I was an elementary school teacher before I had children. I spent my days writing lesson plans, teaching those plans, and evaluating the results of those plans.
I may not be a teacher any longer, but I am certainly still a planner.
I now describe myself as “Mom,” a role not for the faint of heart. “Mom” is really just an alias. After all, many of us are also the CEOs, CFOs, and Project Managers of our homes!
Oh you know how it is — we’re parents! In addition to loving, disciplining, and training our kids, we juggle home management, jobs, education, ministry, and all sorts of other responsibilities and relationships.
To keep things running, we need a plan. We need to be intentional. We need to be organized! The same can be said when it comes to investing spiritually in our children.
Intentionality is important. If we are not intentional, most opportunities to engage spiritually with our kids will be missed.
But we can also swing too far to the other side, and sometimes in our effort to be intentional and to remain organized — in our focus to “stick to the plan” — we miss out on some profound opportunities. Sometimes our ‘plan’ distracts us from recognizing where God is at work.
We can eat together as a family, have regular family devotions, serve together, pray together, and attend church regularly as a family but still find something missing.
Have you ever felt that way?
We might be doing all the “right” things, but see little spiritual growth in our families.
Why is that?
There may be a number of reasons, but the bottom line is that I can’t change the hearts of my kids.
I can come up with great teaching methods, use all the right words, and give my kids moving experiences, but no matter what I do, ultimately, I am not the one who changes their hearts. God is.
Someone once told me: It is God who initiates; my job is to partner with Him.
It is God who initiates. My job is to partner with Him!
I don’t have to control circumstances or manipulate conversations to engage spiritually with my kids. I just need to depend on the Spirit of God and follow as He leads.
More and more my desire is to surrender my plan and simply follow God’s lead.
Instead of leaning on my own understanding, I want to seek God first for my children. I want to pray over and over throughout each day: God, what are you doing and how can I partner with Your Spirit?
It’s hard to imagine that anyone could love our children more than we do, but God does! God desires to do more than we could ask or even imagine in our children’s lives. As we seek to partner with Him, we need to —
- Be Authentic — Are we asking our kids to develop a relationship that we don’t have or to live a life of faith when we don’t? I strongly believe that one of the best ways to teach our kids to love God is by loving God in front of them. This isn’t a charade or some masquerade. Genuine, authentic faith is powerful. It is inspiring — it is contagious! Are we growing in our relationship with the Lord? Let’s start here.
- Ask — God what are you doing and how can I partner with you? We need to seek God! Let’s ask Him to show us where He is working in our kids lives and how we can join Him in His work. {Then let’s make sure to listen and respond!}
- Assist — We need to help our kids create space to listen to God and to recognize His voice. God speaks to kids! Are we helping our kids to know His voice and listen when He speaks?
- Amplify and Apply — As God is working in the hearts of my children, not only do I want my kids to know and hear His voice, I want them to obey His voice. As we talk with our kids, as we listen to them share what God is speaking to them, we can amplify that message and help fan it into flame. As parents, we can help our kids walk in obedience to God!
We all have room to grow when it comes to being more intentional in our relationships with our kids, and the very first place to start is with God — God, what are you doing in the lives of my kids, and how can I partner with You?
In this with you,
Erika
Photo Credit: Original Photo from Flickr Creative Commons Stepan Radibog
