Service – Page 31 – Parenting Like Hannah

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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Teaching Kids to Use Everything to Serve God

If you talk to anyone in business or non-profit management, they will tell you one key to success is finding synergies. Synergy is finding the connection to someone else so you help each other succeed by combining your talents and/or resources. Have you ever thought about how you might create synergy with God?

God has gifted each person with talents, resources and connections. He has given you the tools to succeed. Have you thought about how to use those same gifts to serve God? Did you ever consider teaching your children how to look at everything they have been given and see how they can use it to further God’s Kingdom?

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Month Four Challenge: Helping the Hurting

Month Four Challenge: Helping the Hurting - Parenting Like Hannah It’s not too late to join our 12 month challenge to teach your children to live more like Jesus. This month we have been adding the idea of teaching our children to help the hurting. Not just serve them by meeting their needs, but sharing the Gospel message with them as we show them God’s love.

If your family has been searching for ways to help the hurting people of the world, you may just be overwhelmed. It seems like every time I open the paper, read my mail or turn on my computer I am bombarded by stories of people who are hurting. Some in ways I can’t even imagine. All of these people could use our help, but we only have a limited amount of time, energy and resources to give.

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Kids and Apathy

Most non-profits will tell you one of their biggest battles is convincing people to no longer be apathetic about the social problem their group is trying to address. Many spend countless hours and dollars developing ways to help people understand the urgency of the problem. Groups like charity: water and Toms have actually done a great job of informing and engaging people about their mission with creativity and style.

We know our world is filled with more problems than we can count. We know God commands us to serve others and teach them about God. The pure enormity of the problem is overwhelming. So overwhelming, most people become apathetic. It is easier to block out all of the problems and opportunities and focus on our little world, where we feel like we have more control. The problem is, not only are we not in control of anything, the problems of the greater world can become so large they begin to invade our personal worlds. I think everyone learned that lesson in very real and horrible ways during World War II.

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Teaching Children to Help the Hurting

If you are following our 12 month plan to teach your children to live more like Jesus, we have already covered Bible reading, prayer and Christian relationships. April is the month to add “training your child to help the hurting with love”. Sounds easy, but it is actually more complex than most people realize.

This is going to sound a little strange, but a lot of times people help those who are hurting with the things that they would want and not necessarily what the other person actually wants or needs to feel better. I think we get tangled up in the whole empathy thing and think it means what we would want done in any given situation is what everyone would want or need.

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