How Can I Teach My Children to Serve?
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!