Kids Blog

Practical Ways to Answer the Call

1. Pray

Yes, we say this at church all the time, but we cannot overemphasize the importance of prayer. You can follow all the right steps, do all the right things, teach all the right lessons, plan the most creative and fun family discipleship times, but if you don't pray, you deprive yourself of the greatest source of power to help you disciple your children. Jesus himself was constantly praying in his ministry and at one point in time, He even taught His disciples that some things are impossible apart from prayer (Mark 9:29). 

Furthermore, pray every day. When Jesus taught his disciples to pray, He told them to say "give us this day our daily bread" (Matt. 6:11). Prayer for your children should be brought before the Father daily. As you are praying daily, also pray persistently. In Luke 18, Jesus taught his disciples to pray and never give up. When things are rough and you feel overwhelmed, pray, keep praying, pray until you think you can't pray anymore, and then keep praying. 

2. Disciple

Jesus invited his disciples to follow Him. He invited them to come and see and to imitate what He did. Just as Jesus disciples imitated the faith of Jesus, your children will imitate your faith. If you want to be an effective disciple maker for your children, you need to first be a disciple, and you need to let your children SEE you being a disciple.

Let your children know that spending time in God’s word is a daily priority to you. Share with them when you see God working in your life. Pray with them. Let them know that giving your time, talent, and treasures to God is important to you. Make worshipping God with other believers a priority in your life, and let them see that you are passionate about worship. Let them see you serve and love others on a continual basis. Don’t keep your faith private from your kids. When they see your faith in action, they will be inspired to have the same faith.

If you are new to the faith, just not sure how to live out the life of a disciple, or have never been discipled before; Let us know. There are plenty of ministers here at the church who would be overjoyed at the opportunity to disciple you and to help you grow in your faith so you can help your children grow in their faith.

3. Be Intentional

Often, being a disciple maker seems like a daunting task because we think of discipleship as sitting down and all studying the Bible in an organized matter. It seems like a lot of work to prepare lessons, you may not feel like you know enough about the Bible to make the lesson, and, if we are honest, it can feel really awkward to lead these times at home where there are a million reactions. When discipling is viewed like this, sending your kids to church and letting their small group leaders handle all the preparation and teaching begins to look like a very good deal. 

However, this is not the way the Bible instructs parents to disciple their children. Deuteronomy 6:7 states “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”.  Taking the time to disciple your kids does not mean you have to prepare a thirty minute Bible study for your family to participate in each week.  Instead, discipleship should happen all the time.

You can sing worship songs in the car as you travel from place to place. When you see someone in need, you and your child can care for that person and you can teach them why helping is important in the process. You can teach about humility and loving your neighbor while having a family game night. When they break a rule, you can teach about forgiveness, mercy, and grace.  If you are intentional with your time, there will be many opportunities throughout the day that can be turned into mini discipleship lessons.

If you are interested in learning more about how to be a disciple maker at home, I would recommend Parenting with a Kingdom Purpose by Ken Hemphill and Richard Ross

Weekly Challenge

The KIDS at the Heights team wants to provide as many family discipleship opportunities for you and your kids as we can, and for the month of August we are going to have a School Supply Drive. Serve others by collecting the school supplies found on The Heights EVENT PAGE and drop them off at the church every Wednesday from 10am-2pm in the month of August. Don’t forget to be intentional and use this opportunity to share why you are taking the time to help others!