Teaching our Kids to be Kingdom Focused

One of the things I really want to do as a parent is to teach my boys that the Kingdom of God is so much larger than what we see in our church, town or even country. I want them raised with a Kingdom focus and an understanding of the importance to carry the gospel to every people group. The responsibility we have as believers is to go into all the world. When I came across this practical advice on the raisinggodlychildren.org website, I felt that it was important to share with you some practical ways as parents we can do this. It is especially important to seize these opportunities for our faith family at Trinity as we prepare for our yearly “Arms Around The World” missions commitment.  

www.raisinggodlychildren.org/2011/06/10-ways-to-teach-your-children-about.html?spref=tw&m=1

10 Ways to Teach Your Children About MISSIONS

There are things we can do to help our kids love the nations and the cause of Christ, even though a heart and calling for the Great Commission is ultimately something only God can grant. Here are a few ideas from Ryan and Anna, who are currently preparing to serve in Asia with their two young daughters.

1. Pray for missionaries as a family. We keep a stack of prayer cards on the dinner table and rotate through them during mealtime prayers.

2. Read missionary biographies to your children. The stories of Hudson Taylor,Adoniram Judson, William Carey, Gladys Aylward, and other missionary pioneers are captivating ways to orient a child’s heart on the most important things in life.

3. Draw the whole family into supporting missionaries financially. Teach your kids from a young age that being a good steward of their money involves channeling resources toward the the cause of Christ in missions. Older kids can donate some of their lawn mowing and babysitting money. Younger children can earn money doing chores around the house which can be set aside for missionaries.

4. Find your child a missionary kid pen pal. Many children of missionaries around the world would be delighted to get mail from a child their age in their parent’s culture. Your child (and the whole family) will learn valuable insights about living abroad through the eyes of a child. Additionally, when the missionaries visit your church, your child will already have a relationship with the MK and will be able to include them more easily.

5. Entertain missionaries in your home. Inviting missionaries over will be as much of a blessing to your family as to the missionaries. Host them for dinner or for a whole furlough. Build or buy your house with this in mind.

6. Take risks as a family. There are ways to live life which help children grasp the reality that discomfort and suffering are normal and rewarding parts of the Christian experience. Volunteer at a rescue mission; house a single mother; move to the inner-city.

7. Affirm and nurture qualities in your children which could serve them on the mission field. As your children grow in knowledge and skill, encourage them to think about how they could use their gifts in missions work. Then, if God says, “go,” release them to go!

8. Teach your children to be world Christians. Don't expose them to only the American perspective on news and realities around the world. Go out of your way to make them more aware than the average American Christian about geography, world history, and the plights and perspectives of people across the globe.

9. Read missionary prayer letters to your children. Ask them questions about the content and look up facts about the missionaries’ location on the Internet.

10. Use missions fact books and resources such as Operation World, the Global Prayer Digest, the Joshua Project, and Voice of the Martyrs (VOM). Kids of Courage is the youth-oriented arm of VOM and offers activity books, spotlights on the persecuted world, and more.

Most of all, pray every day that your kids will develop hearts that mirror God’s compassion for the nations and love for his glory in them!

Desiring God Ministry 

One of My Favorite Blogs

There are few blogs that I like and then, there are even fewer that I love. One of the ones that I love is www.raisinggodlychildren.org

This blog just keeps truths in front of me that remind me the importance of training up my boys in the Word of God. We talk a great deal about grace, truth and sin in our house. We try to be quick to confess our sin when we wrong one another, but one sin that is not mentioned enough by me to our family is the issue of provoking our children to wrath. I do this more than I want to admit because sarcasm can be my second language - not only when just hanging out having fun, but even in my correction at times.  This sarcasm can breed anger in my children, but there are also other ways that we can provoke wrath; the blog below helps with bringing this seldom mentioned sin to our attention.

http://www.raisinggodlychildren.org/2012/05/how-to-provoke-your-children-to-anger.html?m=1

How To Provoke Your Children To Anger

Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.  (Ephesians 6:4)

I was thinking about this today as I prepared for a parenting class.  Here are some ways that we parents can provoke our children to anger.  I’ve done many of these, and for this reason I’m grateful for the blood of Jesus and the power of the Spirit to change.

We can provoke our children to anger:

- By constantly criticizing them and not encouraging them.  When they feel they can never please us enough.
- By having double standards – Do as I say, not as I do.  Expecting them to do things we don’t do, e.g. ask forgiveness, humble themselves, etc.
- By anger and harshness
- By a lack of affection
- By telling them what to do or not do without giving Biblical reasons (e.g., Do it because I said to do it, or because it’s just wrong).
- By being offended at their sin because it bothers us, not because it offends God.
- By comparing them to others (Why can’t you act like your sister?)
- By hypocrisy – acting like a Christian at church but not at home
- By embarrassing them (correcting, mocking or expressing disappointment in them in front of others)
- By always lecturing them and never listening to them
- By disciplining them for childishness or weakness, not for sin
- By failing to ask their forgiveness when we sin against them
- By pride – failing to receive humble correction from our spouses or our children when we sin.
- By self-centered reactions to their sin (How could you do this to ME?)
- By ungracious reactions to their sin (What were you thinking?  Why in the world would you do that?)
- By forgetting that we were (and are) sinners (I would NEVER have done that when I was your age).

May God give us gracious, gentle, humble, affectionate hearts toward our children.

 

There's an App for that!

I love, Love, LOVE  my iphone! You don’t have to write me about your Android, Blackberry or any other “smart-phone” you have -  the iphone is King! Regardless of which phone you like, there are amazing things in “app-land” to make our lives easier. A great app you can find at

 http://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/children-desiring-god/id411711649 or

http://market.android.com/details?id=com.fighterverses.android

depending on what phone you have is Fighter Verses. It is a Bible memory app that has wonderful aids to help you in memorizing the Word of God. You can also go to

http://www.fighterverses.com/

and get songs to help you, and your family, hide the Word of God in your hearts. This was created for children originally, but a problem for many of us as people of God, is the lack of time we spend memorizing the Word of God - and much of the reason for this is that we have no plan. I want to encourage you take a look at these links - they will help you in your walk greatly.