Service – Parenting Like Hannah

Spiritual Disciplines for Your Kids – Service

We’ve been talking about the various spiritual disciplines practiced by Christians for over two thousand years (and often by Jesus himself). They are practices many Christians believe (and supported to a great extent by scripture) can help one remain spiritually healthy and continue to grow and mature in faith and practice. Because spiritual disciplines are usually discussed in adult circles, it can be important to discuss how they can be adapted for children and teens. By starting these spiritually healthy habits early, hopefully it will be easier for them to practice these disciplines consistently throughout their lives.

This week, our spiritual discipline is service. If you think of the ministry of Jesus, when he wasn’t teaching, he was healing people or serving them in some way. Perhaps the most well known story even among those who aren’t Christians is that Jesus washed the feet of his Apostles to demonstrate the type of servant hearts he wanted them – and by extension us – to have.

Service should be one of the easiest spiritual disciplines to practice – even daily – but it can easily be overlooked. Parents may assume their kids are involved in a lot of service projects at church. They may be doing a few, but I am not aware of any congregation who provides daily opportunities for children and teens to serve. Families may also serve others, but it’s so easy to get distracted by the flurry of school commitments and extra curricular activities that serving others becomes an after thought.

The attitude and practice of Jesus was that he served everyone he could as he went about his days. I imagine some days those may not have been miracles and many days they were. He didn’t command us to serve others miraculously, he wanted us to serve others just like he washed the Apostle’s feet – in humble, messy, every day ways.

Talk with your kids about all of the opportunities they have to serve others each day. Discuss how you can all become better at noticing these opportunities and then taking advantage of them by actually serving those needs. Discuss ways to point others to God as you serve them. At the end of each day, spend time together reflecting on how God was able to use you to serve others in small and big ways during your days.

Schedule in time to do bigger, planned service projects as a family. We have tons of great ideas on our website (https://teachonereachone.org/activity-ideas/). Consider asking other families or some of your kids’ friends to join you on these service adventures. After you have completed a service project, spend some time together reflecting on what happened and what you learned from the experience.

Serving others was always meant to be a huge part of living the Christian life. Make sure your kids naturally serve others as they go, every day.

Spiritual Disciplines for Your Kids

As a Christian parent, you may or may not have heard of the concept of spiritual disciplines. Periodically, it gets some focused attention in various circles, but doesn’t seem as popular as it may have been in the past. For those of you new to spiritual disciplines, they are practices Christians have participated in since the beginning of Christianity. Many Christians believe these disciplines will help them become more like Jesus and more pleasing to God. The lists vary from person to person, but they all have in common things that are commanded or modeled in scripture, like prayer and Bible study. While the term “spiritual disciplines” is not found in the Bible, the individual practices on most lists are found in scripture.

The problem with these disciplines is that they don’t always come naturally. At least not doing them consistently and constantly. Perhaps it is because often Christians don’t try to start making them habits until they are adults. What if we spent more time helping our children develop these disciplines when they are young? Would they be able to be more consistent and benefit spiritually from doing these things regularly?

Part of the problem I would imagine many parents would have is that most of these disciplines sound very adult in nature. I believe, however, that they can be tweaked in such a way that they are appropriate for even very young children and can help them develop healthy spiritual habits while it is still relatively easy.

Over the next few weeks, we will spend one post a week going into more depth about specific disciplines and how to get your children started in participating in them. (Our other post each week will feature other topics, tips and activity ideas.) For now, here is the list we will be using,

Prayer
Bible study, including reading, memorizing and meditation.
Fasting
Worship
Service
Fellowship
Solitude
Confession
Giving
Hospitality
Simplicity
Reflection
Stewardship
Evangelism
Gratitude

As you look at this list, in which spiritual disciplines do you personally participate in consistently? With which do you struggle? How could these disciplines help your own spiritual growth and health? That of your children? Join us next week as we begin taking a closer look at individual disciplines and adapting them for children and teens.

10 Fun Winter Service Projects for Families

Let’s be honest. Winter can be depressing. One of the ways to get your family out of the doldrums is to serve others. As Christians, serving others and sharing our faith are two of the major things God wants us to do. Ironically (although not really), both have also been found to have a positive impact on our mental health. Thankfully, there are some fun service projects your family can do in the winter. Most are simple, low cost and don’t take a lot of time. For the recipient though, it can make a huge positive difference.

Make a bird feeder and place it where someone shut in can watch the birds. You can get kits to build a regular feeder or make temporary ones out of pinecones. Make sure you fill it with food and provide extra if the person is physically able to walk out and refill it. If not, consider dropping by every few days to add food.
Build snow people. You might want to ask permission first depending on the person. How much fun though for someone shut in to watch you build it and then have a fun sight out of their window for awhile!
Shovel porches, sidewalks and driveways. This one is labor intensive, but great exercise! So many older people get stuck at home until the snow and ice totally melt because they are afraid of falling. After shoveling, you may also want to spread salt so melting ice doesn’t re-freeze.
Take over some soup and corn muffins or homemade bread. The truth is that it is the thought that counts. Making homemade soup and bread – even from mixes – adds to the fun, but some cans of good soup and a nice loaf of deli bread or rolls will probably be just as appreciated.
Take over hot chocolate and fixings. You can make fun things like chocolate spoons for stirring or even your own hot chocolate mix. Want to go the extra mile? Add a cute mug and marshmallows (they can be made from scratch too if you want to try it with your kids).
Have a video call. A lot of people stay home during the winter to avoid germs. Since kids tend to be germ magnets, a personal visit is not always the best idea. Why not set up a video call, though? Depending on personalities, be prepared to get the conversation going between your kids and the person you are calling.
Send some mail. Sure it’s old school, but who doesn’t love to get something fun in the mail? Have your kids draw pictures, write notes, send riddles or puzzles….anything that would be fun for someone stuck at home to receive.
Gather up and give winter clothing to someone who needs it. Kids grow rapidly. Your kids and their friends may have a lot of winter wear they have outgrown. Get them to collect it and then give it to individuals, families or urban ministries who could use it.
Take someone some flowers. Nothing brightens a room in the winter like fresh cut flowers. You can get inexpensive bouquets at grocery stores. Many places now sell blooming or ready to bloom plants that may last even longer.
Plant seeds for food to give away. It doesn’t take much to grow many lettuces and spinach indoors in the winter. You can gift that food now or plant seeds for transplanting outside when the weather gets nice. Encourage your kids to care for the seedlings and discuss who might benefit the most from the food you grow.

Have fun with it. Bonus points if you include an encouraging Bible verse or point the recipients to God in some way as well. Make this a winter that is bright for everyone.

5 Hidden Benefits of Baking Cookies With Your Kids

Kids used to grow up helping in the kitchen. Now, many barely see their kitchens in use. We lost something important when we stopped cooking with our kids. We lost a fun way to help them grow spiritually.

For those of you terrified of the kitchen, you don’t have to get fancy. Buy a roll of those slice and bake cookies, some sprinkles and if you really want to have fun, a few tubes of decorator icing in different colors. Sugar cookies are best for decorating. You can find cookie cutters online or in craft stores like Michael’s for decent prices. Or borrow them from your mother or grandmother.

As you’re baking and decorating with your kids, there are five important benefits they are getting.

An opportunity to talk to you when you are really listening to them. There’s something about kitchens that get people talking. Really pay attention to what your kids have to say – even if it seems silly and unimportant to you. They are watching how you respond and whether or not they share important things with you in the future will depend largely on how you react when they share things baking cookies.
Patience. Pulling out the ingredients, mixing them together, rolling out the dough, cutting the shapes, waiting for them to bake, decorating them – it’s not a quick process. They (and possibly you!) will need to practice patience to have yummy cookies to eat at the end.
Perseverance. If you pull out the ingredients, but don’t mix them together, there won’t be any cookies. It takes perseverance to see the project through to its delicious end. This is especially true if mistakes are made and things have to be done again.
Teamwork/taking turns/sharing. Christianity is not done in a vacuum. Even Jesus had his Apostles. To be productive Christians, your kids will have to learn to work with others – including difficult siblings. The finished cookies can be a great motivator for working through sibling issues so the cookies can be baked and eaten!
Serving others. Most recipes for cookies make more than a dozen. Why not take some of those extra cookies and gift them to someone who will enjoy them? Your kids may want to make artwork or write notes to go with the cookies. Delivering them personally also gives them an opportunity to provide companionship to someone who might be lonely.

Have fun with it. Do it more than once a year. Try cooking other things together. You may just find the kitchen is your family’s favorite room in the house!

10 Fun Gratitude Activities for Your Family

Did you know the Bible tells us to give thanks 73 times? That’s a lot of repetition of a relatively simple command. In addition, the words thanks and thanksgiving appear in another hundred or so verses. Obviously our gratitude is important to God. He wants us to be grateful because it helps align our spirit with His. Arrogance, selfishness and other unchristian character traits are more difficult when one stays in a spirit of humble gratitude. Likewise, service, generosity and faith sharing are easier when you are grateful for the gifts God has given you.

Our world doesn’t encourage gratitude. Oh, we may hear people talk about it from time to time, but it’s really not a priority. Which is interesting. Even from a secular point of view, gratitude has been shown to have all sorts of benefits to physical and mental health.

Just like many of us have gotten into the habit of being ungrateful, we need to help our families develop the habit of gratitude. Thankfully, there are some fun things you can do to put your family in a gratitude mindset. Here are some of our favorites.

Gratitude tablecloth. Find a plastic tablecloth light enough to write on clearly. Place padding underneath it so markers don’t bleed through to your table. Every time your family sits down to dinner (also a great Thanksgiving idea for extended family to join in), have everyone take a marker and write something new for which they are thankful. How long does it take to fill up the tablecloth? To keep from repeating, review previous entries before allowing anyone to write something new. This also serves as a reminder of how much your family has been given by God.
Thanks jar or centerpiece. This is another idea that works well year around or at Thanksgiving. Find a pretty jar or bowl. Place beside it blank slips of paper and pens. Encourage everyone to write something on a slip for which they are grateful. You can make it a regular thing or just remind them when something happens to write a gratitude slip for it. Periodically, read all of the slips in the bowl and pray to God thanking Him for those blessings.
Sidewalk thanks. If you live on a street with a sidewalk, take some chalk and write “Please tell us something for which you are thankful”. Be sure to write a few things yourself to get it started. Then leave a couple of sticks of chalk where people can see them, but not step on them and get hurt. You may even want to put a little container for them in the grass so people will return the chalk where it’s safe.
Thank you treats. Make some muffins or cookies or other treats and bag them up with a short note of thanks. How many people can you thank with them? Can you focus on people who may normally be unseen by others, but should be thanked for everything they do?
Thanks in many languages. This is a way to make saying thanks more interesting, because it can encourage more conversation if you thank someone in Czech! It also can be a way to think about those in the mission field who are often making sacrifices to serve others and teach them about Jesus.
Thanks by color. This is a great way to teach young children how to thank God for His blessings in prayer. Cut out little slips of different colors of paper. Place them all in a little container. Encourage your children to take turns choosing a color and thanking God for something that is the same color as their slip of paper.
Gratitude art journal. For those with young or artistic children, buy a journal that is meant for sketching. Place pencils and crayons beside it and put it where everyone will see it during the day. Encourage everyone to draw either something for which they are grateful or a depiction of their day and everything in it for which they are grateful.
Pinterest thanks. Search for “volunteer thank you’s” and you will get tons of ideas you can use to create little thank you surprises for people.
World record thanks. Challenge each other to see how many people you can thank in one day. It will be hard to keep count, but at the end of the day, celebrate by sharing some of the thank you stories and the reactions you got from people.
Leftover candy thanks. If you are reading this close to Thanksgiving, you likely still have too much candy in your house. Get creative and tape a little punny thank you note to a piece and give it to someone. (ex. Reese’s – There are so many Reese-ons we are thankful for you!)

Have fun with it, but focus your family on gratitude. You may be surprised at the new blessings that come from being grateful for the ones you already have.