Preparing Kids for Spiritual Warfare

Preparing Kids for Spiritual Warfare - Parenting Like HannahHave you ever stopped to ponder that the person who is the most likely to be able to keep your child from going to Heaven is your child? We, as parents, can train, teach and model. Our churches can provide additional mentorship and training opportunities. Our children can attend the “best” schools and have the “best” friends and still not be faithful Christians as adults.

Why? Because ultimately the battle for our child’s soul is in our child’s heart between our child and Satan. Have we taught our children how real the spiritual war is and will be throughout their lives? Have we taught them how to fight off Satan and their body’s own selfish desires? Do they know Satan’s schemes and tricks to lure them into sin and unfaithfulness? Have we fully prepared our children for spiritual battle?

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Loss, Change, and the Christian Mom

Loss, Change, and the Christian Mom - Parenting Like Hannah
Pilgrimage: My Journey to a Deeper Faith in the Land Where Jesus Walked by Lynn Austin

Being a mother is one of the most wonderful blessings God can give. The joy, love and fulfillment it provides us is so special, we can’t really express it adequately. Yet motherhood can also be demanding, frustrating, confusing, exhausting and even heart-breaking.

God has called us to parent our children proactively towards Him. We are to spend our days training our children and teaching them God’s commands, principles and ways. Yet, there are days when we don’t have the energy to pray ourselves.  There are days when our personal faith feels shaky. Even if your faith is strong, you may question God’s plans for you or if He even has any.

The times when we are faced with the deaths of close loved ones, illnesses of ourselves or our families, loss of income or other unwanted circumstances can make our questions even more urgent. As a mom about to have an empty nest in a few months, I also understand those feelings I had as my kindergartener went to class the first day will be intensified greatly when she moves across the country to attend college. You may even be experiencing the pain of having a child who is struggling through dangerous waters, where you feel you have no way to help him.

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Fun Ways to Practice Conversational Skills With Kids

Fun Ways to Practice Conversational Skills With Kids - Parenting Like Hannah
Photo by Charles Dobie

Your children need to develop great conversational skills. Not only will it help them in any occupation they choose to pursue, but it can also make them a more effective Christian. In order to serve others and share their faith, our children need to be able to communicate effectively and listen actively.

Christians can’t help others in meaningful ways if they don’t understand what the people they are serving really need. Our children can’t share their faith effectively if they can’t communicate it in a way that impacts the hearer. We aren’t reflecting God’s love to others if we speak in ways that make the other person feel unloved.

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Kids, Conversations, and God

Kids, Conversations, and God - Parenting Like Hannah
Photo by Paul Fitzgerald

Recently a mother told me about a sleepover her daughter had hosted. She peeked in on the girls at one point because it had gotten so quiet. The girls were sitting around the room texting and playing video games on their telephones. She had to remove the devices to get them to interact with each other.

In some, ways the scenario is amusing. It is a real reflection of how technical devices amuse (and possibly control!) almost everyone in our society. On the other hand, I am afraid this generation of children will be unable to converse effectively with another human being.

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The Final Challenge: Teaching Children to Live More Like Jesus

The Final Challenge: Teaching Our Children to Live More Like Jesus - Parenting Like Hannah
To 99% of the world, our homes look like Versailles!

If you and your family have been following our plan this year to live more like Jesus, you and your children may have established some new godly habits. Hopefully, they will be practiced by your children for their entire lives. There is only one more godly attribute to teach your children in the challenge.

This attribute is perhaps the toughest challenge of all. You see, Jesus was willing to sacrifice everything the world values for God and God’s plan. Think about it for a moment. Jesus (as far as we know) never owned his own home and set down roots. He never married or had children. He never had a career where he made enough money to buy anything he wanted. Although many disciples followed him for a time, when things seemed to take a turn for the worse, only a handful of people supported him as he died on the Cross.

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