Keep your Children in Church: Parenting from an Authentic Life

Deuteronomy 6:6-9, states:
These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as [b]frontals [c]on your forehead.9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

This is what Solomon refers to as raising a child in the way he should go. Friday night I spoke with a Mom who told me her three children  all now in their late teens or early twenties are in church and serving God. She knows so many others whose children are not. One Sunday night at dinner she asked them why this was. Their answer, because  loving and serving God was real in our house. You and Dad would talk about what the Bible had to say as you made decisions. You read the Bible with us and talked about it almost every week. But, mostly you guys talked about it all the time it was real. That was not true at our friends houses even though they went to church. It was not something they lived everyday. 

Keeping your kids walking in the Faith means you MUST make it real in your own lives!

Ultimately  this is about being authentic in your own lives.Authenticity is all about aligning your beliefs, thoughts, words, and actions. Living life based solely on what you believe. This is not to say you can not change your mind about what you think and believe. It does mean it is one of the things you talk about doing.

Teaching authentic living requires three things:

1. Talking about what you believe and think
2. Explaining to your nd believe what you do
3. Living authentically yourself.   

A life lived by believing in God is not enough. Taking your children to church I'd not enogh. Having your teen be a youth group leader is not enough. The old poem is true "Children Learn What They Live". It is your authentic living of your faith  which will keep your kids in church!

Believe in Parenting 

Why is Multiple Intelligence important in Children's Ministry?

Dr. Howard Gardner is the person who came up with the theory of multiple intelligence. Multiple intelligence means says there are different ways each learns. Dr. Gardner came up with 8 ways in which we learn. Each of these ways need to be explored in every classroom.  Although, many educators use it as a secondary process behind teaching strategies.  I believe this to be a mistake. Learning always starts with the learner. Therefore,  in  children's ministries across the nation we need to be using multiple intelligence in order to empower children to learn.

The 8 forms of intelligence are logical/mathematical, linguistic, musical, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and natural. In order to use these learning styles effectively takes two forms of planning. The first is open-ended questions to ask children  to inspire critical thinking. The second is a classroom  environment  designed to engage all forms of intelligence. Children’s Ministers and volunteers can use these strategies  to enrich the children's  experience and development in Christianity.