The 30 Imperatives of Parenting # 2
Oct 19
#2 – The Foundation Of Life
One of the things that is extremely important to how secure a building is, is its foundation. If there is a crack or it is not a secure foundation then the building will not stand. The first major storm or winds and it will shift or crumble. It is the same with our children. What we lay as the foundation for living is equally important. That needs to be our relationship with God.
We want our children’s faith to stand the tests and the temptations when they leave our home. The number of youth group kids that leave church after they graduate high school is staggering, research shows it is anywhere from 65-94%. Why? Because there is not a firm foundation built. Church becomes just a way of life or something to do, they miss that a relationship with God is something that the entirety of life is built on. Make sure that you as a family are making that a priority in your home. Check out the series that we did recently about how to cultivate your child’s relationship with God, by clicking here.
Take the time to set your child’s life up on a firm foundation!
Listen to today’s podcast for more insight on this topic.
The 30 Imperatives of Parenting #1
Oct 18
#1- The Motivational “Why”
The first thing that we need to do as we look at the 30 things that we must train our children in before they go out the door, is check our motivations as parents. Where do our priorities truly lie? If our priority is our job or solely providing for our family, then we will spend all of our time, energy and ultimately ourselves on that. When we get home our spouse and children will get the “leftovers”. We need to make the choice, daily sometimes, what our priority is. Our priorities need to be first and foremost our relationship with God, next our marriage, and thirdly our children. Of course we need to provide for our family but that cannot ensnare all of our time and energies.
As you drive home or get up in the morning, pray and make the choice of what your priority is. That way you go into your time with your family intentionally. There is no way to train your children in these thirty areas if we are not intentional and treat training as a priority. Choose, through your relationship with God, to make your relationship with your spouse and children your first priority!
Listen to today’s podcast for more insight on this topic.
The 30 Imperatives of Parenting
Oct 17
An Intro To Those 30 Things
Telling a Parent that there are 30 things they need to train their parent is a little overwhelming. So lets look at it this way… there are 30 things every child needs to know to be successful at what God has for them to do. Either we as parents take the time to train our children or God loves them enough to train them. For example, Jacob didn’t train Joseph, so God allowed Joseph to have a training course imposed on him. It was rugged but successful.
In the past much of this training was done automatically by the way society was set up. Usually, the child worked for the family. It was understood that the family was the primary trainer of the child and because of this the child learn responsibility. The parent didn’t have to think about it, the child’s extra set of hand were needed. Today’s parents have to be intentional.
Take the time to decide what is the best use of the limited family time.
Listen to today’s podcast for more on and an overview of these thirty things.
Teaching Kids Time Management | Part 5
Oct 07
The Series Wrap Up
As we wrap up this week discussing training children in time management, there are two important facts to remember. In order to be consistent, time management training is something that both parents need to be on the same page with. This means that there needs to be discussion time or a parental staff meeting as you begin to decide on and implement a plan.
The second is that if we as parents are consistent with our plan, rewards and consequences the choice to follow the plan is placed on our child’s shoulders. If we are not consistent then we the parents become the consequence. With the plan clearly communicated to our child and consistently enforced it is easy to show the child that they are ultimately choosing the reward or the consequence by their behavior. It removes us from the equation and allows us to be the unemotional enforcers of our plan. Both of these facts are true in many areas of parenting and remind us how important it is to have a plan in place.
Listen to today’s podcast for more insight on training your child in time management.
Teaching Kids Time Management | Part 4
Oct 06
Giving Your Child Control Over Their Time
In the parenting we need to practice the ICE plan, instruct, consequence, and exercise. When we are training our kids to use their time wisely it is no different. The past few days we have been discussing the different ways to instruct your children by helping them to manage their time. Next we need to set up the consequences both positive and negative for time management, meaning rewards for consistently sticking with the plan and what will be done if the child strays from the plan. As the child grows we can give them more and more control over their own time management, which is the exercise in the ICE plan.
Again as with money management, we can look at our goals for training our children in time management and work backwards. Ultimately as our children leave our home we want them to be prepared to have control over their time, especially when facing all the time wasting temptations on a college campus. We need to give them room to practice managing their time while they are still under our roof in high school. An easy place to do this is a teen’s bedtime. Keep in mind that a bedtime is different from a curfew. You can slowly back a bedtime up until ultimately there is no bedtime. As long as a teen is keeping up with their school work and morning family responsibilities then they can continue without a bedtime. If they are having a hard time getting up with their alarm in the morning then the bedtime can be reinstated. The important thing is to allow your children to practice time management while you are still there to help them with it.
Listen to today’s podcast for more insight on training your children in time management.
