Preparing our kids for Jesus

This week in Kidzville your kids will be learning how to make their hearts ready for Jesus. As parents, the responsibility of making the heart ready falls on us. The easiest way this is achieved is by leading intentional Faith Talks each week in the home. A Faith Talk, as defined by Brian Haynes author of The Legacy Path, is another way of saying "family devotion". This is a time set aside each week for your family to gather around the Bible and talk about how to apply it to life.

The most grounded kids we have in Kidzville are products from homes where parents are actively leading family devotions on a daily/weekly basis. In Kidzville, we are trying our best to make this time easily achievable and accessible by teaching all your kids the same bible lesson and providing you with weekly emails/handouts with ideas on how to keep the learning going at home.

By holding a faith talk at home, you are intentionally making their hearts ready for Christ and saying to them "this is important". Therefore, "make the most of every opportunity, letting your conversation be full of grace and seasoned with salt"(Colossians4:5-6). It's the only eternal thing you can give them.

Responding to the Greatest Gift

This week in Kidzville, your kids will be learning how to respond to God's gifts; but I think there is something we adults can learn here as well. In Psalms 127:3, it says "children are a gift from the Lord". Since this gift has been given to us by God himself, how should we as parents respond? I believe we can find the answer in Deuteronomy 6 which says "we shall teach the words of the Lord diligently to our children...we shall talk of them when we sit in our house, and when we walk by the way, and when we lie down, and when we rise."

Clearly, God wants His children to know about His love and promises and He wants that teaching to come from the home(Psalms 78). But how can we as parents diligently teach the words of the Lord in the everyday aspects of life, like just sitting at home or walking along the street or going to bed and getting up? It takes two things...1)Intentional planning-which we can all do and 2)time-something we have all been given the same amount of. Unfortunately, too many of us spend more time and energy planning our family vacations and meal times than on planning our children's eternal future in Christ. As parents, I leave you with three points by Jim Burns, author of Confident Parenting...

-Build your parenting upon a foundation.
It's all about priorities, developing a plan and staying focused on what's most important.

-Be an Intentional spiritual leader Praying for and with your children, celebrating their milestones, and bringing faith conversations into the home are all habits of the heart that come by being proactive.

-Keep your priorities in order. We need to remind ourselves everyday to put God first as well as be faithful to our commitment to our spouse and children.

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