So–it’s cool that I have a lot of friends who are are smarter than I am in a smorgasbord of ways.
Last night, sitting with my friend Amber–a stellar junior high teacher, which means she is to be praised in more ways than one–she mentioned she’d be helping her kids with New Year’s goals. She bases their goal-setting on Luke 2:52: And Jesus grew in wisdom and in stature, and in favor with God and man.
She wisely simplified it for kids, dividing their goals into categories of spiritual, intellectual, physical, emotional, and social. (I think? I may have added one. If so, Amber, forgive me. Cold medicine is powerful stuff in its capacity to fog the brain at 11:30 PM.)
And because I know your holidays are as busy as mine, I’ll leave it there, and do what I love to do: smush the concept into a visual representation that’s easy(-er) for kids and their adult counterparts–and hopefully postable somewhere as a reminder of something beyond February. Smaller kids might just want to draw something in their spaces. (If you dig this kind of thing, don’t miss the Freebies and Infographics pages.)
Obviously it’s tempting to manipulate our kids with these a bit (or even shame them?), but ask God to help you stay on the “guiding” side of things, and to help your kids listen to the Holy Spirit, responding to how he’s shaping them. This could actually become something fun with your kids–and maybe it could include some incentives, too.
Happy New Year, friends. As my son reminded me last night, a new year is a gift. Hope you seize some time to revel in it a bit.
Like this post? You might like
- Printable Infographic: 9 Ways to Pray for Kids in School!
- Freebie Friday: Prayers for My Kids Printable Word Cloud
- Spiritual Disciplines for Real Families: 11 Super-simple Ideas to Encourage Confession (FREE Printable!)–and the rest of the existing Spiritual Disciplines for Real Families series
