Parenting Like Hannah

Kids, Common Courtesy, and Sharing Your Faith

The New Testament is full of reminders for Christians to be careful how they lived their lives. The writers (and God) knew that non-Christians watch Christians carefully. Sure, some do it to find an excuse not to believe, but many are looking in hopes of seeing the light and love of God in our lives. Reflecting God’s love to others is what draws them to Him and His Words.

If you have children for very long, you soon become swept up in birthday parties, volunteer commitments and a whole new world of people who may previously have been strangers. Hopefully, these people will soon learn from you and your children that your family worships God faithfully.

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For Parents Struggling With Their Own Childhoods

One of the parenting mistakes I see the most is parents not taking the time to really listen to what their children have to say. For Christian parents, getting to know your child through listening, is especially crucial. What they tell you and share with you will give you glimpses into their hearts. As Christian parents, it is really the heart we are trying to mold towards God. It is almost impossible to mold what we don’t know.

One of the reasons parents don’t really listen to their children is that they don’t know how. Many current parents were not heard by their own parents. In fact, there are still many people alive today who believe “children should be seen and not heard”. If your parents never really listened to you or you were raised in a dysfunctional or abusive environment, how do you learn what to do differently?

Milan and Kay Merkovich may just have the help you need in their book, How We Love Our Kids. (You can read the first chapter here for free.) They have analyzed parents and have discovered five main types of parenting styles. Each of the styles has its own ways of not giving children the attention and real listening they need. Sadly, the children are often blamed for the resulting conflicts when it is the parenting style that is causing many of the issues.

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Creative Service Project for Teen Girls

Creative Service Project for Teen Girls - Parenting Like Hannah Yesterday, our craft room was covered in ribbon, flowers, glue guns and hair clips. Several teen girls spent the afternoon crafting special hair clips and fascinators. The resulting masterpieces will be given to the young girls living in a local homeless shelter.

Yes, we could probably have gone to a box retailer and found standard hair ornaments for less money and donated those. These however, were made with love and the little girls who will be wearing them were kept in mind.

The project allowed the teens to be creative and discover another unique way to use their talents for God. During our time together I was able to share with some of them other interesting ways people were serving those who lived at the shelter. It also gave me special bonding time with the girls as we poured over craft supplies with our coupons in hand or as I admired their results.

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A Twist on Bible Timelines for Kids

A Twist on Bible Timelines for Kids - Parenting Like Hannah The one unfortunate thing about how the books of the Bible are ordered is that the chronology gets very confusing. You read a story about King David and then a couple of books later you get a similar story. The prophets are even more confusing, as they are all lumped at the end. It makes it very difficult to figure out where they all fit into the previous narrative books. Although not quite as confusing, the New Testament has some of the same issues with stories being repeated and trying to figure out where the epistles fit into the history written in the book of Acts.

Chronological Bibles help, but what happens when you try to connect the rest of World History to what is happening in the Bible? Honestly, I think most Bible teachers and parents don’t even try. I can’t say I blame them. Who has the time to sort it all out and then try and teach it?

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Kids, Survival Skills, and God

Did you know 870 million people on this earth suffer from chronic malnutrition and hunger? Or that 30,000 people die each week because of illnesses related to drinking dirty water? Untold others are exposed to illness due to a lack of knowledge of basic hygienic principles.

Have you ever tried to learn something new when you felt awful? Hard to do isn’t it? Millions of people need to hear about the Gospel and God’s love for them. Even if they have the opportunity though, many feel so ill, they must have a hard time hearing or comprehending what they are being taught.

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