Our family was introduced to the Harris brothers about the time the first edition of this book came out several years ago. Our then young teen daughter loved reading the book and realizing she wasn’t the only kid on the planet who made God, serving others and sharing their faith priorities in their lives.
Do Hard Things (New 5th Anniversary Edition) by Alex and Brett Harris is a must read for all tweens and teens. It does a great job at banishing the myth that the teen years should only be about playing and avoiding responsibility as the way to have fun and enjoy life. Instead, they make a strong case that actually living a life doing the hard things is where real joy and fulfillment are to be found for young people.
One of my favorite things about New York City is the niche stores you can find everywhere. Want anything, and there is probably a store somewhere in the city that sells every variation of that item ever created. Last week, I found this great store in Chelsea Market that had bins of all types of different spices and teas.
We don’t talk about it much in churches, but your kids need to learn how to teach others about God and share their faith. A great way to get them started is to let them plan some of your family devotionals. (If you don’t have devotionals yet, putting your child in charge of scheduling and planning them may make your family more successful in developing the habit.)
Schools don’t start here for another month or so, but school supply areas are already filled in box retailers. school supplies now cost pennies on the dollar compared to what they cost the rest of the year. You can buy a lot of supplies for not much money at all if you watch the special sales that they often add to the already lower prices. Then bring the supplies home and have some fun in these last hot days of summer using them to teach your kids about God.
Did you know a few strips of scrap leather and some ping pong balls can teach your kids a lot about identifying, developing and using their gifts from God? That’s right. You see the story of David and Goliath has a lot more to teach us than we generally realize, because we don’t understand a lot about shepherding and warfare in ancient Israel.