“Raising Spiritually Healthy Kids” – Part 1

Of anything I could ever ask for or want, my wife and I want our kids to be spiritually healthy. We all know the importance of raising spiritually healthy kids so it is not necessary to spend a lot of time making a case for those efforts.

What I would like to do is offer several simple steps that will help us along this journey. This is not an exhaustive compilation of “what to do,” it is just four ideas that I thought might be helpful.

The first thought is…Be AWARE.

Teachable moments present themselves all the time. But are we AWARE of these opportunities when they do present themselves? Are we intentionally looking for them?

These teachable moments are a way to bring God and Christian values into the conversation. For example, when watching television together. There might be a commercial for a new TV show that may have questionable moral material and content. Start a conversation about the topic and ask what your child thinks. Then decide if that is the kind of show you should be watching to glorify God.

Just having these kind of conversations, even if you don’t have the “right” answers, will help your kid’s spiritual development. Be intentional about bringing God into the conversations. The key to remember is…you don’t have to be an expert on spiritual matters to initiate or simply have a conversation about spiritual matters. And if you are asked a question that you don’t know the answer to, say something like, “hey, I don’t know the answer to that, but let’s discover it together.”

Being AWARE of the situation around you and the teachable moment when it presents itself is a great step in moving your kids towards spiritual health.