Happy Monday Momma's :) I know there are so many people that don't have a typical work week and maybe weekends mean nothing to them, but my weekends spoil me. I typically don't work, do laundry or cook. Friday nights are fun, Saturday's are lazy and Sunday is God's day and go to my Momma's day :). Then here comes monday and it is back to reality. I do like our routine though and the feeling of getting something done that Monday normally brings. Today I have been thinking so much about raising spiritually strong children. My prayer for my kids is not that they excel in academics or sports, but that they find God's will and touch people's lives with the light of Christ. How as parents can we cultivate an environment that breeds spiritually minded kids? What are some things that we can do to help them be stronger Christians and even before that how can we lead our own kids to Christ? I am going to talk about a few things that we have made habits at our house and few things that I am making goals to do to give my children a firm foundation.
1. Be spiritually minded yourself. This is the hardest part. You can't expect your children to be spiritually minded if you are not focused on Christ. Colossians 3:2 says "Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth" and Phillipians 4:8 says "....Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things." This is where I fall the farthest. So many times I do not set my affection on things above, but on things that surround me. Can I just say social media is the worst distraction from things above. Drama is of the devil ladies... Plain and simple. Social media also causes us to constantly play the comparison game, and we never come out on top when comparing our lives to the lives of others as portrayed on facebook and instagram. So get off facebook, get off instagram and open up your Bible app. Read your Bible every day. It is God's words written to you. His sweet words will help keep your mind turned toward Him. When you are in His word everyday you will find yourself recalling verses to help you with that specific thing you are struggling with. I myself struggle in this area and have very good intentions, but at the end of the day I convince myself that netflix is really what I need to unwind. Not the Bible. That is not being focused on Christ and I am there on so many days. The second thing I do to keep myself spiritually minded is Talk to God everyday. He is there for you. Talk to him when you get up in the morning and talk to him when you go to bed at night. He loves to hear from you. We recently watched War Room and wow...what a great movie. Having a prayer life like the one that is portrayed in this movie will keep you spiritually minded. I fail in these areas every. single. day. My goal as a woman, as a wife and as a mother is to read my Bible more. Think about what I read, pray about it and then apply it to my life in a practical way. I know this is the first step in building a firm foundation for my children.
2. Create Spiritul habits for your Children. This could be different for everyone and you have to do what works best for your schedule and your family, but these are a few things we do to incorporate Christ in our home.
- We pray before meals. (James 1:17) This may seem like a small thing, but I don't see many families doing this anymore. Growing up my parents always acknowledged that every good and perfect thing comes from above and we always thanked our Lord and Savior for what we had. Everytime we sit down to eat Dinner, we thank God for the food that has been set before us. Right now this is just a habit for our children and they dont recognize the importance of it, but it is a great habit to instill in your children to Thank God for even the smallest things.
- We pray before bedtime. (Philippians 4:6) Again, this may seem small, but making habit of talking to God is never a bad thing. We are creatures of habit and teaching our kids good habits is so important. Sometimes I wish we weren't so disciplined in this because sometimes I am just ready for my kids to go to bed, but we are now at the point they always remind us that it is time to pray. We go around and each person says something they are thankful for that day and someone different prays every night.
-We read bible stories at home. (Deuteronomy 6:6,7) I cant stress this enough!! Church shouldn't be the only place your kids hear about God. They need to hear these stories from you at home and they need to know they are different than Disney fairy tales. Stories aren't just stories when they come from God's word. They are real, living stories that help us in our walk with Christ. When I was young, I knew stories about Jonah and the whale, Daniel and the Lions Den, and Jesus walking on the water...not because I heard them at church but because my Parents taught them to me. Don't let Christmas and Easter be taken over by Santa and the Easter bunny....tell them the real reason behind the season. Get excited about Christ and tell your Children about Him and what He has done for them. Once again, they aren't going to understand everything. As adults we don't understand everything either, but these stories are precious and they are what God wanted us to have and to share with our children. Let great Men of God be their spiritual superheroes and great women of the bible be their spiritual princesses. Just set in your heart a goal to share one bible story a day or one bible story a week and talk about it.
-We listen to Christian music. (1 Corinthians 10:31) (Ephesians 5:19) This has always been a big one for me. Kids learn so much through music. Anyone can tell you, if your child is having a hard time memorizing something, just put it to music and they will have it in no time. There is a reason the little song says "oh be careful little ears what you hear". This is also a warning to parents to be careful what you let blast from your radio. When Emma was as young as one year old we bought a few kids CDs that had lots of biblical songs and stories. The particular CDs we had told a bible story and then had a song that followed. We almost always listened to these in the car (this was sometimes hard....there is only so much kids music a parent can take!!) but Emma still knows so many of these songs and stories by heart. When I walk into a room and my kids are singing Jesus songs it makes my heart happy.
3. Make God the final authority. (Hebrews 13:17) (Romans 5:8) Discipline. We all hate it and it is hard. It is one of the hardest things we have to do as a parent, but we discipline because we love them and because we want our kids to grow up to be half-way decent people. When we discipline at our house I always give the reason why we are disciplining and what God says about it. I don't even know how many times I have said that "the Bible says we are supposed to obey our parents." We explain that we do things because God said so first....and then because Mom or Dad said it. Also use discipline as a time to explain that we all make mistakes but that God still loves us and forgives us. What an important truth that is to instill in our children!!
4. Scripture memorization. (Psalms 119:11) (Psalms 37:31) This is a goal for me. I need to be so much better about this because scripture memorization is so important. In my life being able to recall a verse I had memorized has been able to keep me on track, comfort me or give me the peace and strength I needed. Imagine being able to give your kids that. As parents, we won't be a constant physical presence 24/7, but God is there for them all the time!! Think about what power you are giving your children with scripture memorization. Once they start school, they will be surrounded by other ideas and criticisms. They will be surrounded by negativity and peer pressure. How will they deal with that? Memorizing God's word, even if it is because their parents are making them, is a spiritual tool that you can give them. The word of God is the sword of the Spirit. I don't want to send my kids to battle without a weapon. My goal is to teach them a verse a week and make it a practical verse that they can somewhat understand.
5. Keep your kids around spiritual patriarchs. I am blessed to have spiritual parents and so is my husband. I love for my kids to be around them and to see the spiritual heritage they have. God has worked in so many lives around us and my parents and grandparents are such good examples of lives led by God. Maybe you have someone in your life that is strong spiritually. Lean on them for advice and allow your children the freedom to lean on them as well. I think I know what's best for my kids 100% of the time, but I need to learn to stop and take advice from people who have been there, done that and their kids have grown up to be servants of God.
Parenting is hard. It is the hardest thing I have ever done. I am learning to not sweat the little things and to be more concerned with raising them up in the Lord. If I can equip them with spiritual tools and grow them in spiritual knowledge then I will have done the job the Lord has entrusted me with. He didn't ask me to make sure they are Doctors or lawyers. He didn't ask me to make sure they are at the top of their class. Thank goodness it isn't my responsibility to make sure they are the best dressed or most well-mannered. I will fail in so many areas with my children. Of course, I want to give them every opportunity and make sure they have the best of everything....but I can't. What I can do is give myself to God first and then give my children to Him as well. He has a purpose very specific to each one of our children. God can open doors that we can't. He can provide in ways that we can't. My job as a momma is to point my kids to the One who can help them do all things. I am thankful that God gives me multiple chances and I am learning to think more about what God thinks of me than what others might think. I want people to think that I have everything together. I want people to think I am strong and that I know exactly what to do, but God sees me for who I am and He still loves me. He sees all my failures and He still loves me. I want my kids to know that too! I want them to know more than anything when they fail that God is there for them and He still loves them. I want them to know that greater is He that is in us, than he who is living in the world.
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