Character Training – Page 99 – Parenting Like Hannah

Free Resources for Christian Parenting

Free Resources fro Christian Parenting - Parenting Like Hannah If you are new to Parenting Like Hannah or haven’t looked around in awhile, you may not realize you now have lots of new free resources to help you on your Christian parenting journey. Parenting Like Hannah is actually a part of a much larger ministry called Teach One Reach One. Teach One Reach One was developed to provide free resources for anyone working with children and teens who wants to help them learn how to become Christians and live a Christian life.

On the Teach One Reach One website you can find:

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Your Child:Free-Spirited or Rebellious?

Your Child:Free Spirited or Rebellious - Parenting Like Hannah Ask anyone who has worked retail for very long. There are parents whose children totally destroy everything in a store and they never correct them. These parents allow their kids to roam around leaving everything in disarray without expecting them to put things back. Sometimes, these same parents will look at the poor retail person (who must now spend the next thirty minutes restoring her store) with eyes or even words that say “Isn’t he/she adorable? Such a free spirit!”

Now don’t get me wrong, I have a strong free spirit streak myself. A true free spirit is one who doesn’t allow what people think of her art or charity work or whatever to stop her from doing what she knows is right. Unfortunately, the term free spirit has been taken by a group of people and changed into someone who does not follow rules. The rules of anyone. Even God.

In God’s language, that type of free-spiritedness is rebellion. Rebellion against God is a sin. Period. God is full of grace, but He also expects complete obedience. To disobey God is rebellion. To defiantly rebel against God’s commands never ends well. There are quite a few people in the Bible who could have testified to that in their own lives.

If you have a child whom you consider free spirited, please examine what behaviors and more importantly heart attitudes you are allowing that child to have. If it is allowing her to wear clashing clothes when she goes shopping with you, allow your child the freedom to be her color-clashing self. If however, you told her to wear a specific outfit and she shows up wearing something else, that is rebellion and must be corrected.

Be careful though, that the rules you make are ones which need to exist. Don’t set up a situation where you dictate something which your child should be allowed to choose freely. Allow him or her to express individuality in areas that don’t disobey God’s commands or principles and are age appropriate.

Addressing your child’s rebellion instead of allowing it to continue under the excuse of your child being “free-spirited” will ultimately make your parenting job much easier. And when your child has to make decisions between obeying God or rebelling against God’s commands, he may be much more likely to make a good choice.

Teaching Kids About Opportunists

Teaching Kids About Opportunists Recently, I was conducting a workshop for an urban ministry. As I looked around the space, I noticed a white board with the heading “Watch Out For Opportunists”. Under the heading, someone had listed people like drug dealers, shady employers, and several more. I asked someone about the list and they said the list was part of a discussion from Proverbs with older kids.

As I thought about it later, I realized all of our children are exposed to opportunists. The list of opportunists our children may encounter could be slightly different or exactly the same. Jesus told the Apostles as he sent them out to teach, “I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.” (Matthew 10:16 NIV) In today’s world, I think this verse applies to all Christians as much as it did to the Apostles.

We desperately need to train our children how to recognize and avoid those opportunistic wolves in life. How do we do that though, without making them anxious and untrusting of everyone they meet? What if they become so cautious, they are afraid to serve others and share their faith?

The good news is you can train your kids to be cautious without making them anxious around everyone. The trick is to teach them to observe carefully everyone they meet. If they see these warning signs of an opportunist, they need to be very careful about what they say and do around them. Caution them to check anything someone says against what the Bible says. If the two conclusions are different, teach your kids to not follow the advice of the opportunist.

So what are the qualities of an opportunist? There are probably plenty, but here are some that would be easy for your children to notice:

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Exposing Teens to Fun Christians

Exposing Teens to Fun Christians - Parenting Like Hannah Walk into most youth centers. Listen to the testimonies given by adults. They are often sad stories of consequences from disobeying God. While those stories have a place in youth ministry, often these testimonies are ignored by the very teens for whom they are given.

Teens often feel almost invincible. Of course those adults had problems, they obviously weren’t very bright anyway. Teens know they can “have fun”, disobey a selected few of God’s laws for several years and escape unscathed.

Probe a little deeper and there is actually just a wee bit more to the story. Ask a few more questions and you will often find the teen is terrified of living the obviously dull and boring life that is the fate of every Christian. I mean look at their parents!

What those teens and frankly, I am beginning to think their youth ministers and the vast majority of the people in the Church no longer realize is that you can have the most exciting, fulfilling, adventurous life possible and still keep the “big three” commands of the teen and college years (no getting drunk, using drugs or sex before marriage). In fact, you may even be surprised at the adventures some of the people in your congregation had and are still having. They just don’t talk about it in church.

Start asking people at church about some of the adventures they have had in their lives. Ask them if they had to sin to have those adventures. If not, invite them to share their stories with your teens and possibly the teens in your church. Make it as clear as you can that it is absolutely possible to have a ton of fun (with none of those nasty consequences) and obey God at the same time.

Changing your child’s world view of the ability of Christians to have fun and still be godly, may just increase the likelihood of them doing the same themselves. I think that’s a legacy any family and any church would love to have!

Teaching Kids About Sin, Sinners and Judging

Teaching Kids About Sin, Sinners and Judging - Parenting Like Hannah If your kids are exposed to any kind of media- social or otherwise – eventually they will read about a “famous” Christian who has sinned. They will read articles or tweets implying Christians should never sin, or when they do, they become hypocrites and have no right to try and share their faith. They will be exposed to people who accuse any Christian who shares God’s Words about any topic of being judgmental, while also reminding readers the Bible says not to “judge”. No wonder our kids are becoming so supportive of the “You can do whatever you want as long as you don’t hurt anybody, because who am I to judge” mentality so popular today.

The problem is that all of the above are misunderstandings and frankly false representations of God and what is in the Bible. So what are the godly principles you need to reinforce with your kids when the next “famous” Christian is vilified in the press?

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