Category: Manners

Fun Ways to Have a Family Month of Gratitude

You've Been Thanked! - Parenting Like HannahAs I write this, Thanksgiving is only a few weeks away. On that day, families and friends around the country will gather and spend a few minutes thanking God for His blessings. Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays, but what would happen if your family chose to make this month – or any month – an entire month of gratitude?

The idea for the month of gratitude is to spend some time each day finding creative ways to thank anyone and everyone who has touched your life in a positive way. Some days, you may chose to do things together as a family. Other days, each person may do something individually.

At the end of every day, spend time discussing what you did, why that person needed to be thanked and how they reacted. Then spend some time thanking God for His blessings, including the people you thanked that day.

So who are some people your family may choose to thank?

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Teaching Kids to Apologize Well

Teaching Kids How to Apologize - Parenting lLike HannahHave you ever seen a celebrity apologize for something horrible? Sometimes they look more like a five year old being forced to apologize to a sibling! Or have you ever experienced someone who “apologizes” by saying “I’m sorry if I did anything that made you mad.”? Really? Apologies are meant to begin repairing relationships, but most apologies do more harm to the relationship than good.

Jacob, oddly enough, was one of the better examples of a great apology we have in the Bible. If you remember, Jacob had tricked Esau into giving up his birthright and then tricked Isaac into giving him Esau’s blessing. I would imagine there was quite a bit of bad blood when they parted ways. Years later, Jacob decided it was time to apologize.

If you read the entire story in Genesis (chapters 32-33), you will see Jacob didn’t just say “Sorry” and kick the dirt like a petulant five year old. He didn’t say “I apologize if I did anything to make you mad.” (Seriously, you don’t know what you did to make Esau mad?) Instead, he had a multi part apology that took several days to execute. Yet in the end, it restored their relationship.

So what did Jacob do to apologize? (Note: Gary Chapman does a great job in describing the languages of apology which gave me the idea for this post. Read the review for his newest book on Friday!) What do you need to teach your children about a great apology?

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Fun Ways To Teach Kids To Notice God’s Little Opportunities

Fun Ways To Teach Kids To Notice God's Little Opportunities - Parenting Like HannahIn God, Kids and the Little Things, I shared how God will give your kids lots of opportunities to serve others almost every day. Often your kids (like the rest of us) will not even notice these things. They will go through their day oblivious to the chances God is giving them to serve Him, often by serving others and sharing their faith. They will miss out on some amazing God adventures because they didn’t even see His invitation to join Him. They will miss opportunities to grow their faith by watching how God works in their world.

If you want to help your kids not miss the opportunities God gives them, you will have to get them out of the natural human tendency to be a bit self-absorbed. We all have a tendency to get so wrapped up in what we are doing that we can cause mayhem in our wake and not even realize it. Forget about noticing those somewhat subtle invitations to join God in touching the lives around us. Sometimes we even miss the huge blinking neon billboards from people God wants us to serve.

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God, Kids and the Little Things

God, Kids and the Little Things - Parenting Like HannahIt happened to me again this weekend. In fact, it has happened many times over the years in churches all over the country. As I struggle to take load after huge load of awkward bundles into a church building, I walk past the same people over and over and over.

Maybe one in a thousand offers to help immediately. One out of a hundred offers to help after I pass by three or four times. Most will help if specifically asked, but even then many will help with obvious reluctance. The irony is I would imagine most of those same people just gave a good deal of money to God. They probably nodded in agreement during the lessons. They may have even volunteered to do some odious task for the Church.

Yet when God gave them a tiny opportunity to serve someone, they didn’t even see it. They didn’t mean to be rude or inconsiderate, they were just totally oblivious. It probably doesn’t even sound like a big deal to you. In fact, you are probably wondering what this even has to do with parenting your kids.

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Modern Manners for Christian Teens

Modern Manners for Christian Teens - Parenting Like HannahWhen your children are in their teens and twenties, you realize something important. All of those manners you tried to teach them can make the difference in how successful they are in their careers. Most parents don’t think about that as they proclaim “Keep your mouth closed when you chew” for the millionth time. Yet as someone who has participated in hiring decisions, how your children use their manners (or lack thereof) in the interview process can be the very thing which tips the hiring decision.

As a graduate of the “Miss Manners” generation, I was interested to read a “modern manners” book when offered the opportunity to review Modern Manners: Tools to Take You to the Top.
Imagine my surprise when the book arrived and I realized it was penned by Liv Tyler and her grandmother. Somehow the daughter of the Aerosmith rocker had become an expert in etiquette. My expectations for the book, admittedly unfairly, sank a bit.

Fortunately, Ms. Tyler’s grandmother did an excellent job training her granddaughter. The book was easy to understand and covered all of the basics. Etiquette books can become overwhelming from the sheer volume of information they feel the need to cover. The authors of this book did a great job in picking the most common situations and mistakes to cover and eliminating some of the more esoteric rules and situations.

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