Fun Ways For Kids To Discover Their Gifts From God

Fun Ways For Kids to Discover Their Gifts From God - Parenting Like HannahOne of the characteristics of a young person who is ready to be a productive Christian is the awareness of their gifts from God. Unfortunately, your kids didn’t come with a user manual where God lists each of your children’s gifts from Him. Many people go through their entire lives not realizing God has given them one or more gifts to use in serving the Kingdom. It is one of the saddest conversations I regularly have with adults – they have missed part of their sense of purpose in life and in the Church because they never discovered their gifts.

One of the most rewarding parts of Christian parenting is helping your kids discover, develop and begin to use the gifts God has given them to serve Him. It can be a fun journey for you and your kids. It won’t always be the smoothest of journeys as there are often false starts and disappointments along the way. It will give you pure joy though to watch your child use a gift for God in service to Him at some point in the future – especially a gift you helped your child discover and develop.

You may not be aware of your own gifts yet. Or you may have no idea how to get started, as the possibilities are rather endless and the gifts each of your children was given may be very different. There are, however, a lot of fun things you can do when your children are young to begin the discovery process with them.

Here are some of the favorite ones we did with our daughter when she was little:

Continue reading Fun Ways For Kids To Discover Their Gifts From God

Great Family Devotional Resource

Great Family Devotional Resource - Parenting Like HannahFamily devotionals are tough. We all have the best of intentions, but it seems like most of us accomplish family devotionals sporadically at best. One of the problems is keeping it interesting for kids and easy for parents. So, I’m always on the lookout for family devotional resources to help.

Recently, I was offered the opportunity to review 52 Weekly Devotionals For Busy Families by Karen Whiting. This great devotional guide is brand new and could provide just what you have been wanting. For me, the best part is that it is divided into weekly devotionals, but not daily ones within that framework. Which means you can stay on track – and not become discouraged – if you have a crazy week and only one devotional or a more normal week when you have five or six devotionals.

Within each devotional, the reader is given a theme verse for the week and a longer scripture reference of about a chapter or less. The longer scripture is usually connected to a Bible story. Whiting provides a short devotional reading similar to what you are familiar with in other devotional books. What I really appreciate though is that she took the effort to add three or more activity ideas, two or more ideas for creating a family devotional journal or scrapbook and three or more discussion prompts.

Continue reading Great Family Devotional Resource

Christian Kids, Moods and Music

Christian Kids, Moods and Music - Parenting Like HannahAt the risk of dating myself, I have faint memories from my preschool years of my parents playing old Pat Boone “church song” records on our cabinet stereo as we got ready for church. I’m not really sure why they chose to play those particular records, but our family was very musical so the music part of it makes sense.

Whether you realize it or not, your children’s lives are somewhat of a musical. Their memories will be attached to certain songs or artists. Some songs will bring up emotions from the things that happened when they were popular. Did you know though that thinking of your child’s life as a Christian musical can help their moods and even their behavior right now?

According to an article in the American Academy of Pediatrics Journal, it has been proven over and over that music affects children’s behavior, emotions and even their schoolwork and social interactions. Of course their article went on to analyze the harm that can be caused by listening to unacceptable music – with explicit violent and sexual lyrics.

Continue reading Christian Kids, Moods and Music

Christian Kids and Loneliness

Christian Kids and Loneliness - Parenting Like HannahIt seems like every day another young person commits suicide. There are many different reasons some children choose such a drastic route to end their pain. One reason that is often cited is an intense feeling of loneliness, sometimes caused by the rejection of peers and others. Young people can be surrounded by peers, live in an urban area with millions of people and still feel as if they are all alone.

Assuming the young person does not have an underlying mental health issue though, there are some things parents can do to help their children prepare for loneliness, being alone and solitude.  You can’t solve all of their social issues – especially as they reach the teen years, but you can give them extra layers of protection from severe loneliness.

The best time to help your children be ready to prevent or handle loneliness is before they become lonely. Studies have shown that not only is the need to feel like they belong a basic need, but also when they are lonely, it only increases their sense of needing to feel like they belong somewhere. (Making them more susceptible to the temptations of peers to do ungodly things in order to belong.)

So what can you do as a parent to help your kids be prepared to handle the loneliness we all feel on occasion? Here are some of my favorites (Please note: These may not work for young people who have underlying mental health issues. Please have your child checked by a doctor for loneliness that seems to last more than a few days.):

Continue reading Christian Kids and Loneliness

Life Hacks for Christian Parents

Life Hacks for Christian Parents - Parenting Like HannahThe problem with parenting books is that the vast majority contain only a portion of new information. The rest is the same you would find in any quality parenting book. It may be extremely valuable, but I personally become bored reading the stuff I already know. Unfortunately, I have often zoned out before I get to the valuable new information.

In his book Quick Tips for Busy Families, Jay Payleitner has come up with a great way to make the common parenting tips engaging and a format to help even the most impatient reader find helpful information. Payleitner has divided his advice into 144 easy to read entries. Most are a page or two. They have clear enough titles so a parent can easily scan the table of contents and find entries of interest.

As a reviewer, I try to read an entire book before reviewing it – just to make sure I don’t miss something important to share. Which means, while reading many parenting books, I am bored 80% of the time. I am not sure what it is about this author’s style – perhaps his underlying sense of humor and fun – but it made me enjoy reading even the entries about things I have done for years.

Continue reading Life Hacks for Christian Parents