Today I wanted to share a few ways to teach your children godly character through the summer.
This might be your first year that you purposefully decide to try to instill more character in them--or you just might feel your children need to focus more on it! (Don't we all feel that way sometimes?) Our children are definitely not perfect and we always should be trying to reach their hearts with the truth of God's word.
Whether you just want to choose one thing or ALL, feel free to pick and choose! Maybe you used to do all these things but just need to get back on track, summer is definitely a great time to do it. We are personally planning to do several of these things of the list.
Here we go:
1. Begin a consistent Bible reading/devotional time. Be sure to include prayer. We always need to be pro-active about getting the Word of God into our children and the most important thing you can do is help them to have a regular time with God that will bring them into their adult years. If your children are small just read a children's Bible to them.
2. Bible verse memorization. Maybe a verse, a chapter, or whole books (this family did it). Don't forget to also learn fun facts, for example..how many books of the bible are there, where did such and such take place. I liked this Bible Fun Fact book and the children enjoyed it too. Small children can listen to scripture CD's to learn verses a designated times of the day or before going to sleep at night.
3. Work through a character work book together. Polished Cornerstones and Plants Grown Up not only has solid character training teaching but also offer smorgasborg of fun and meaningful activities or skills! For younger children you might want to try Keepers at Home and Contenders of the Faith.
4. Start a summer reading list and include inspiring stories of the faith, martyrs, and biographies of past Christian heroes or inspirational men and women who have come before us. For more Christian book/magazine ideas click here.
5. Watch movies--Don't just grab any old movie, but be purposeful! Go to the Faith and Spiritually section of Netflix, Family Christian Bookstore or your library and grab some inspiringly refreshing movies that make for great conversation later. Also use movies to teach a biblical worldview.
6. Give them jobs. Summer is not just for lazing around and lamenting about how bored they are. Get the rest and fun in but be sure to give them some jobs to help around the house. Organizing, cleaning, mowing the grass, organizing a garage sale, plant a vegetable garden, mending, sewing, home repairs, cleaning their room, learning an instrument, washing the car, are all great ways to teach teach the principal or hard work, diligence and perseverance,which are all godly traits that should be reenforced.
7. If you kids are older have them watch/listen to sermons or biblical teaching online. He who walks with the wise becomes wise. Now your children can walk with very wise preachers who live across the globe. Download podcasts or use You Tube and have them listen! Vision Forum also has great teaching tools (for moms and dads too!) that are easily downloadable at Blue Behemoth. For younger kids, I recommend Cedarmont Kids and Jonathon Park.
8. Join in activities with your local church. There are many great godly men and women to tap into at church. I'm grateful that our church has many great examples. Our family will be actively will be actively involved with our church family doing everything from work, play and outreach.
9. Volunteer to help. Whether it be in a food pantry, an volunteer organization, bringing a new mom a meal or baking cookies or cleaning the yard for the widow down the street, or making food packages for the poor, we can reach out with helping hands in special ways to our community.
10. Spread the gospel. A few years back we used to buy some modern tracts and spread them in our neighborhood, stores and parking lots. But there are many ways to do this. You can bake a loaf of bread or gift and attach a card and give it to a neighbor/friend or invite them over and show some good old fashioned Christian hospitality. You can share the gospel to the masses at home too. A few of my children in the past had set up blogs just so they could help spread the word about Jesus (they also learn valuable writing skills, typing, communication and computer skills).
And most importantly have fun with the list--it's summer after all!
We hope you enjoy your summer!
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