Session 2 - Building Faith and Integrity into Your Child's Heart
Here are some ways to teach and model Faith to your children.
- Let them find you reading your Bible every morning when they arise.
- Have them pray at meals and at bedtime.
- Watch a movie like Amazing Grace, Prince of Egypt, or Inherit the Wind with them and then discuss the faith of the characters.
- Trace the root of faith in your family tree. Tell them your testimony.
- Plant a garden with them and use the growth of the plants as an illustration of patience, trust and faith in God’s laws of nature.
- If they have accepted Christ as their Savior, help them prepare a three minute testimony about their own personal faith. Have them share their testimony with a friend.
- If God has not drawn them to Himself yet, continue to live an attractive life of faith in front of them and pray for their hearts to be ready.
- Pray for a sick friend or an unredeemed friend or relative every day with them.
- Share with them answered prayer and ask them to do the same.
- When your child is old enough, take them on an adventure such as rock climbing or cliff rappelling. Use this experience to discuss topics such as trust, crisis and faith.
Here are some ways to teach and model Integrity to your children.
- Drive the Speed Limit.
- Never ask your children to lie for you.
- Apologize when you wrong your children.
- Design a few dilemmas for them to see if they are developing integrity. (i.e. see if they give you the change from a purchase they made with your money.)
- Never tolerate even the smallest lie.
- Pick someone out of the newspaper who committed a crime and ask the kids’ opinion about it.
- Fathers, never allow your children to be disrespectful or rude to their mother.
- Set up tasks that require their follow-through without supervision and see if they carry out instructions on their own.
- Take your children to visit their ancestors’ graves. If you know any anecdotes about these ancestors (whether positive or negative), take time to share a few stories.
- Memorize twenty verses on integrity with them. (You might want to start with the Ten Commandments) Give them lots of praise when they have accomplished this.
Remember character is like a muscle, it gets stronger with exercise and practice.