Fun Family Service Project

Fun Family Service Project - Parenting Like HannahFamily service projects should be a staple of any Christian family. They give your kids a chance to actively serve others and share their faith. Service projects also give your family quality time together doing what God wants your family to be doing. It creates wonderful memories and impresses upon your kids that this is your family identity- serving God by serving people and sharing your faith with them.

Sometimes the service projects you see online can seem a bit overwhelming. Or maybe you have done a lot of the “random acts of kindness” and are looking for something a little different and fun. How about a “My Favorite Meal” project?

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Tips For Raising Kids Who Are Salt and Light

Tips for Raising Kids Who Are Salt and Light - Parenting Like HannahI’m not sure whether it is good news or bad news, but it may be easier than ever for your children to stand out as salt and light in the world.

In Raising Kids Who Are Salt and Light, we talked about the necessity for your kids to stand out and be different in godly ways. When they do, they will draw other young people and adults to want to learn more about God…which is exactly why God told us to stand out in those godly ways.

So how can your kids be salt and light in their world? There are a lot of little things that make the difference, but focusing on some of these main areas will make your kids stand out in a good way:

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Raising Kids Who Are Salt and Light

Raising Kids Who Are Salt and Light - Parenting Like HannahA 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.

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Top Priorities for High Impact Christian Parenting

Top Priorities for High Impact Christian Parenting - Parenting Like HannahEver feel like you are trying to juggle seventeen balls at once, but keep dropping them? Parenting can be overwhelming at times. Trying to be a Christian parent and point your kids towards God seems like it adds a whole additional layer of to-do’s to your already multi-page list. Parenting your children so they grow to be active, productive Christians just seems impossible at times.

The problem with parenting is there is no real way to gauge how well you are doing your job. We all have experienced those moments when we felt as if maybe, just maybe, we finally had mastered this parenting thing. Of course, they are usually followed by some lovely reminder that we really have no clue whether what we are doing is going to work. You can parent your kids towards God and improve the odds they will grow up to become active, productive Christians. Yes, they have free will and even the “best” Christian parents have raised kids who have eventually rejected God.

Over the years though, I have carefully watched parents who raise children to become productive Christians. I notice most of them do a few things almost identically. While there are no guarantees, making these few things a top priority in your parenting will give your kids a very strong Christian foundation on which to build their lives.

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High Impact Christian Parenting

High Impact Christian Parenting - Parenting Like HannahHave you ever been exposed to one of those moms? When we started homeschooling our daughter years ago, I ran into quite a few of them. You know, the mom who can homeschool eleven children in different grades. Of course, most of them have college degrees by the age of sixteen. She also makes all of their clothes, helps on the family organic farm and grinds her own grain to make flour for her homemade bread. I mean really…makes her own flour!

Or maybe you have seen the Christian variety of the perfect mom. Her kids can quote long passages of scripture from memory, always make great choices, have done service projects that received national awards and hold hands as they skip perfectly scrubbed into the church building. You on the other hand, may just feel a miracle has happened if you pull up only thirty minutes late for church services and your kids didn’t try to kill each other on the way into the building.

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