Tag Archives: Easter

Building a Spiritual Foundation in Children

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by Pat Lamb (Author of: Let the Children Come; Children, Come to Me; When the Stars Fall Down; Widening the Church Doors to Teach the Narrow Way; My Thinking Book. Available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and www.patlambchristianauthor.com)

Train up a child…

Building a Spiritual Foundation in Children

         Childhood is a foundation for life.  That foundation needs to be established in four areas. These areas are social, mental, physical, and spiritual.  How these four areas are developed in childhood influences the successful adjustment to adulthood.

         The spiritual development of children is often neglected.  Much emphasis is placed on a good education (mental), making friends (social), and health and wellness of children (physical), but when it comes to the spiritual side of a child, parents often feel inadequate to work in this area or for some other reason, simply don’t. Yet, it is this part of a human being that permeates all other parts and gives motivation and a set of values for functioning.

         Every person is born with an instinct to worship something.  As a small child begins to notice the many things created, questions begin to arise.  “Where did I come from?” is a natural curiosity.  “Who made the trees, flowers, and other things around me?” is also a natural question.  If a child is not given guidance in what to believe, he/she may end up in a cult or simply drift through life with little or no purpose searching for meaning to life.  That person will always be trying to fill a void that may never be satisfied in spite of many attempts.  “If we don’t stand for something, we will fall for anything,” is a saying I once heard.  This seems to play out in many lives of individuals who have not had a spiritual foundation as children.

         Some parents will say, “I will let my children decide for themselves about what they believe.”  How can they decide if they have no knowledge?  We don’t let children decide about whether to go to school.  We don’t let them eat only candy all the time.  We try to make sure they choose the right friends.  They need help in deciding what to believe.

         In my opinion, there are certain basic things that should be done to help develop a spiritual foundation in children.  First of all, they should go to church and learn about the Bible.  There are basic things about the Bible every child should learn.  Children need to learn about the crucifixion and the meaning of the cross.  In connection with this, children need to learn John 3:16.  The Ten Commandments and The Lord’s Prayer should be memorized by every child.  Children need to learn that God is love but that he is also a just God and that we don’t get by with wrong.  Even though God will forgive us of wrongdoing if we are sorry and ask Him to do so, there are still natural consequences of sin.  They need to understand that there is a heaven and a hell and that God sees them everywhere they are.  There is no hiding from God.  (This understanding is especially helpful when children get to the point of wanting to do something without parents knowing about it.) The more Scripture children can memorize, the better it is.   These Scripture verses will come back to them as they make decisions.  Purpose in life is obtained when children learn that God has a plan for each person. 

When my oldest sister was in her last days, at one point I stood beside her bed in St. John’s Hospital in Springfield.  She and I were holding hands, and she looked at me and said, “My biggest regret is that I didn’t get Gary and Steve (her sons) in Sunday school and church when they were little”.  We need to constantly work on the spiritual development of children just as we work on the development in other areas. When they hear about Christ arising from the grave, they take hold of a deeper meaning to life than simply pleasing mom and dad, the teacher, and friends.  No other religious leader has come back from death.  Knowing this fact will help a person decide to live for Christ.  

Plan a Meaningful Easter

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by Pat Lamb www.patlambchristianauthor.com

Train up a child…

Plan a Meaningful Easter

         Easter is the most important holiday of the year.  Without Easter, Christmas would lose its importance.  For this reason, we should put much effort into making sure that children understand the real meaning of the time as well as enjoying the holiday to create a pleasant memory.

         Many would like to do away with the great amount of commercialism that accompanies Easter. Realistically, that isn’t likely to happen.  It would seem to me that the best way to deal with the commercialism is to adapt it to positive learning.  Egg hunts are fun.  Children who are not allowed to participate will probably resent it.  Why not simply tell the children that the eggs represent new life that we can find in Jesus.  We are promised in the Bible that if we seek, we can find that new life. Easter baskets can be explained as a way that parents show love to children by giving gifts just as God gave the best gift of all, his Son. I don’t know many children who are truly tricked into thinking that a rabbit brings an Easter basket.  In my opinion, it is best to tell the children that the Easter bunny is part of a game that adults like to play with children. Those who choose to purchase new clothes can tell children that we want to look our best for church and that the new clothes symbolize the new life we can find when we believe Jesus died on the cross and rose again, repent, and invite the Holy Spirit into our lives. 

         What better time than Easter to teach John 3:16.  All children should know this verse that says, “For God so loved the world that he gave His only son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life”.  In addition to teaching the verse, the family needs to attend the church of choice on Easter. Most churches have special services. There is no better way to teach children than through visual demonstration. Many churches provide thought-provoking drama that help all to understand Easter.

         It is sad to think that so many people in our country do not know the meaning of Easter.  When Tim Tebow wrote John 3:16 under his eyes while playing football, it was reported that approximately two million people googled the Internet to find out what it was.  Our children have a great deal to face in their adulthood.  Hopefully, we can make sure that those children with whom we personally come in contact will have the spiritual foundation they need to deal with the issues facing them. One way to help give children this needed spiritual foundation for the future is to make Easter meaningful.

Stress the Positive

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Train up a child…

 

Stress the Positive

 

When raising children, we sometimes find ourselves in situations that are undesirable. There are some things that simply cannot be prevented or avoided.  Society often throws customs and traditions our way that affect children.  Children, themselves, do not always perform as we would like and we are tempted to harshly scold them for poor performance. When these challenges occur, some parents stress the negative instead of the positive.  Some parents spend their time and energy trying to shelter their children from the inevitable.  The best thing to do, in my opinion, is to be truthful with the children about the negative, but put the major emphasis on the positive aspects of the occasion.

Halloween has a dark origin. It is based on the rituals of the druids who lived long ago.  There may be a few people in our country who actually associate the two things, but it is doubtful that the thought ever crosses the mind of most of our children. To most children, it is a time to dress up in a costume, have fun, and get candy.  There is nothing wrong with dressing up in a costume that does not reflect the negative aspects of the holiday.  In fact, it is good for a child to imagine they are someone or something else. It expands their thinking and understanding of others. Getting candy once a year is not harmful unless permissive parents allow their children to have too much candy at other times.

Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny certainly detract from the importance of Christmas and Easter.  They become an even greater distraction if we overemphasize them.  If we tell the children that talking about them is a game we play; then, we can move on and emphasize the real truth of the holidays. If we talk about them too much, or if we forbid the children to have anything to do with the custom, their minds become fixated on them and they want to play the game all the more.

When children “mess up” and make mistakes, it is best to acknowledge the mistakes and look for the positive to emphasize.  As a teacher, I have heard endless stories about how a child was embarrassed by being scolded for mistakes.  Those embarrassing moments are like chains that keep a child from wanting to break loose and try again to succeed.  They fear the hurt of failure.  On the other hand, when a child is praised for doing something, that is the very thing the child wants to do again in hope of more praise. As the child repeats the action, that child gains more expertise in the task.

Let’s face it!  There are some things we will never be able to change.  We waste our time and energy in trying to do so.  We can, however, emphasize the positive of situations to help a child grow in the truth.  There will probably be a Santa, Easter bunny, and witches at Halloween for a long time to come.  Our children don’t have to be caught up in the things of society.  They can look at such things knowing there is something better. When they make mistakes, they need not fear a harsh scolding, but rather they can progress in the positive aspect of the situation.  By accentuating the positive, we eliminate the negative.

Plan a Meaningful Easter for Children

parenting, Raising kids,

Train up a child…

 

Plan a Meaningful Easter for Children

 

Oh what fun to wake up in the morning to a pretty Easter basket! It is a very nice thing for children to remember. Easter egg hunts are looked forward to with much anticipation. In addition, many children get a new Easter outfit to wear to church on that special day. These are all great things to help children remember Easter as a special day.

I wonder how many children have been told the real meaning of Easter. Do they know that eggs represent new life? Do they know that spring, itself, represents the awakening of new life? Do they understand that Easter activities remind us of the fact that the rising of Christ tells us that we, too, will have new life one day?

Why not have the children lay out their clothes the night before Easter so they can get up early and go with the family to one of the many sunrise services in the community? How often does a family watch the sun come up together? Let the children experience the feeling of getting up early in order to identify with the feelings of the ladies who went to the tomb of Jesus only to find it empty. Remind them on the way to the service that the Christian faith is the only one that worships someone who arose from death. Then, after the service, go to breakfast together as a family. Again, many churches in the community serve a free breakfast. If there isn’t a church serving breakfast in your area, go to a restaurant together. Then follow up by attending worship service.

Many egg hunts are sponsored by organizations at times other than the actual Easter Sunday. It is nice, however, to let the children color and decorate their own real eggs on Saturday; then, they can hunt them on Sunday afternoon with dad and mom watching.

A special Easter dinner before the hunt is nice if everyone pitches in to help. The nice thing about ham on Easter is that it takes very little effort to prepare. Let each person choose ahead of time the contribution he/she can make to the dinner. Even very small children can help by setting the table or just putting one thing on the table such as the napkins. Even though it may be easier to do it yourself, it is important to have the children participate in some way. There are many foods already prepared that can be purchased if the children are all too small to give much help. The goal is to have cooperation among family members and for the children to feel a sense of worth for having helped.

We should not forget Good Friday. I remember helping my dad and mom plant potatoes on Good Friday. Although this is not a celebration of a holiday, it still served as a memory of Easter. I remember how we would talk about Friday being the time Jesus was crucified and how sad we all felt.

It may seem strange to talk to children about death and life after death, but it certainly is a subject they need to know about. Each of us has to face death some day. The apostle Paul wrote in I Corinthians 15:35 to help us understand death: “But someone may ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?” How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or something else. But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body.”

Childhood: A Foundation for Life

parenting, Raising kids,

Train up a child…

 

Childhood: A Foundation for Life

 

It is during childhood that a person learns those things that become the basis for all decision making in life. If much is learned, the adult has a great deal upon which to build a successful life. If there are “chinks” in this foundation, the adult is found lacking those things needed to make good decisions or to be healthy and able to carry out the proper decisions. The four corners of the foundation of life are: social, mental, physical, and spiritual.

In our society, I’m afraid the greatest emphasis is placed on the social development of children. There seems to be a great concern for whether a child has friends and whether that child is having fun and enjoying life. In school, for years there has been social promotion. There has been a greater emphasis on the child being placed with children of the same age than whether the child has gained the knowledge so much needed. Although it is good that children learn to intermingle in social settings, perhaps this area is not where there is greatest need. Let’s ask ourselves the question, “Where in society are we separated by age rather than school or Sunday School?” Actually, most of life we are not separated by age but rather have to get along with all ages.

Secondly, there is emphasis placed on the mental aspect of a child’s foundation. There is much talk and writing about whether our schools are properly preparing our children for adulthood. We are mostly concerned about reading. “If a child can read, he can do anything,” I’ve heard people say. There is less emphasis currently being placed on math and language. We spend thousands of dollars to educate children to prepare them mentally for the challenges they will inevitably face.

Third, we are concerned about the physical well-being of the child. Obesity is a problem and we are hearing a little more about proper nutrition. Vaccinations are given to prevent certain diseases. Physical education programs in schools are supposed to be designed to teach children proper care of their bodies.

It would seem that in most cases the spiritual foundation of a child is given the least attention. It is unfortunate that this is given so little attention. I suspect that there are many children in our country who have never been in a church or had the Bible read to them. Many probably do not even have a Bible in the home. Although this part of a child’s foundation is probably the most neglected, it is the most important. It is the spiritual foundation that gives the child the values needed to function. It is also the spiritual foundation that helps the child through difficult and disappointing times. Without this foundation, as an adult there is nothing to fall back on when hard times come. The spiritual foundation gives answers through scripture to puzzling decisions that have to be made. This part of the foundation gives hope, motivation, and purpose to life.

The Easter season is a perfect time to nurture the spiritual foundation of children. Parents who may feel inadequate to work with the young in this area can take them to a church where they can receive the knowledge they need. As children memorize scripture, they are strengthening their foundation for the future. Hopefully, we can use this Easter season to further develop our children in this important spiritual area.