Shepherding your Kids

DAD, Slow down!

As we all strive to navigate life’s chaos, we swiftly fall into an unsustainable pace. We sacrifice essential aspects of well-being for the allure of constant busyness. We struggle to slow down and disconnect, fearing we might miss out or fall behind. It’s a real struggle.

Belonging and Connection

Welcome back to Ten Minutes with DAD

Shepherding your Kids

When it comes to parenting your kids, where do you put your focus? Are you fixated on helping them learn all the right information so they can be “successful” in life (whatever that means)? Are you intent on getting them onto the right team or into the right class or attached to the right group of friends so they can excel in the world? None of these things are inherently bad or wrong, but they might not be the best things for you to focus on. What if you decided to really focus on their heart and cared for them in a way that goes beyond the mechanics of life? What if your care for them led them to a place where they experienced life in a different way and felt a true sense of peace?

Sharing your Jesus story with kids

This weeks ten minutes provides some great ideas for Personal God Things to Share With Your Child to encourage their spiritual growth. Many parents communicate that they are at a loss when it comes to answering kids’ tough questions about God. For example, when someone close passes away—a friend or family member—parents scramble to teach their kids about life, death and heaven. More often than not, parents end up avoiding complicated matters altogether! Instead of waiting until certain topics come up, make a list of subjects you want to talk about and begin addressing them one by one, casually, but through your eyes. How do youknow God is real? Share that with your child! How have you experienced God’s love? Try to express this in a way they can understand; this means talking to your child about what you believe personally.

Discipline vs. Punishment

We’re talking for the next 10 minutes about the difference between discipline and punishment, and how the words are often used interchangeably but are quite different. To review, punishment seeks to control a person’s behavior by fear or retribution, or by inflicting pain to motivate change. Discipline, however, seeks to tie the unwanted behavior to a natural or logical consequence for that behavior. Discipline does not connect a child’s identity to their choices.