Category: Character Training

Raising a Child To Be Different (For Christians)

Raising a Different Child (For Christians) - Parenting Like HannahI love little girls when they are in that three to five year old range. They will put together the most creative outfits you have ever seen. I remember I left our sleeping daughter with my husband when she was that age. He was going to help her get dressed and then they were meeting me somewhere a little later. She showed up in let’s just say a very innovative outfit.

Now to the average person, this particular outfit looked as if it had been pieced together by someone who was slightly color blind. When I asked her about it, she proudly replied “It’s all pink!” And she was right. In all of it’s mismatched, clashing glory, it was all pink. She was beautiful because she was confident in her beauty and fashion choices. She didn’t care what anyone else thought in that moment, because she was “pink”!

How great is that? What if we could somehow teach our children to be that confident about their Christianity? About making godly choices even when no one else does? About loving and serving those viewed as unloveable? About sharing their faith confidently with anyone and everyone?

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Why a Stubborn Child Is a Good Thing

Why a Stubborn Child Is a Good Thing - Parenting Like HannahFirst things first. Let’s be really clear on the meaning of stubborn. Stubborn is not being disobedient and disrespectful – even when corrected. That is rebellion. Stubborn is not insisting on having your way – no matter what. That is selfishness. Stubborn is not continuing an argument forever because you are determined to be right despite the costs. That is being controlling.

Stubborn is what used to be called perseverance. We don’t use that word any more, and it’s a shame. Stubborn sounds ugly and often it is, because people don’t define it properly. Stubborn – in the perseverance sense of the word – is a wonderful quality you need to train your child to have. Perseverance is your child’s ability to stick to doing, saying and thinking what is godly, loving, pure, good, uplifting, giving and beautiful no matter the circumstances.

Stubborn is sticking to an important godly task and seeing it through until its completion. It is doing what God needs you to be doing for the Kingdom whether it is serving or sharing your faith – even when things get tough. Raising a truly, godly stubborn child will result in a child who:

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Teaching Kids About Absolute Truth

Teaching Kids About Absolute Truth - Parenting Like HannahWant to hear something scary? A recent poll of 18-32 year olds revealed 80% of them felt it was perfectly fine to lie to get out of an awkward situation. Eighty percent of young adults think lying is perfectly acceptable!

I will admit lying will send me over the edge quicker than just about anything. I struggled with lying as a young child. That is until my parents decided to trot out every Bible verse about how much God absolutely detests lying. I am sure I have told an occasional lie since then, but I try to keep it to none. I am honestly still too frightened by the sheer number and emphatic nature of those Bible verses!

In today’s society, trotting out the Bible verses unfortunately, probably won’t stop your child from lying. Why? Because lying has been given such an extremely narrow definition by the world, your child will think she isn’t lying even when she is. In today’s world, a lie is a huge untruth told on purpose to hurt someone else. Partial truths, hidden truths, lies told to “spare” someone else, little “white” lies and more are considered acceptable and “not really lies” in the world.

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Stop Bullying by Cutting Screen Time?

Stop Bullying by Cutting Screen Time? - Parenting Like HannahSchool has started in many places and with it is a new campaign to stop bullying. As usual, there is an educational component and some sort of pledge to sign. While I applaud any efforts to change something for the better, the solution may be simpler than we think. Drastically limit or eliminate screen time for children and teens. Sounds simplistic and a little extreme? Keep reading.

The other week my teenage daughter came home horrified. She had watched in shock as a parent gave a child about a year old an iPhone to play with for an extended period of time. She has regaled me with stories from her acquaintances of parents encouraging their children to watch multiple hours (6-8+) of television during the day or children watching totally inappropriate media at very young ages. I thought television viewing was bad in my day, but between television, video games and other “screens” the average child spends most of their waking, non-school hours looking at some sort of screen.

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Teaching Kids the Sun Always Shines (And God Is Always Here)

Teaching Kids the Sun Is Always Shining (And God Is Always Here) - Parenting Like HannahMy daughter just started her freshman year at a Christian college on the West Coast. The minister at her church on campus is a wonderful Australian surfer dude preacher (not his real name). The last time we worshipped there, he shared something I thought was profound.

“The sun is always shining.” Think about it. Even on the cloudiest, rainiest days we have enough light to see (even barely). Those are rays of sun breaking through the clouds. At night, the sun hasn’t left, we have just turned around from it. When we come back around the next morning, the sun is there waiting for us. Some nights the sun even sends us a reminder it is still there by reflecting its rays off of the moon, making it light up our night sky.

When we say I wish the sun were shining, it is our perspective that is off a bit. You see the sun is shining, we just aren’t able to see it because of our somewhat depressed perspective. Think about the expressions people use to “help” someone through a rough time. “It’s always darkest before the dawn.” “The sun will come out tomorrow.” All ignore the fact that the sun has been there all the time, we just couldn’t see it.

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