Month: February 2018

Instilling Lasting Truths in Our Children: Write to your kids!

Ryan@educationandfaith.com

One of my biggest fears is that my son might place his value in the flawed messages of this world. I can’t stop or even filter everything the world tells my son. That is scary!

It’s even scarier if I sheltered him from the ways of the world and we avoided any encounter with them. This leaving my child to navigate an unknown world with no experience.

This is probably why parents write their children notes in their lunchboxes. I remember stealthily checking my lunchbox in middle school to make sure I could intercept any embarrassing messages my parents may have hid inside. I’d always skip away to my locker or the bathroom to read that loving note!

More parents should write to their children! (Thanks Mom and Dad)

How Do We Protect Our Children?

My little family is trying to instill lasting truths in ourselves. This foundation allows us to interact and sift through this world without becoming its victim.

What We’re Trying

My family has two main times to connect with each other and prepare for the world.

  1. Breakfast: My wife does a brief devotional with our son and I leave a little note or poem for them a couple days a week.
    1. I’m usually off to work before they awake so leaving them with a message of encouragement or love is a way for me to still speak into their days.
  2. After school homework and dinnertime: We’re lucky to all be home from work and school pretty early so a quick debrief with everyone is possible.
    1. If we’re really overachieving we’ll connect the morning devotional or note with the experiences we had throughout our day.

 

Here are a couple of the notes I’ve left for my family:

If there’s an interest, feel free to use these in your home. I can email these files for easy download and/or printing capabilities.

 

I usually get ideas and inspiration from the needs our family is currently encountering or ideas that spring from my personal devotions.

Speak into your children’s lives based on who they are. We are a pretty emotional, and empathetic family. These notes have been a fun way for us to combat the misguiding messages and emotions that our son receives in the world.

I love the idea of focusing on a theme each week attached to a biblical truth.

I plan to share more of these here, I may create another page on my website to put these up for download as I come up with more.

 

How does your family encourage and support one another?

Another parenting post you might check out:

“Great Job” and Other Phrases Crippling Our Kids

May you find peace in the process

 

We’re More Ignorant than Ever and Here’s Why

Ryan@educationandfaith.com

We have access to more information than ever, yet we remain uninformed.

“The first step toward change is awareness. The second step is acceptance.”  

-Nathaniel Branden

 

Reality. We have the exhausting task of dredging through the sludge of information.

It’s also why we’re able to connect so well to Lewis Carroll’s “rabbit hole” in Alice in Wonderland. In today’s culture we, like Alice, free fall down this deep complex hole of information overload.

This is why the industry of minimalism exists. This is why minimalism is so attractive yet so difficult to achieve.

Too Much Information = Ignorance

How?

Somehow as we have acquired access to unlimited information, we have also acquired greater ignorance. This is counterintuitive. How can we now have the ability to know everything instantly, but it still doesn’t dispel ignorance?

Responsiveness is the key. I recently read that there are three requirements to being responsive. They are caring, validation, and understanding. I think I could summarize those three into one act. Listening. If you’re truly listening, you are caring about what you hear. You are validating or confirming the information. Through your validation you come to a place of understanding. So why must it be so hard to listen?

Like minimalism, a whole industry for listening can be found in the self-help sector.

 

Awareness

Both minimalism and active listening preach awareness. I love that in biblical times the people would name places and landmarks based on the experience they had there. What an exclamation of awareness! In Genesis 34 Jacob labels the place El Bethel because it was where God revealed himself to him. Even their given names were changed based on their experiences. After wrestling with God, don’t you think Jacob’s eyes were opened when his name was changed to Israel, because he struggled with God and humans and he overcame (Genesis 32). His identity was built on that awareness.

We can take it a step further to see God even identified with numerous different names depending on the characteristics he was exhibiting. I’m jealous of the clarity these biblical people portrayed. This clarity requires a humble awareness in recognizing the circumstances one is facing and their response to that experience.

When I’m consumed with every piece from every informational feed I grow tired. When I’m tired in this world I lose my awareness. When I lose my awareness I grow self-serving and greedy. After falling down this rabbit-hole I find myself ignorant and unresponsive.

 

Name Your Experience

Reflect on your current circumstance, what would you name it? Name it, accept it, and trust God to lead you through it. In what area have you lost awareness? It’s a constant struggle and we need guidance.

We’re a kinder, more thoughtful people when we take time to reflect on our experiences.

May we be more self-aware, relationally-aware, and culturally-aware.