Category: Family Devotionals

Activity to Get Your Kids Thinking About Their Social Media Posts

You don’t have to look very hard to find lists of guidelines and rules you should have for your kids regarding social media. While that can help, there is a bigger issue at hand. They won’t have you policing them or even be truly accountable to you in a few years. Do they really care about how what they post impacts others? Do they think about the consequences or are their posts stream of consciousness, letting the chips fall where they may?

There is a mini family devotional and conversation you can do with your kids to get them thinking more deeply about their social media posts. Start by asking your kids if they can think of anyone in the Bible who was rather upset and embarrassed when God or Jesus asked them about what they had done? Ask them why, for instance, King David had Uriah murdered when he knew it was wrong and how he reacted when he was confronted by the prophet. There is a tendency to forget God sees and hears everything we do and knows what we are thinking. Read 2 Corinthians 5:10. Would any of the people in the Bible they mentioned earlier have acted differently had they remembered they would have to answer to God for their choices?

Explain that social media posts are seen by God. In fact, He knows what we are thinking, before we even post it. What would God’s opinion be of what they have posted? Would they be embarrassed to show God their posts? You may even want to take a look at a celebrity’s social media posts. Are there things they would be proud to show God? What about their motives for posting certain things? Or the honesty of them? Are they promoting products that are chintzy in order to make more money for themselves…knowing their followers are wasting their money? Have fun with it, but try to get them thinking deeper about what they post, too.

End the conversation by asking them to think of ways to remember that God cares about what they post. How can they use social media to honor and serve God? How can they still have fun on social media without hurting others? How does God want them to use their social media platform?

Helping Your Kids to Have Hope in Rough Times

Life can be rough – even if you are a kid. Sure, as an adult, you know most of their problems on any given day aren’t that serious. They don’t have a lot of life experience, however, so something that seems minor to adults is quite possibly one of the worst things they have ever had happen to them.

It doesn’t help them to mock their feelings or downplay their emotions. They are very real and very painful, even if they seem overly dramatic to you. What can help is teaching them how to find hope when times are rough. Learning this critical Christian life skill will also help them when they grow older and the problems are much more serious.

Begin by telling them the story of Paul and Silas found in Acts 16:16-40. Explain what jails were like during that time. (This link contains a rather graphic article on Roman prisons that you can soften a bit for your children. Or you can use information from this Wikipedia article.) Ask your children how they think Paul and Silas might have felt to be in such horrible conditions. Then ask them why they believe Paul and Silas were singing, something we often associate with being happy.

Explain that Paul and Silas knew they were living in a fallen world where life often isn’t fair and bad things can happen to people who we think don’t deserve them. They knew, however, that this was only a very small part of a much larger picture. They knew eternity was a lot longer than any time on Earth and that by following and obeying God, they would spend it in Heaven with God – a place so perfect we can’t even really imagine it.

Have your kids think of things they can do to have attitudes and faith like that of Paul and Silas when they encounter bad times in their own lives. They can create artwork or a list they can refer back to the next time they are having a rough time. End by reminding them that their hope is in God and a future in Heaven and that by focusing on that God can help them survive and even thrive during difficult times.

Fun Family Devotional Under the Stars

The weather is still comfortable enough in most places to be outdoors right after dark. There is a fun family devotional you can do to take advantage of it.

The Jewish holiday of Sukkot is celebrated on October 16 this year. It may sound a bit strange for a Christian parenting blog to suggest your family should celebrate a Jewish holiday, but there is actually a lot we can learn from them (not to mention Jesus and the Apostles celebrated them).

Sukkot may be more familiar to you as the Festival of Booths. It involves building a booth of usually three walls using natural materials. The wall of a building can be one of the walls, but the “roof” of your booth should be natural materials. Spaces between branches is nice, because it makes it easier to see the moon and stars.

Bring out some blankets and get comfortable inside your booth. Historically families sat in their booths as the children were told the stories of the Torah and how God protected the Israelites. For Christians, it points to Jesus – especially through the story of that first Passover in Exodus. Ask your children for the parallels as you tell them the story.

Sukkot actually lasts several nights. Modern Jews have specific readings from the Torah (first five books of our Old Testament) and Ecclesiastes. If you want to cover them all with your children, you can find lists of the scriptures online. As you read the various passages, ask your children how God cared for the Israelites then how Jesus cared for the world in his day and how God/Jesus cares for us today.

While there are no specific foods eaten during Sukkot, many families have traditions of eating stuffed peppers or cabbage, challah bread, kugel, tzimmes, kreplach and fava bean soup. You can find recipes online and take your feast to eat outside, too.

Have fun with it, but take advantage of the opportunity to teach your children some important scriptures and how God continues to care for us today.

Fun Activity for Teaching Kids About Self-Centeredness

The funny thing about people who are self-centered is that they often appear to be totally unaware that they think the world should revolve around them. In fact, confront the far end of the spectrum – a narcissist- and they are likely to respond with “Who, me?”

God wants His people to put others before themselves…. to have servant hearts. To put God in the center of their universe, not themselves. There is a fun activity you can do to help your kids become more aware of when they are shifting into self-centeredness.

Plan an evening or a few hours in the weekend when you can spend time together as a family. Plan to have a meal together and play board games or do some other activity. Before your time together begins. Tell your kids the story of Absalom found in 2 Samuel 13-19, focusing particularly on his moments of pride and vanity. Ask your kids what it means to be self centered. Read 1 Peter 5:6. Point out that “I” is often the antithesis of humility.

Explain that for the rest of the day, the goal is for everyone to avoid saying the words “I, me, my or mine”. Ask your kids why those words when we say or think them can be a sign we are struggling to be humble and may be becoming self-centered. Make a tally sheet for each person. Everyone needs to listen for the “forbidden” words during your family time and keep track of who said them. The winner is the person who said them the least by the end of family time.

End your time together by discussing why God doesn’t want us to be focused on ourselves, but Him and others in life. When you notice bad habits starting up again in the future, you can do the activity again for an awareness check. Raising humble children is the key to their own spiritual health and the health of the church.

Fun Ways to Help Your Kids Remember to Thank God

As a Christian parent, you have probably prayed with your children since they were babies. At some point, you will need to begin to transition them to a personal prayer life. You will still pray with them at times, but you need to encourage them to pray regularly when they aren’t with you, too.

Part of that process is establishing habits of praying to God about certain things. The Bible mentions multiple times that we should be grateful to God for His many blessings. There is a fun way to get your kids in the habit of thanking God daily when they pray.

Call your kids together and tell them the story of the ten lepers found in Luke 17:11-19. Ask them how Jesus must have felt when the one leper came back and thanked him for healing him. Then ask them how Jesus must have felt when the other nine did not show gratitude. Read 1 Thessalonians 5:18. Ask them why they think it is important to thank God for our blessings.

Give each child a large sheet of paper and have them draw a giant heart on it. Point out that expressing gratitude is one way of showing God we love and appreciate Him. Ask your children how often they think God blesses them. Hopefully, they realize he blesses them daily. If not, take some time helping them think of blessings that God gives them every day as well as some special blessings He gives them from time to time, like healing them when they are sick.

Have your children write or draw on their hearts blessings God gives them every day. After they are finished, have them pray to God thanking Him for those blessings. Then help them place their hearts where they will see them every day. At dinner time or bedtime every day, take a moment and have each child write or draw three things they were grateful to God for that day. Encourage them to thank God for them in prayer then as well as for all of His blessings throughout the day. Talk about visual reminders they may see that remind them of a gift from God. Encourage them when they see those things to take a few seconds and thank God in the moment.

Habits take time to develop, so you may need to do the activity together for a few weeks and gradually transition them to doing it independently. Create new heart drawings when one gets filled, but save previous ones so your kids have reminders of God’s blessings in their lives. Eventually, your kids may not need the physical reminders any more, but even adults can benefit at times from reminders to be grateful to God.