"God's purpose is that the Holy Spirit should take possession of our sons and daughters, filling them for His service."
As parent's, in today's culture, we are trying to bring up young people in a generation where narcissism and self-absorption is the norm. So many young people today have been brought up being taught by the culture that they need to believe in themselves, follow their hearts, and achieve all their dreams. This mindset creates a love of self in young people and leads them to believe that their every whim and desire should be met by others. We are living in the selfie generation after all. The book of Second Timothy puts it this way:
"For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy."
- II Timothy 3:2
- II Timothy 3:2
I strongly believe that one way to combat this focus on self is to get busy serving others. I want my children to grow up to be kingdom-minded rather than to be self-absorbed. My husband and I are trying very hard to pass on this vision to our children. It is one thing to tell them they need to impact the world for Christ, but it is another thing to get them busy getting their hands dirty and let them experience the joy of serving others. Honestly we have a long ways to go in this but we are working at it.
This week I drove across town with a van full of children in order to take them through the Compassion International Experience where they could walk through and hear stories of children in other countries who are fighting for survival. https://cts.compassion.com/events/ The experience is sort of like going to a mission field and being met face to face with the needs in poverty stricken places. My prayer is that our walk through helped grow a greater compassion and awareness in them for the needs of others on foreign soil. My prayer is that, as a family, our hearts will break over the things that break the heart of our Father God.
There is great joy and fulfillment when young people see something bigger than themselves and realize that they are part of God's greater plan for furthering His kingdom. Last weekend my husband took my son to help with a roofing project at a home of a widow in our church. It was encouraging to see my son's enthusiasm and excitement about being part of the team of men and young men serving on a Saturday morning.
My son's comment to his dad is that he felt like this is what a church family should be like; serving and working to bless those in the body.
A couple of years ago my husband and children went and spent time helping a local crisis pregnancy center with some cleaning. That was another opportunity to show them the blessing of serving for a cause greater than their own interests. My husband and I are talking about our desire to see our children doing more and more of these sorts of things as they grow older. Here are a few practical ideas for ways to get involved in kingdom work:
* Participate in Operation Christmas Child later in the year https://www.samaritanspurse.org/operation-christmas-child/pack-a-shoe-box/#
*Sponsor a Child Overseas https://www.compassion.com/sponsor_a_child/default.htm?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI8frK54n52AIV1rbACh0tMAjWEAAYASAAEgLm_vD_BwE
There are other organizations where you can sponsor a child; Compassion is just one that I am aware of.
* Get involve with Joni and Friends in ministry to the disabled http://joniandfriends.org
* Show the gift of appreciation by taking cookies to local servants of the community such as police, post office, etc. Also, have an appreciation gift for the UPS driver and mail deliver who delivers mail/packages to your home.
* Hopefully your church has mission/outreach opportunities where your family can serve others whether it be at home or abroad. Ministry in the church is always a great way of getting our families serving the Lord together as a family.
* If you have an older daughter perhaps she could consider starting a discipleship group to young girls. My daughter is co-leading a Bright Lights group with a friend at our church. They have a good group of younger girls they are seeking to encourage towards a growing walk with Jesus. http://www.brothersandsisters.net/index.php?Itemid=54
* If you have older and younger children you have a built in opportunity for the older ones to develop a servant's heart by loving and helping with their younger siblings. This is one of the sweetest and most beautiful blessings in a large family!
* If you have older and younger children you have a built in opportunity for the older ones to develop a servant's heart by loving and helping with their younger siblings. This is one of the sweetest and most beautiful blessings in a large family!
This certainly is not an exhaustive list of ideas, but hopefully it motivates you to think of ways you can encourage your children/young people to be busy serving the Lord in their youth.
I started this post with an Andrew Murray quote, and I think I will close it out with another one. May the Lord give us Mamas creativity in how we can cast vision to our sons and daughters to love and serve others with with kingdom-minded vision.
"If there were a wholehearted surrender to God’s service and work, the Spirit would come without being sought. The measure of the Spirit will be given according to the work we undertake and what our faith expects to perform."
- Andrew Murray
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