Training · Growth Tools
Planning to Develop Your Children
Five steps for parents who have a plan for everything except teaching their kids who God is
Parents plan everything. Sleep plans, education plans, sports plans. We have plans for almost every area, and seldom a plan for the one that matters most.
This is five steps toward a plan for teaching your kids who God is. It is for the parents in your group.
1. Identify your opportunity times
Do not create new times. Identify the ones you already have and work within the flow of your every day life.
What times do you already have with your children every weekday?
Examples: dinner time, breakfast time, bath time, drive time, bed time.
2. Identify your tools
There are a lot of tools that help children understand who God is. Do not start by using all of them. Choose two, and use them consistently.
Examples: the monthly memory verse, a children’s Bible, Parent Cue questions, Bible cartoons, prayer sticks, Bible stories on audio.
3. Assign tools to times
One tool per time. Write the pairs down.
4. Tell your family
Not only your spouse. Tell your kids too. They may be the best accountability partners you have. Once you get consistent, they will remember when you forget.
5. Execute consistently
The goal is not that you teach a lot in a moment. It is that you teach a lot over 18 years. You have a tremendous amount of time if you will be consistent.
Once two are running consistently, see whether there is another tool you can bring in.
TODO(nick): This has never been published on a leader-facing site before. Confirm it belongs here.
TODO(nick): The source contradicts itself on the number. The step headings say three times and three
tools, the body of each step says pick two, and step 5 says add another once two are consistent. Two or three?