What do you want your children to look like when they are grown? Do you desire for them to be focused on success, materialism, and entertainment? Or do you want them to be living in communion with God and raising your grandchildren to live for the Lord as well?
Recently the Lord connected me with Charmé Fletcher, founder of the blog, Covenant Heirs, and coauthor with her husband of Making a Spiritual Discipleship Plan. My husband and I enjoyed using her spiritual discipleship plan resource to come up with our own discipleship plan for our family. It is an amazing tool and really helped us develop a vision for our family, so we stay centered on what matters most in life. I asked her to guest blog for us to tell you more about this wonderful tool…
If we are teaching our children to be followers of Jesus, we must teach and encourage them to help others! Children naturally love to help, yet we often get so involved in what we need to accomplish as parents that we forget to include our children when we are serving. We can give them age-appropriate opportunities, and we can model what it looks like to help others, so they can learn to show God’s love by meeting people’s physical, monetary, emotional, and spiritual needs.
Recently we had the opportunity to take a family vacation with some friends on a cruise to the Bahamas! We had such a wonderful time with our family and friends and enjoyed God’s beautiful creation all around us. There was only one thing missing… we wished we had a family vacation devotional to do with our kids over the trip to encourage us to keep our hearts more focused on the Lord and His ways!
I hope you enjoy this devotional designed for ages 4-8 to teach your children how to have a helping heart. Read the italic section or paraphrase with your children to fit their age level. -Taylor
Introduction: Of all the people in the world, who do you think has the most beautiful heart? Jesus has the most perfect heart! He shows how beautiful His heart is by His character- the way He acts towards God and others. Can you think of some character traits that Jesus shows? [kind, responsible, prayerful] We want to be like Jesus and have a beautiful heart too!
Hurricane Harvey brought devastation to much of the Houston area with flooded homes, buildings, and loss of basic resources. An abundance of help was needed, and many felt led to go out and serve those in need. One of those families was the Ming family. With eight kids and a new baby, they had every excuse NOT to help, but because they are a family that prioritizes serving others, they put their kids to work and found ways to bless those who needed assistance.
“I had it first!” “He pushed me!” “I hate my brother!” “Why won’t she ever be nice to me?!” Don’t these comments make you want to pull your hair out as a parent? Do you ever think, “Why can’t my kids just get along?!”
I am sure we have all experienced the scene of an enraged toddler pounding his fists, stomping his feet, and screaming in the middle of the store isle, “I WANT THAT TOY!” Everyone goes about their business pretending like they don’t notice the racket and trying not to cover their ears and make a mad dash for the door.
Content Heart Week One:
Introduction: Of all the people in the world, Jesus has the most beautiful heart. He shows how beautiful His heart is by His character traits. He is very loving and forgiving. Can you think of some other character traits that Jesus shows? [kind, responsible, helpful] We want to be like Jesus and have a beautiful heart too!
One of the most profound gifts that we can give our children is to teach them to pray. It is such an honor that the God of the entire universe wants to have a RELATIONSHIP with us. And this relationship can only happen through prayer, communing with God… I believe one of the best ways we can encourage our children to have a relationship with Jesus is to teach them to pray. And the best way to teach them to pray is to pray with our children.
