Connecting with your child is important to the atmosphere in a home. There are many ways you can connect with your kids. Serving is not only one way, but a commandment from God.
Here are three ways that you can teach your child to serve:
Model service yourself.
This one should be such a no brainer, but often the things we are trying to teach our children are usually areas that we need a little more work on in order to grow our character. Show your children how you are making a meal for the new mom. Let them know that the extra time on the computer was writing a letter to an aunt who is having a hard time. When you take them to a nursing home to play games with the residents, you will be showing that service is important to you and it should be important to them. You will be showing them how ordinary families can do extraordinary things.
Explain to them that serving is not only one action but it is a demonstration of love.
Every time you fill a cup in the name of Jesus, you are showing His love to another person. Explain this to your children. Tell them how He healed the sick and how our families can be like that as far as healing people’s lonely hearts. Tell them that sometimes you plan on serving like going to a homeless shelter and other times God brings unexpected opportunities to serve someone, like an urgent call to watch a neighbor’s child if the mother had to go somewhere.
Reward Them With Praise When They Serve
When you see your child clearing off the table by himself without being asked or you see a note written to a grandparent just because the child wanted to…go gangbusters and tell them over and over how great that is that God prompted them to serve like that! They will be much more likely to want to do it again!
FREEBIE ALERT!
What is one way that you teach your kids to serve? One person who comments will get my book 21 Ways to Connect to Your Kids!
Since our children were little, we’ve been involved in volunteer work. One of my favorite memories of their childhood was the times we spent together on church work days, where the kids got to pitch in along with Dad and Mom, and were encouraged and appreciated for their contributions. We made it possible for our non-drivers to travel the half-hour drive to the church we attended. Our two boys learned to run the audio equipment and provide sound for the Saturday bus ministry meetings. I was a volunteer in the children’s church classroom on Sundays, and asked my daughter if she wanted to work as a door greeter, which she loved to do!
All these years later, the three are adults now, very involved in volunteering in their respective churches, except for the one son who is a full-time paid staff member, working as an audio engineer! And not only that, but our grandchildren are volunteering at their church, and always delighted to tackle new ways to be useful and generous with their time, energy, and loving willingness to serve.
And the tradition continues, as I’ve taken the grandkids with me when I’ve volunteered in our church’s food ministry. They were not only happy to share the work with Grammy, but they found ways to help, seeing things they could do to contribute successfully without being supervised. God is good, and we are blessed!
My kids are pretty little – 5 and 3 yrs. Our favorite act of service has been packing Operation Christmas Child boxes. We pack a box for a child “just like them” … same age and same sex. Then I let them go shopping with me to pick out things for the box, and we pray over the boxes before we send them off. My daughter will ask throughout the year about “the little girl who lives far away” and wonders if she likes the Hello Kitty toothbrush she picked for her. 🙂
My daughter and I routinely clean up trash at playgrounds and the ball field. She makes cards for those that are sick or going through hard times and loves to donate her clothes and toys to the less fortunate.
Letting my 2 year old help with household tasks – unloading the bottom rack of the dishwasher, setting the table, pushing the laundry basket down the hall… Explaining to her when we make care packages that we are sharing with people that don’t have as much. Keeping our sponsored kids’ pictures on the refrigerator at her level so she sees and asks questions and remembers them.
We serve others at church…letting her choose food for the food pantry or help clean toys in the nursery. Though I have little ones, these are age-appropriate services that they can do.
Also, when they express an interest in serving in some way, we jump on their idea and try to make it happen.
I set-up different activities that give opportunities to serve others. For example, as countdown activities before Christmas, Easter, and Valentine’s Day we jot down a list of ways to show love and kindness to those around us. We might make blessings bags for homeless individuals, prepare and pack a meal for a needy family or elderly person, bake cookies, make cards, we may donate toys and books to children, provide the local girls home with educational supplies, volunteer at the library, read to someone at, etc. We also like to leave Random Acts of Kindness gifts in our area. Every Christmas my six-year-old daughter donates her own money to World Vision. We use the Christmas Angel to offer suggestions. She is very willing to participate and I pray that she’ll continue blessings others as she grows.
We donate toys twice a year. Plus give gifts to kids at Christmas time. We also serve our elderly neighbors by bringing them a meal.
My daughter has been asking me a lot of questions lately regarding money I use to buy bedding and towels for a home of saved sex slaves. Also about why I do so much at church and how she can do the same things. Modeling behavior must be a huge key, as I have completely fallen down on teaching or explain such things to her.
I teach my kids to serve by providing opportunities for them to serve others while I serve alongside with them. It can be something as fun as making Easter baskets for the needy in the community to volunteer cleaning at the church. Children naturally like to be helpful and once you show them tangible ways that they can bless others (even at a young age) they run with it. To get a child started in service, brainstorm with them about how they could bless others in an area that they are interested in. If they like to read, set up a time where they could read to a younger child or sibling. If they like to draw or write they could send a letter or picture to our troops oversees or adopt an elderly person in a nursing home. Serving can even be as simple as including the lonely kid on the playground to join them. And don’t forget to commend your child when you do notice them serving. 🙂
We start by teaching them to serve at home… Having our 12 year old fix the entire family drinks for dinner… or our 15 year old can serve her siblings by taking time out to help braid, curl or iron her younger sisters hair… Our 2 year old can get everyone a fork to set the table… The small little things can open doors for larger acts of service 🙂
The spiritual is one we don’t mention often in society. Yet, it is through the power of prayer, that changes hearts, situations, and attitudes. Our children serve others by praying for them. The act of prayer is also a humbles the one praying. It allows us to love others, through a strength that goes beyond self. It is one of the deepest sources of service to others and to humankind.