Apples, Kids and God

Teaching Abstract Biblical Concepts - Parenting Like Hannah
Photo by Allesio Maffeis

One of my favorite things about fall is the apple. We live about an hour or so away from an area full of apple orchards. It’s a nice little break from the city to drive up and pick fresh apples on a crisp autumn morning. After bringing them home, our kitchen smells great while the apple butter simmers on the stove all day. Whether or not you have apple orchards near you, you can use apples with your kids to point them towards God.

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Friendship Skills To Teach Your Child

Teaching Friendship Skills - Parenting Like HannahIn Teaching Kids How to Make Friends, I shared how lonely this current generation of young people appears to be. This loneliness is leading to all sorts of serious problems including depression, suicide and substance abuse. Many children are thrust into environments with only one or two adults supervising ten to thirty children for most of their waking hours from birth until adulthood.

Some of those adults are wonderful, talented people who are doing their very best, but it’s almost impossible for a teacher to parent your child. Especially when they are also parenting the children of ten and sometimes many more other families. Sadly, most teachers really aren’t talented enough to do more than the minimum academic teaching they are required to do, much less add in things like teaching kids how to make godly friends.

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Teaching Kids How to Make Friends (They Need Your Help)

Helping Children Make Friends - Parenting Like HannahThis is one post series I never thought I would have to write. I remember having friends throughout my life. Some relationships were stronger and healthier than others perhaps, but I don’t remember particularly struggling to meet people and become friends with good, kind girls and guys.

Maybe it’s technology, maybe it’s because most children today are left to their own devices with little adult supervision or real interaction the vast majority of the time or maybe it’s because they are over scheduled, but today’s children have lost the art of making real friends.

They struggle to meet new people. They aren’t sure how to change an acquaintance into a friend. They aren’t sure how to have a meaningful conversation with each other when they are together. They lack the self-confidence to be true to their core beliefs and walk away from friendships that are unhealthy. They have plenty of Facebook friends and hundreds of followers on Instagram, but have no one to share their problems and concerns with they can trust. They are lonely and alone.

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Kids, Emotions and God

Kids, Emotionas and God - Parenting Like HannahRecently, I witnessed a group of adults telling some teens news they thought was great. From an adult perspective, it was wonderfully exciting news. As the news was shared, I watched as the teens clapped. They probably assumed it was expected, as the adults were cheering. The looks in most of their eyes told a much different story. The news made them uneasy and they doubted that it would indeed be positive for them personally. Yet, the adults around them missed the signals and continued chattering about how exciting it was.

God created people to have emotions. The Bible makes it very clear having and even expressing emotions in godly ways is welcome. Of course, how we act during these emotional states can become sinful, but emotions themselves can help us process and release events that could become harmful to our physical, emotional, mental and even more importantly, spiritual development.

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Fun Ways To Teach Kids To Notice God’s Little Opportunities

Fun Ways To Teach Kids To Notice God's Little Opportunities - Parenting Like HannahIn God, Kids and the Little Things, I shared how God will give your kids lots of opportunities to serve others almost every day. Often your kids (like the rest of us) will not even notice these things. They will go through their day oblivious to the chances God is giving them to serve Him, often by serving others and sharing their faith. They will miss out on some amazing God adventures because they didn’t even see His invitation to join Him. They will miss opportunities to grow their faith by watching how God works in their world.

If you want to help your kids not miss the opportunities God gives them, you will have to get them out of the natural human tendency to be a bit self-absorbed. We all have a tendency to get so wrapped up in what we are doing that we can cause mayhem in our wake and not even realize it. Forget about noticing those somewhat subtle invitations to join God in touching the lives around us. Sometimes we even miss the huge blinking neon billboards from people God wants us to serve.

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