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How was your week? Are your children growing towards God or away from Him? You can go to our blog and search for posts that may help you with any of your Christian parenting dilemmas. Here are this week’s social media challenges.

Monday: Here’s the U2 room in a museum. What music do your kids enjoy? Did you know it definitely impacts their moods and even aggression levels? Whether or not it impacts other behaviors is still debated and probably depends somewhat on their personalities. Thinking about Philippians 4:8 though, do they really need curse words and words of hate in their heads and coming out of their mouths? Not all music of any genre has questionable lyrics, but having discussions about artists whose music always contains profanity and extremely ungodly messages is important.

Tuesday: A recent study found anxiety and depression levels improved in teens during the first two months of COVID lockdown. Why? Researchers believe teens were finally getting close to the recommended amount of nightly sleep and were getting more engaged attention from their parents. The take away? Teens need 8-10 hours of sleep each night and plenty of engaged time with their parents each day to help them more easily reach their godly potential. It’s in everyone’s best interest to take the lessons learned and use them to help our teens be healthier in every way.

Wednesday: Your kids are different – even if they are identical multiples. They will need slightly different things from you to build a strong spiritual foundation and grow to their godly potential. The trick is discovering how God created each one of them…their strengths, weaknesses, gifts, talents and even preferences. Having that information will make your Christian parenting much more effective. Can’t figure it out? Don’t be afraid to ask and see if your kids may have already figured out some of the answers.

Thursday: Your perspective changes when you fly. You can see things you wouldn’t notice from ground level. Sometimes you need to take a big picture view of your parenting. Who do you want your kids to be as adults? What sort of Christians do you want them to be? Are they moving in that direction? Is their faith strengthening, stagnating or growing weaker? Are they become who God created them to be or who Satan hopes they will be? Then make any needed adjustments in your parenting.

Friday: In Bible times, idols were physical images of false gods that were worshipped. Your kids are more likely to grow up to worship less obvious idols like money, careers, sports, entertainment…anything that is placed above God in their lives. You need to teach your kids about idols as much as parents in Bible times did. You will just have to define what idol worship is instead of pointing to the figurines.

The holidays will be here soon. They may look a little different from previous years, but you can still create special memories with your kids. They key is to start planning now. Here are this week’s social media challenges.

Monday: Even famous composers made mistakes. You will make mistakes as a parent. What matters is what you do after you realize you’ve made a mistake. If you try to ignore it, it can have negative consequences for your kids. The best option is usually to apologize to your kids and make any needed corrections. It works whether you’ve been too lenient or too harsh. Your kids will respect you more for an honest apology (whether they like your subsequent adjustment or not), than for doubling down on a parenting mistake.

Tuesday: Did you know many museums have artifacts from Bible times and cultures? Doing a little research before you go will make it easier to show them to your kids and underscore the historical nature of the stories in the Bible.

Wednesday: Have you ever thought about how many stories in the Bible involve food? Why not introduce your kids to some of those foods as you tell the Bible story to them? Connecting those extra senses to the story will improve their memory of it. Plus it’s a fun way to have a family devotional!

Thursday: Family crests contained things families believed represented them or held as family values. What would your family’s crest contain? Would God have a place on it? Give your kids paper and markers and have them design a family crest showing the four most important things to your family…that explain your family to others. Have them explain their finished crests. If God has no presence, even minimally, on their crests…it may be time to adjust your family’s priorities.

Friday: Miss seeing our blog posts? We are still trying to find out why Facebook won’t let us post links. You can get the three weekly posts delivered straight to your email by going to our website and signing up for our newsletter. (Remember to open the emails, or some programs will send it to spam. www.parentinglikehannah.com) Get encouragement, ideas and tips three times a week (we don’t share your info with anyone).

We have actually had some Fall weather here this week. How was your week? Been to busy to check our daily challenges? Here’s a recap.

Monday: Did you know sounds can impact your kids? Sounds like water running and waves can soothe. Loud, chaotic noises can cause stress or distract them. Silence can encourage them to hear their own thoughts. Some classical music can help put them to sleep. Cheerful songs can improve their mood or raise energy levels. If you’re not sure, ask them questions like, “What kind of sounds make it easier or more difficult to pray/study your Bible/reflect, etc.”

Tuesday: Did you know flamingos’ coloring is because of what they eat? Your kids’ spiritual health will be determined in part by what they “consume” in games, books, movies, music and more. Teaching them how to choose entertainment that helps rather than hurts them is crucial if you want them to develop unshakeable faith foundations.

Wednesday: Struggling with some aspect of your Christian parenting journey? You’re not alone! We’ve all been there at some point. Ask your questions on this page, email us through the contact feature on our website or ask an experienced Christian parent you know. Don’t keep struggling alone. God gave us the body of Christ in part for godly support. Take advantage of that gift from God.

Thursday: This is a poison garden. Every plant in it is poisonous. They’ve put up signs to warn people in case they are tempted to taste the plants. Your kids need to learn the warning signs of temptation and what to do to keep from sinning when tempted. Otherwise, they will be more vulnerable to Satan’s poisonous suggestions.

Friday: Have teens who are passionate about a social justice issue? Unfortunately, many times the secular world has taken the lead in areas the church should have. Here are some great service projects involving popular issues your family can do together. Not only will they help others, but it will give you a great opportunity to teach your kids the difference between biblical and secular social justice. http://teachonereachone.org/meaningful-social-justice…/

It’s a holiday weekend. Time for family fun and resetting your family goals and schedule. Here are this week’s social media challenges to give you some ideas to consider.

Monday: There are people that will tell you science and Christianity are incompatible. The truth is since God created the world and the science behind it, science is only incompatible when scientists totally reject God and His place in the world. Answers in Genesis has lots of great science materials written by Christian scientists that will help your kids learn science without also being told they need to reject God. They have quite a few free online resources to help you explain things to your kids.

Tuesday: Notice the small sign on the window? This is a cafe in the town where Prince William and Kate attended university. If you don’t notice the small print on the sign, you would believe they actually met in the cafe. Your kids need to learn to look for the fine print, the “rest of the story”. Satan will make sure your kids will hear lots of lies meant to pull them away from God. Often these lies have just enough truth in them to make them even trickier. Make sure your kids understand that unless a total statement is true, in reality they are hearing or telling a lie. Knowing to look for the bits of deception can protect them from a lot of pain.

Wednesday:These people were thrown into the bogs in Ireland to punish them back in the Iron Age. Evil has always been on the Earth since the Fall. It may seem more obvious now, for a variety of reasons. Your kids need to know some important things about evil. Read our blog post today on teaching your kids about evil. It’s on our Parenting Like Hannah website (.com).

Thursday: Lions are known for protecting their cubs. You protect your kids, but are you protecting them from the right things? Sometimes kids need to fail to learn resilience. On the other hand, kids need their exposure to evil to be as limited as possible. Scripture teaches we are to fill our minds with things that are good, pure and praise worthy. Studies show that filling kids heads with images of violence and sex have negative effects on their brains that can literally change those young brains. So be that lion. Just protect your kids from the right things.

Friday: Your family may not have felt much like celebrating the last few months, but celebrating tied to gratitude to God for His blessings is great for your kids. So find something to celebrate and thank God for those blessings.

Have your kids started back to school yet? Whether they are involved in distance learning, in person classes or homeschooling, this is a great time of year to reintroduce family Bible study to your home. Our parent website teachonereachone.org has lots of free activity ideas to help. In case you missed them, here are our social media challenges from the week.

Monday: Because of their lack of knowledge and life experience (amongst other things), your kids will see the world differently than you do – at least in some ways. Sometimes, it can be enlightening or fun. At other times it can cause fear – especially when those differences show a tendency to reject God or His commands. The trick is to constantly have conversations about spiritual matters from the time your kids are very little. Explain why you believe what you believe. Help them understand the benefits and struggles of living a Christian life. Show a passion for reading scripture and trying to be more godly, serving others and sharing your faith. Let them see the difference God has made in you. There are no guarantees, but avoiding discussing their doubts won’t make them disappear. They will just get answers to them from someone else. Someone who may not believe in God at all.

Tuesday: These mushrooms are interesting. They can only handle so much heat and then they just start shriveling up. Your kids are like that. They may appear oblivious to stress, but at some point it begins impacting them negatively. They need you to teach them godly coping strategies like prayer, scriptures, exercise, art, music and others. If not, they are more likely to turn to unhealthy, ungodly or even dangerous or sinful ways to cope when the stress levels get too high. Now is a great time to start having those conversations and giving them guided practice.

Wednesday: Believe it or not, this is one building. It took years to finish and every time they hired a new crew, they started building in their favorite style! Your kids spiritual beliefs will look like this if you don’t help them build strong faith foundations. Even many Christian adults have taken a belief or two from multiple religions or world views and tried to merge them with Christianity. Jesus made it very clear that will not work on any level. Your kids need strong grounding in biblical truths and help in developing wisdom and discernment. The church can help, but ultimately it is your responsibility to teach them, train them and help mold their hearts. It takes a lot of time and energy. It may be the hardest thing you ever do, but the rewards are eternal.

Thursday: The Bible talks a lot about joy, hope, contentment. The world then wasn’t any better than the world is now. It’s important to teach your kids how to find that joy and hope even in a difficult season like this. It’s not always about loving or even liking what is happening. It’s about understanding the big picture of eternity in Heaven. Of knowing God is with us and loves us. Of seeing the blessings and God created beauty around us. Take some time today to point out things that remind all of you that God is here loving you, right now.

Friday: Toasties and chips? Sammies and fries? Different cultures use different words or have different meanings for the same words. Your kids are in a different culture than you because of the age difference. You need to understand the words they use. You don’t need to necessarily use their slang (it really annoys some teens), but you must understand it. Ask, google do what you need to do to stay fluent in their language. It changes rapidly but can cover all sorts of issues your kids or their friends may be having. Understanding what your kids are saying can be an important parenting tool.