Raising Kids with a Kind Heart Who Love the Lord – A Brief Guide to Spiritual Disciplines

Submitted by Jennifer Power

The past three weeks, I have been writing suggestions for raising kids with a kind heart who love the Lord. In my final two posts on this series, I am focusing on spiritual disciplines – activities which position us to be transformed by God. It is important to both model and teach spiritual disciplines for/to your children.

Children learn by both observing and doing, so it is crucial for them to have spiritual role models and spiritual teachers. Parents (especially when children are young) can serve both these roles.

Spiritual disciplines include such activities as solitude, silence, prayer, fasting, study, worship, celebration, fellowship, serving, sacrifice, and simplicity.

Read the Bible, and you will see Jesus and His disciples engaging in all of these spiritual disciplines. We are to follow in Jesus’ example – after all, if Jesus needed to engage in these activities to do the work which was given Him by the Father, then certainly we must as well.

It can be difficult, however, to look to the Bible for examples of how to incorporate spiritual disciplines into the life of families with young kids as Jesus did not have children, and His closest disciples were not caring for children while they were with Him or on the subsequent missionary journeys of the Bible.

I will therefore now turn to each of the disciplines I mentioned above and suggest a few ways these can be incorporated into family life. Keep in mind, however, there are always stages of life, and while it might be ideal to be engaging in all these disciplines at all times of life, this is not always a reality for families with young children. This is not an excuse to replace spiritual disciplines with extra-curricular activities, excessive splurging, etc., but do understand that demands of family life might not always make it feasible to engage fully in all these spiritual disciplines at all times.

SOLITUDE: Solitude is perhaps the most difficult discipline for families with young children for obvious reasons.

• Rise an hour early in the morning, take an hour in the middle of the night, or stay up an hour later at night to spend time in solitude with the Lord.
• As children become old enough, create a new family habit: a daily hour where each family member goes alone to a room/location for a time of spiritual solitude.
• Schedule yourself a day or weekend retreat of solitude. Make sure your kids know you will be spending the time in solitude with God.
• If daily times of solitude are difficult, arrange for your spouse or another caretaker to watch your children for a few hours once a week to have a block of time to set apart in solitude with God.

Mark 1:35 “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.”

Luke 6:12 “Now during those days he went out to the mountain to pray; and he spent the night in prayer to God.”

SILENCE: Silence combines well with Solitude.

• In your times of solitude, sit in silence (not actively engaging in prayer, though this is a form of prayer) and wait upon the Lord.
• Set aside a family “quiet” time for prayer, reading, reflection, journaling, etc. This could be daily, weekly, etc.
• Spend an hour, half day, entire day, week, etc. deliberately speaking as little as possible and instead listening to what is being said around you. Listen to your spouse. Listen to your children. Listen to the chatty neighbor or co-worker. Listen deliberately to the people God puts in your path. Do not always feel the need to fill silence with speaking or to respond with many words.

1 Kings 19:12 “and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence.”

PRAYER: I have spent time in previous posts discussing prayer but will add a couple more ideas.

• Pray the scriptures out loud as a family.
• If you are awake while your family is asleep, go to each room and quietly pray over each member of your family.
• Come to the church sanctuary as a family and spend time praying together there when no one else is present.

Colossians 4:2 “Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.”

FASTING: One reason we fast is to learn discipline in areas we tend to lack self-control. We learn to rely on God rather than on food, money, entertainment, etc.

• Eat simplified meals (fruits, vegetables, simple grains) for a day and discuss with your family how we rely on God for nourishment – both physically and spiritually, and discuss the needs of many throughout our world who do not have reliable sources of food.
• Do a non-food fast by setting aside a specified time to do without internet, television, phones, computers, or some other item which might be over-utilized in your home.
• Have a day each week or month where you do not spend any money.
• Fast (from food or eat only vegetables/water) at certain times and combine this time with focused prayer for a specific need or concern.

Deuteronomy 8:3 “Man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.”

STUDY: If we are to follow the Great Commission and “obey everything I have commanded you” we must know what Jesus (and the message of the Bible as a whole) teaches us.

• Engage in regular Bible studies, times of Bible reading, family devotions, etc. as a family.
• Consider teaching your children not just the stories of the Bible but also how the Bible fits together as a whole story of God’s redemption of mankind for His glory. Or consider teaching your children about the Bible stories in their historical/cultural context. *(Some resources included at the bottom of this post)
• Bring your children to Sunday school and worship services with you on a consistent basis so they can learn the bible from others as well.

Ecclesiastes 12:9 “Not only was the Teacher wise, but he also imparted knowledge to the people. He pondered and searched out and set in order many proverbs.”

Next week, I will wrap up this series of posts on raising kids with kind hearts who love the Lord by giving suggestions of ways to incorporate worship, celebration, fellowship, serving, sacrifice, and simplicity into the DNA of your family. I pray God uses these suggestions for His glory as we join together in this most difficult (but crucial and rewarding) task of raising kids who have Kingdom hearts.

Additional Resources
*How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth by Fee and Stuart, God’s Big Picture: Tracing the Storyline of the Bible by Vaughan Roberts, New Testament for Everyone Set by N.T. Wright (I actually have this one at my desk if anyone ever wants to borrow it)

Raising Kids who have a Kind Heart and Love the Lord

Raising Kids who have a Kind Heart and Love the Lord – Part Two

Raising Kids who have a Kind Heart and Love the Lord – Part Three

Raising Kids who have a Kind Heart and Love the Lord – A Brief Guide to Spiritual Disciplines (cont.)