Raising Uncommon KidsSample

Lesson Title: Lessons are Caught
Character Focus: Harmony & Joy
Prayer Focus: Character of the Home
Focus Verse: COL.3.14B

Before we can begin to focus our attentions on others, we need to talk about the tone in our own home. Creating a culture and character of harmony in the home has as much to do with emotion as it does with aesthetic.

Where you live does not matter as much as how you live, which may come as a reality check for many parents too focused on providing material things for their family instead of focusing on emotional stability. Lessons are more often “caught” than they are “taught,” so the examples of spiritual discipline play a primary role in setting a foundation, especially when a parent may not have received a model of such when they were children.

Our mission should not be to prevent difficulty in the lives of our children (or our own lives for that matter), but instead to model for them how to find joy in the midst of pain and difficulty. Anytime you make your kids a part of the process, you automatically make them part of the solution. The overall key lies in integrity and consistency between what exists within the home and what is projected outside the home.

Thought to Ponder: Learn to choose joy instead of chasing it.

Make it Practical: 
An effective tool to make these concepts come for your family is by creating a Prayer Poster. While we are called to pray continuously, it’s also important to create a system for your kids to help them with consistency in their prayer life, especially when it comes to praying over the people and causes that matter most to them. Create categories you will pray for each day, week by week, then use pictures to represent them on a piece of posterboard. More detailed instructions are available at http://samicone.com/kids-prayer-poster