Raising Kids Who Are Salt and Light

A young boy recently won a major acting award. The media is going crazy over this kid and his behavior during his acceptance speech. When I finally saw a clip, I realized he actually was just a well-behaved, pleasant, gracious, joyful child.

Ever wonder why God calls us and our children to be salt and light to the world? Those two things are so important to life. If you do not have them, you feel real pain. You will look around in a desperate search for anyone who has them. (In our salt soaked world that is hard to imagine, but think about how badly you want to see the sun after a couple of cloudy weeks.)

God wants our kids to stand out in their world. He wants the adults and other kids who see them to find them as refreshing and hopeful as seeing the sun after weeks of rain. By raising your kids to be salt and light to those around them, they will naturally draw others to them.

Once your kids’ saltiness and lightness draw people in to hear what they have to say….why they are the way they are…your kids can easily share their faith. God knows the light your kids emit has made those drawn to them interested in hearing how they can be that way in a world that is so light and salt starved.

So how can your kids exhibit light and salt characteristics to those around them? In my next post, I will share some characteristics to help your child practice. In today’s world, a young person who can consistently act in these ways will draw not only other kids, but adults as well to find out what is so different about them.

For now, encourage your kids to embrace being the kind of different God wants from them. The different that may have others tease them from time to time, but will also have these people secretly admiring them and wondering how they can feel, act and believe the way they do. The different that will often have their peers coming to them for advice and counsel. Your kids need to be okay with being “cool” by being godly…..it may not be the norm in their crowd, but it will make all of the difference in their future and in the lives of the people they touch.