Simple Way to Introduce Kids to Budgeting and Stewardship

Simple Way to Introduce Kids to Budgeting and Stewardship - Parenting Like HannahIt doesn’t take long for kids to understand the concept that money can get them things they want. If Grandpa gives them a couple of dollars, they will usually start begging to head to the dollar store to purchase some new “treasure”.

Unfortunately, kids aren’t born knowing how to be good stewards of the money God gives them. They are usually generous at a young age, but if parents don’t work with them – generosity can quickly turn to greed. If you don’t teach them how to handle money in godly ways, they won’t necessarily learn it by just watching you.

Handling money well is complex even in a secular environment. When you add God’s expectations for helping others and the church with our funds, it can become even more intricate. If you don’t teach your kids from a young age how to budget their money, they may struggle financially for many years. Check the average credit card debt in our country and you can see how bad the problem can get.

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Teaching Kids About True Godly Beauty

Teaching Kids About True Godly Beauty - Parenting Like HannahIn another day, this tree will be in full bloom. It is quite possibly one of the most beautiful of the trees that flower. That is until you get within several feet of it. The blooms on this variety of pear tree smell horrible. Not just mildly annoying, but how-quickly-can-I-get-away-from-this-smell terrible. As beautiful as the blooms are, I refuse to plant one in my yard because I can’t stand the stench that comes with those blooms.

Your kids need to learn the same principle applies to people. Someone who is absolutely beautiful, can have such a mean spiteful personality they no longer seem pretty. Conversely, someone the world might call unattractive can have the most loving, sweet spirit and begin to look beautiful as we get to know who they are on the inside.

You can create a fun family devotional focusing on the principle of outward versus inward beauty. Before you start, borrow some books from the library with lots of pictures of people in them. You may also want to think of places you can walk or explore that may have examples of things whose outer appearance and inner “beauty” don’t necessarily match. A farmer’s market or grocery store will probably have plenty of examples.

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Fun Way to Use Sea Glass to Teach Your Kids About God

What Sea Glass Can Teach Your Kids About God - Parenting Like HannahSo many concepts in the Bible are difficult for children to understand. All young children (and many older children) are concrete thinkers. When they read scriptures talking about God using a “refiner’s fire” (Zechariah 13:9 and more), they may believe God literally uses fire somehow. Even though the references to God as the potter and us as His clay (Isaiah 64:8) are a bit more concrete, they can still confuse children, who may wonder how they are clay.

Sometimes actually showing children items and explaining them in more depth can help them process metaphors and analogies in the Bible a bit more easily. When you think of all of those scriptures and others like them, there is a basic underlying concept. Because we – in this case your children – are born as babies into a fallen world, we aren’t fully yet what God created us to be.

God sends circumstances and people, gives us the Bible, and at baptism the Holy Spirit to help us grow to become more like His image in which we were created. What better example for that than sea glass?

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Why Your Kids Need a Family Project

Why Your Kids Need a Family Project - Parenting Like Hannah

 

It’s almost time for the annual deck refresh. We wash off the deck and seal it. Deck furniture gets touched up with paint and the cushions are washed. We plant some pretty flowers in pots. After a couple of days, we have a beautiful, relaxing retreat for the warmer months. For years, this was a family project. We all worked together to make the work go more quickly and somehow managed to have a little fun in the process.

In fact, our family has had dozens of family projects. From creating a hurricane supply closet for an orphanage to painting church walls to washing the family car, our family has worked together many times over the years to achieve something. Sometimes it was something for our family. Often, it was something to help someone else. The end result in this case doesn’t matter as much as the process.

When your family works together on a project, your kids benefit in so many ways.

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5 Tips for Raising a Quiet Child

5 Tips for Raising a Quiet Child - Parenting Like Hannah“Fine” That’s often the favorite word of the quiet child. If you have a quiet child, you may feel like it takes an enormous amount of effort to get him to speak a complete sentence, much less pour his heart out to you. Quiet kids can be male or female and any age, although parents seem the most frustrated trying to communicate with quiet teen boys.

You may be tempted to give up and not try after a few hundred failed attempts at conversation. Unfortunately, parenting is much more difficult when your child doesn’t open up and talk. Christian parenting is virtually impossible because a child who doesn’t tell you what’s on her heart and mind leaves you guessing by the behaviors you see. (Which can be a very inaccurate measure of the heart.)

Your quiet child is also very likely introverted and likes to go off and be alone for hours at a time. You can’t change how God created your child’s nature, but you can soften it a bit. (The strengths God gave your kids can become detrimental when taken to the extreme. God provides parents to mold those gifts to God’s original design and plan – often softening them from the extremes to which kids will often take their gifts.)

If you have a quiet child, doing these things should help if done consistently over a period of time.

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