Join Lori as she exhorts parents to layer in Christian activities in their child's life.
Well hey friends, it’s Lori Joiner, your discipleship coach! I am thrilled you are joining me again as we learn some great tips to use to disciple our children. Our children are a gift from God, we would all agree with that, and we need to not only be thankful for our children but to also see their lives as a great stewardship.
See my children are on loan to me from God. He has given them to me to raise unto Him. So he has to be absolutely first in their lives. And as you know by now, episode 5, I firmly believe we as parents are to take the reins when it comes to raising our kids in the Lord. We need to be thinking of their spiritual development and filling in the gaps when we see them, and teaching them the basics of the Bible, salvation, morality, etc.
And plugging into a great church and Christian programs and activities can be such a phenomenal source of reinforcement for your children’s growing spiritual life.
So, Your Discipleship Coach Kids Edition tip is…. Make Christian activities a priority in your child’s life.
I saw a great meme the other day that said, “Parents, one day our children will stand before King Jesus, and what will matter the most is not their grades, their popularity, their batting average, their class rank, or their college transcripts. What will matter the most is their soul and what they did for Him throughout their lives.”
God has entrusted my husband and I with my children’s lives and spiritual development I need to make certain that He and His purposes on earth are talked about in the home, and that living for Him is modeled in the lives of each parent.
Plugging into some great Christian programs can be a great way to help and support your efforts to help your children build a solid foundation upon Christ.
I know many parents who are quick to put their children in sports, dance, piano, etc. but have done little to prioritize Christian activities. Again, many are simply leaving this to a Sunday morning (if that) routine at church. But I would strongly suggest that as you look at your week, you layer in the things of the Lord first. Why-
· They will see other adults teaching children about God. They will think-ok, this isn’t just my mom and dad teaching me about God, there are many others who believe in God as well.
· They will make friends with other children who are learning about God. I have always prayed asking God to bring godly friends into my children’s life-well, church activities are a great way to actually see that happen.
· They will have reinforcement from what you are teaching them at home. Perhaps you taught them about a particular Bible story from a devotional and the Sunday school leader spoke on it as well. Repetition is such a vital way children learn at a young age.
When our kids are facing the temptations of life in Junior high, high school, and college, that little league soccer practice will not help them as much as a Wednesday night youth meeting will. When they are faced with compromising their beliefs, and straying from what they know is right, that gymnastics lesson will not help them as much as the Awana meeting where they learned Bible verses that God can bring to their mind in the very moment they need it.
I am not saying each child raised in the Lord will not stumble at some point, but we as parents at least need to help set them up for success in their spiritual life!
So what are some of these programs and activities I am talking of?
Well, number one is involvement in a local church. Find a church near you and join it. Then don’t just attend but participate. Do the community service projects with your church, volunteer on your rotation in the nursery, teach in a Sunday school class, bring food to a shut in, do the retreats, check your child into Sunday school, attend youth group, bring the doughnuts, BE the church BE a part of the body of Christ. This is an ENTIRE subject all on its own. I could drone on and on about the importance of regular, local, in-person church attendance. Matter of fact in the Bible study I authored entitled Next Steps, I dedicate one of the 7 lessons to this vital topic of plugging into a faith community. Because you never mature past your involvement in a local church body.
You want to model what you hope will be true of your own children one day. Don’t sit on the couch and watch a sermon-I don’t care how awesome that preacher is. Make the effort to BE the local church, not just a consumer of information. Besides, the children in the homes where mom and dad are watching from the couch are severely missing out on age-appropriate Bible lessons, fellowship, teaching, etc. The church I attend is a great church. It is not perfect, it has things I would change if given the opportunity, but what it does have is biblical teaching to children so that they can grow up to be lights in this dark world. It does have a place where youth can meet other Christin friends and they can support each other during their junior high and high school years.
So local church involvement is key to making Christ and Christin activities a priority in your child’s life.
Secondly, another organization I highly recommend is AWANA (https://www.awana.org/). Awana is a world-wide nonprofit ministry focused on providing Bible-based evangelism and discipleship solutions for ages 2-18. As the global leader in child and youth discipleship, Awana gives children the opportunity to know, love, and serve Jesus, no matter their background.
So AWANA is hosted in churches all over the globe. I registered my children for this program when my boys were young. It met each Wednesday night and I volunteered in the program. The children meet for 30 minutes of scripture memorization, 30 minutes of Game time, and 30 minutes of a message for their age level. They can earn awards for the verses they memorize.
Over the years, my children learned the books of the Bible, 100’s of verses of scripture, and had a blast doing it! AWANA is non-denominational and definitely cares about reaching kids of Christ but also teaching children the Bible and discipling them.
The second Church based organization I would recommend is your church's Youth group.
Now here is the deal. Many churches offer a youth group. But making youth group a priority for your kids’ lives is another issue all together.
Our church has literally thousands of families, but the youth group is not that large. Why? Priorities.
For my sons, church is the priority. So currently Josh swims on a year-round swim team. They practice every weeknight from 6:15-7:45. My husband and I pay for this. Per month we are paying for Josh to swim, to improve his skills, and perhaps, if he wants, try out for a high school team at some point. But guess what night he does not go to practice? That would be Wednesday night. Because on Wednesday nights he goes to youth group. And let’s remember, he does not just attend youth group, he invites his friends and lost friends from school to youth group. He is able to worship God with other kids his age, hear from great leaders teaching from the Bible and he is building friendships with other children being taught the same morals, values, and biblical foundations that the is.
Jake has one more year of AWANA to go. But I recall a few years ago he was really involved in gymnastics. He had moved up through the levels of gymnastics at a great pace and was offered a spot on the gymnastics competitive team. When I asked about the program I was SHOCKED at the amount of money it would cost. I could have bought a new car based on the sticker price of being on a competitive travel gymnastics team. I was also shocked by the number of hours they wanted him to begin to come to the gym. He would go from two hours per week to 9. I learned that three days out of the week I would need to take him directly from school to gymnastics from 5-8 each night. I was like, wow, I would hardly see my child! So I was already having my doubts about moving forward with this program-however, the real kicker was when they told me practice was Monday, Wednesday, and Friday nights. And that there was not an option to miss on Wednesday nights. This would have taken him out of AWANA and Youth group for well, the foreseeable future. There were many other factors involved in our decision to turn down that coveted spot on the competitive gymnastics team, but I never had a peace about him missing church on Wednesday nights. I thought why would I take my child away from Godly teaching, singing, Christian friendships and put him with a coach who may or may not be a Christian?
I share with you these two examples because I don’t just preach this-this idea of making Christian activities a priority in your schedule-especially when children are in their formative young years, but because I am actually putting my money where my mouth is.
My husband said to me one day, “So we are paying for josh to practice swimming with his team five nights a week but he is only going 4 nights a week?” I was like-yep, pretty much! The extra laps he may get in on Wednesdays will not help him spiritually and THAT is what matters in his life on earth and his life in eternity with God.
Another great organization is Fellowship of Christian Athletes. This typically meets on school campuses from Junior High through college. It is known as FCA and it really open to anyone, you don’t have to be an athlete to participate. I love that the Junior High Josh and Jake attend here in Katy, TX, offers FCA on Friday mornings before school starts. There are games, doughnuts and a devotional and prayer time. Now you have to know that Fridays are my busiest days of the week! I wake up under that gun each Friday morning. And my neighbor takes our kids to school. But on Fridays, I get up extra early to drive both my boys to FCA. Its takes effort to fit it all in-but you had better believe, that ANY reinforcement I can get for my sons to grow in Christ I will 100% take advantage of it! And, bonus, Josh has already invited a friend who does not attend church to join him at FCA next week!
Mom’s, dad’s, make Christian activities a priority in your own life and in the lives of your children as well-Their growing spiritual life is of utmost importance and any sacrifice you make to plug your children into Christian activities and point them to Him will matter in the long run.
Let’s pray!