Character Training – Page 117 – Parenting Like Hannah

Early Intervention in Christian Parenting

Early Intervention in Christian Parenting - Parenting Like Hannah Have you ever watched a child almost dart in front of a car? Anyone and everyone will move heaven and earth to intervene and save the child’s life. No one stops to worry about who is watching the child or what the reaction will be after intervening. All anyone cares about is the immediate intervention needed to save the child from being hit by a car.

In reality, many children in our world are in need of intervention. Not just from abuse, neglect and starvation (although millions need that too). The children of the world need us to intervene so they will not become attached to Satan. Even in our churches most of our children will eventually leave God. Yet, we feel little need to intervene in some way. We assume children will pick up “God” by some sort of osmosis. Even the Church itself often provides parents with little more support than classes once or twice a week and an occasional fun activity.

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Raising Boys to be Christian Heroes

Walk into almost any church and you will find boys with names like Caleb, Noah, Daniel and John. I would assume many parents chose those names in hopes their sons would grow up to become strong in the Lord, just like the men for whom they were named.

Unfortunately, giving a child a name of a godly person does not guarantee your child will be faithful. If it were, every child in most churches would have a biblical name! Parents have to do something more to set their sons on the paths to becoming heroes of faith. But what?

Raising Boys by Design by Gregory Jantz and Michael Gurian gives parents a blueprint for helping develop the character traits your sons will need to become the men God designed them to be. The authors use a combination of recent brain research, counseling experience and their own personal journeys to explain what most boys need and very few are receiving to help them grow to be godly men.

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Why Every Mom Needs A Bucket List

Why Every Mom Needs a Bucket List - Parenting Like Hannah Sixteen months. Sixteen MONTHS?! Yesterday, my daughter completed the last AP exam of her Junior year in High School. Which means (Lord willing) she will be leaving for college in sixteen short months. I am not a doctor, but my guess is the number one cause for hyperventilating moms is realizing they only have a few months left to “finish” full-time parenting.

I know a mother’s job and influence continues, but the opportunity to impact your child on a daily basis ends for most of us when our child heads off to college. While that’s a wonderful, exciting time in her life, it can cause a bit of panic in mine. I picture myself trailing after her towards her dorm sharing vital tips of wisdom – “Remember to cook that at 350* for 30 minutes”, “Never take any wooden nickels” (A favorite in my family, although I’m still not sure what I was supposed to do!) and “Wash your brights separate from your darks, if possible.”

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Teaching Children About Sin

When your first child is about two or three years old, it seems like most of your day is spent in correction. In our house, it was the “terrible three’s”. I remember calling my dad during a particularly “no” filled day and asking if I would still have to punish her this often when she was older. He promised me if I were diligent at three, then the rest of her childhood would seem easy in comparison. He was right. After those crazy few months, our daughter has been delightful and punishments have had to be given only rarely.

At some point after the year fondly known as “establishing who the parents are”, we tend to go into more of a maintenance, correction mode. Most parenting books will tell you this is a result of establishing firm but loving boundaries when your children are young (for the most part!). Because rebellion becomes less common in our homes, we sometimes forget to train our children how to avoid sin and deal with ongoing temptations.

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Teaching Children to Set Priorities

Life is about choices. Every choice we make has some sort of consequence. It may be good or bad, but something happens because of the choices we make. Many are so minor we don’t even notice them. Others can change our entire world. Some consequences may be immediate, while others will happen years later. As Christians, we also believe that some of our choices have eternal consequences.

Part of teaching our children to make good choices is teaching them how to prioritize. Eternity changing decisions need to be made with the most thought and prayer. Choices about what to have for breakfast shouldn’t require as much of our time and effort. Yet often, we find our priorities have gotten all out of order. Suddenly we find we have spent hours searching for the perfect outfit, but don’t have the time to read our Bibles or attend Church.

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