Exercising Our Spiritual Muscles

Talking to children about spiritual disciplines seems pointless if you ask most adult Christians. Let’s face it – most adults don’t “get it,” so how do we expect our children to understand properly? With a few guiding images and an abbreviated introduction, I believe we can help our children successfully understand the concept of spiritual discipline by encouraging them to exercise their spiritual muscles through things like prayer, fasting during Lent, and serving others.

Some Helpful Images

1. A comfortable two-seater chair:
When we pray or meditate on a bible verse, it’s like meeting God in a comfortable chair and spending time together, in close contact.

2. Hands:
When our hands are full of things we don’t necessarily need, then they aren’t free to hold hands with God. When we fast, or intentionally let go of some physical thing for a time, we do it specifically so that our hand is free to hold God’s hand.

3. A surprise gift box:
We all know how exciting it can be to receive gifts, right? But how do you feel when you DO something for someone who doesn’t expect anything from you? It feels great! The bible tells us in Acts 20:35 that it makes us happier to give than to receive. When we serve others – or do things for other people – it’s even better than getting a gift ourselves!

The Challenge
During this month of January, let’s work together with our children to incorporate some spiritual exercise into their lives! In Discipleship class, the children have been challenged to set at least one spiritual growth goal for this year. It can be a goal of praying, fasting, or serving. This is a great opportunity for your family to join in on the challenge and to set a goal together!

Some good examples for children would be to:
1) Pray using the PACT (praise, ask, confess, thank) model at least “x” days each week before bedtime.

2) Meditate on a different bible verse every day for 2-3 minutes. (We practiced this for one minute in class, and even doing this for 60 seconds requires some practice, but it is entirely good for your child to learn to sit quietly for 2 minutes and think about one verse.)

3) Some children may choose to participate in a period of fasting during Lent, which begins a little early this year – February 13 is Ash Wednesday. Work with your child at his or her level, but encourage them to remember our image: when you put something down and “free up your hands”, the purpose is to hold hands with God. When they stop playing video games, this would be a good time to have some bible trivia games handy, or something related that they can read or play with their hands (build/draw/do) to increase their bible knowledge. Perhaps he or she could work on memorizing the names of the books of the Bible (New Testament first, then Old Testament as they progress.)

4) Service goals would definitely be family projects! Help your child begin to feel comfortable with the idea of serving others by watching you (parents) serve. There are always opportunities in our area to take a meal over to someone experiencing homelessness, or to help out at a local helping agency in specific ways. The point is to let your child SEE you do it, and let him or her participate as much as is reasonable.

Parents, your children will always take cues from you regarding the value of any Christian practice, whether it is bible reading, prayer, worship, fasting, or serving others. Allow this challenge to grow YOU, too, as you lead your child along the path of spiritual growth.