With only about a month or two left of school, many of you are starting to make plans for the Summer. Are you planning some margin to spend time together as a family – engaged with one another? While you are deciding how to spend your summer, here are this week’s social media challenges.
Monday: Young parents always roll their eyes when older parents tell them to enjoy their kids when they’re little. Or that the time flies and they’ve grown and gone. Or that you will wish one day that you’d spent more time teaching them the things God wants them to know. Haven’t heard the last one? If more older Christian parents were honest about it, you’d hear that one a lot, too. And you would possibly roll your eyes at that one, like the others. The hard truth is that whether or not you are tired of hearing those statements, they are all very true. Don’t have parenting regrets.
Tuesday: Teaching your kids how God wants them to handle money is critical. The world’s view of earning and spending money often leads to high debt, stress, selfishness and a love of money – to the point of idolatry. If you don’t teach them how God wants them to handle money, it is highly unlikely they will learn it from someone else.
Wednesday: God never promised us the Christian life would be filled with happiness and problem free. He did, however, promise us there is joy to be found in it. Joy is possible regardless of the circumstances. It’s why Paul could sing in jail with Silas and wrote some of his most joy filled books when in jail waiting to see if he would get the death penalty. Part of joy is found in being grateful for the blessings God gives us. Teach your kids to look for those blessings and thank God for them daily.
Thursday: Have you ever thought about how much slinging practice David had before he fought Goliath? As a shepherd, a slingshot was a primary weapon used to protect sheep from predators like lions and bears. In fact, God sent those very animals for David to fight before Goliath. God gave David a talent and may have put a little extra something in it when he fought Goliath (or not as slingers could sling a rock with the force of a bullet from a gun), but David had to take advantage of the opportunities God gave him to develop the gift so he would be ready when God needed him to use it. Your kids each have one or more gifts from God. One of the most fun parts of Christian parenting is helping them discover and develop those gifts and find those first opportunities to use them to serve God. Who knows what plans God has for your children? Help them be prepared!
Friday: This case has a lot of fish in it, but it holds an extremely small fraction of the fish in the world. Jesus left a charge to his people – the church. Go into the world and preach the Gospel message to everyone. That means your kids need to help teach the Gospel to 7.674 billion people! It’s called the “Great Commission”, yet the majority of Christians today don’t even know it! Make sure your kids understand their purpose in life is to get to Heaven and take as many people as possible with them. Otherwise, they won’t be living the full Christian life.