Training Ground: Building the Adults I Hope to Launch
What's the game plan to pull this off with the kids? How can I get them ready for the world? This is my "expert opinion" after a whopping five years of experience.
Plans may change.
I want Christian children. That's best by example and seeing our priorities. No travel sports, church every weekend, watching us serve and serving as well. Just getting saturated in a Bible-believing church and seeing us live it out at home.
No escaping the gospel.
How do we teach self-control? It's a fruit of the Spirit, so that will help. Before that, though?
Delayed gratification and pausing before reacting.
Self-reliance will come from chores. Chores teach you how to adult. It starts with them helping you. Just take the kiddo along with you when you do things.
I watched my daughter "wash" dishes one night, and she was so proud of herself.
Loving others is more caught than taught while also being a fruit of the Spirit. C.S. Lewis said, "Fake it till you make it, and you'll find you do care after a while.”1
Well, in a British accent or something.
Our pastor has said praying for others softens your heart towards them.
Patience will fall along the exact lines as the lessons in self-control.
Humility, recognizing that they always have more to learn, will develop through serving others and being placed in situations where they are unsure of what to do.
Curiosity is simply about fostering their current drive to learn and encouraging it.
Reading is modeled and by reading to them myself. Dolly Parton's Imagination Library sent my son a lot of books over the years, and now he's aged out. I signed him up with Brave Books.
On my Amazon list, I have a selection filled with Illustrated Classics and more modern formative books.
Plus, my comic collection.
Wise as serpents and innocent as doves? Questions will not only be permitted but encouraged.
Dangerous, but good. The latter depends on the moral fiber I instill; the former will come with training. Watching my daughter, I can see that she will be dangerous in grappling. My son enjoys using his hands. This will require finding a martial arts school that's not a belt factory.
That's what I have for now, and I will adjust as needed. What did you do to train your kids in the way they should go?
“Do not waste time bothering whether you ‘love’ your neighbor; act as if you did. As soon as we do this we find one of the great secrets. When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you will presently come to love him.” Mere Christianity
Are you reading this every week? Have you considered upgrading?