Christianity is a marathon. Not just any marathon, but one where Satan is trying to trip runners in the race so they fall. In fact, he tries to trip Christians so many times that they finally give up trying to be a Christian and just sit wallowing in their failure. God wants your kids to be spiritually resilient. To pick themselves up, dust themselves off and keep running the race towards Heaven.
In the last post, I listed some of the “tools” spiritually resilient young people possess. There are lots of fun things you can do with your kids to make them more resilient and more importantly spiritually resilient. Here are a few of our favorites.
- Scripture songs – sing songs with your kids that remind them of scriptures that will help them be more resilient. Can’t find a song using a verse you want to teach your kids? ”Write” your own song by using a tune in the public domain and matching the syllables of the original lyrics to the syllables in the Bible verse.
- The Apostle Paul and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day – Familiar with the children’s book about Alexander and his bad day? Share with your kids scriptures and Bible stories about people who had really bad days or a lot of really bad days. Were those people resilient? What tools did they (or didn’t they) use that helped them recover (or not) from their bad days? Which of those tools could help your kids, too?
- Art prayer journal – give your kids a drawing journal and some art supplies. Encourage them to draw their emotions for each day – they may or may not choose to also include other prayer requests in their art work. Encourage them to then pray about those emotions and the events that caused them to God.
- Gift discovery, development and use – help your kids discover the gifts God has given them to serve Him. Find ways to help them develop those gifts and then begin to use them to serve God.
- Puzzles like Logic puzzles, Sodoku, Colorku, etc. – these types of puzzles help develop problem solving skills.
- Games like Blokus, scenario games, Jenga, etc. – look for games that require problem solving or strategy – scenario games can be made by you to cover problems you want them to practice solving in godly ways
- Mysteries and riddles – more problem solving fun
- Hobbies like music and gardening – these hobbies and others like them require patience and perseverance as well as problem solving skill from time to time (what is eating the tomatoes before they ripen)
Prepare your kids for the marathon that is the Christian life. Have fun, but don’t procrastinate. Your kids need those skills every day.