Category: Character Training

Fun Ways to Teach Kids To Be Patient With Others

Fun Ways to Teach Your Kids Patience 2 - Parenting Like HannahIn Fun Ways to Teach Kids Patience, I gave you activities to do to help your kids develop patience while waiting on God to fulfill His promises or while waiting on God’s perfect timing. Today, I want to give you some things you can do to help your kids develop the other type of patience – keeping their cool when someone or something is getting on their “last nerve”.

This is the kind of patience God requires us to give to others. Not because we are waiting for them to do something good for us, but because we want to treat them as we would wish to be treated. It’s the type of patience so rare in our world today. Just by having it, your children will stand out in a way that will make people want to listen when they share their faith.

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Fun Ways to Teach Kids Patience

Fun Ways to Teach Kids Patience - Parenting Like HannahPatience is one of the fruits of the Spirit. God expects His people to be patient while waiting for His perfect timing in life. He also expects us to be patient with others – as in the ever popular, slow to anger.

Although we aren’t quite sure how the Holy Spirit helps us with the fruit of the Spirit, it’s never too early to help your kids practice patience. And as “unfun” as that sounds, there are plenty of fun ways to teach kids how to be more patient.

Let’s focus on the first kind of patience God expects from His people – the ability to wait patiently for God to fulfill His promises and to wait for the things for which your kids prayed and for which God is making them wait.

There are a lot of fun things you can do with your kids to help them practice and learn this concept. The trick is to give them the promise of a reward, but one for which they must wait. I believe scripture also gives us examples of God expecting people to do certain things while they wait for Him from time to time, so throwing in that aspect to your activity isn’t a stretch either. (The trick is making sure your kids understand that even if God wants them to do something while they wait, the eventual blessing is still from God and not themselves.)

Here are a few of my favorites:

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Creative Ways to Thank Others During Your Family Gratitude Month

Creative Ways to Thank Others - Parenting Like HannahSo, you have decided to join the family gratitude month challenge. The first couple of days were easy enough, but now it’s starting to seem more like a chore. Introducing a little fun into the challenge can help your family show their thankfulness for the entire thirty days of November.

As always, Pinterest is your friend. Don’t feel like you have to get caught up in that Elf On The Shelf type competitive madness though, for your family month of gratitude. If you and your kids are having fun writing notes or making cookies for the entire month – go for it.

If you want some new ideas though, here are a few I have used or seen over the years (my apologies to the original creative people – I have no idea of the original source of any of these):

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Worshipping With Your Children In Service

Worshipping With Your Kids In Service- Parenting Like HannahIn Kids and Worship, I shared with you the important reasons I prefer children to worship with their families and not in a separate children’s worship service. Often this service is little more than entertainment- with children learning they should always have fun during worship and that worship is about how they feel, not about worshipping God. Your children are missing so many things vital for their spiritual growth and health when they are separated from you – even for just part of the service.

You may have experienced a few frazzled worship services with your children and decided it is best for everyone if they are removed from the auditorium as quickly as possible. With a few tips in your pocket and a couple of extra loving Christian hands, your family can reap the benefits of family worship with very little pain and suffering!

These are some of the things that made having our daughter in worship not only possible, but something we all valued – even those sitting near us! Every child is different, but some combination of these tips should work with almost any child.

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Kids and Worship

Worshipping With Kids - Parenting Like HannahIf your congregation is like most churches, they offer some sort of children’s worship. It can last the entire duration of the worship service or happen just during the sermon. Some congregations only have children’s worship for preschool children, while others offer it through late elementary or even the teen years.

I have long been an advocate of children remaining in the worship service. There are tons of benefits from our children remaining in the adult worship. In my opinion, those benefits are far more important than the distractions children may cause if allowed to stay.

You may be thinking you won’t “get anything out of worship” if your kids are sitting with you. Yet ultimately, worship is not really about us. Having your kids with you in worship may be challenging at first.  If you stick with it though, your kids may just get the following benefits:

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