spend time with God, talk about how you read your bible after putting them to bed or how you spent 15 minutes praying in the morning before waking them up.
Try
-Adding alone time with God into the bedtime routine; give them their Bible, leave the room, this is the time where they get to try some of the previous skills, alone and in private.
-Having some alone time with God right after they wake up, either in their rooms or in the other room while you make breakfast or do your alone time.
-Carve out a few times a week where you set-up your child to have alone time with God.
Try to not
Discipline them; you want them to desire the alone time, if it becomes a fight or an opportunity to misbehave then it will not be something they seek once you stop instigating it.
Remember
It might not seem like it is fruitful or that your children are gaining anything from it but this is a Spiritual Practice, which means practicing it now, teaches them to practice it for the rest of their lives.
5. Live out God’s Forgiveness
“Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” Ephesians 4:32
We all mess up, we all sin against each other, just as we sin against God. You reaction to your own sin will teach your kids what their reaction to their sin should be.
Try
-Apologizing when you are wrong and ask for forgiveness; “Hey, I got pretty angry there and yelled, I’m sorry for yelling, can you forgive me?”
-Directing them to ask for forgiveness. “You weren’t listening and you threw that at me, do you understand why that was wrong? What should we do?”
-Practicing mutual apologizing. “I’m sorry I let myself get so angry that I yelled at you. Can you apologize to me for not putting the toys away like I asked?”
-Apologizing to your spouse and asking for their forgiveness in front of your children if you commit the offence in front of your children.
Try to not
-Make forgiveness be the ‘key’ to the situation being over. Consequences still exist.
-Say “It’s okay.” Use the phrase “I forgive you”, be intentional in your words and do not dismiss the offence, but offer forgiveness in the same way that God offers it to you.
Remember
Parents are still human, giving and seeking forgiveness models God’s relationship with us on both sides and is important for us as adults to be reminded of as much as it is for kids and youth.
Where are you already modelling these connections with God? Where would you like to improve? Did something jump out that you can start this week? I will leave you with an encouragement and some resources.
1 Peter 5:2-3 Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, watching over them—not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not pursuing dishonest gain, but eager to serve; not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock.
Try: https://www.christianbook.com/page/bibles/study-bibles?navcat=Bibles|Study-Bibles
Study Bibles or Levelled Bibles. These often include introductions, Bible studies, extra information, activities, and other helpful resources that are geared towards the level and needs of the reader (ie. Grade 2 reading level, young women, life application).
Personal Fun Fact; I was 23 when I replaced my Grade 3 Max Lucado Study Bible with a fresh NIV because my father and mother had specifically picked it out for me.
Try: https://www.signupgenius.com/church/bible-games-activities-kids.cfm
Do crafts, activities, and experiments. You don’t need to be a biblical genius to incorporate scripture, praise, and prayer into your family’s life. Check out the link to get some ideas and head over to Google for colouring pages and other printables.
