How to raise our children with strong values
5 Ways to Help Your Values Stick
By Mirley R. Graf
Last week I talked about 10 values to teach your children. This week I want to talk about how to raise your children with strong values.
After discussing the values that you want your child to grow up with, It is important to discuss why they are important and not just drop the subject. It’s important to teach them how to make decisions based on those values. And when they do live up to those values recognize it in your children.
Just mentioning these values isn’t enough. We have to show our children that we too are held up to the standards of Christian values. We are not exempt. In today’s blog, I’m going to discuss how we can teach our children Christian values.
It starts with us: Our children are watching us and if we say we value kindness and are unkind, they will pick up on that. If we say we value honesty but see us being dishonest, our children will pick up on that. It is especially important for us to practice what we preach. Of course, no one is perfect, so acknowledge that make a point of improvement.
Children will be influenced by others: It no surprise that our children will be influenced by others. I mean we all were. It’s healthy for us humans to get a variety of perspectives so that we develop our own world view. However, the stronger our relationship is with our children, the more likely our children will be able to filter negative outside influences.
Know what they’re watching: TV is a big influencer in our values and beliefs. It has a way of making us believe that fantasy is true. It even makes us think that fictional stories are real-life or can be made into real life.
Make values relevant to this world: Our values are just something nice to talk about. They are relevant to living a more peaceful world.
Teach your child empathy: Empathy helps us try and understand how others may feel in a particular circumstance. By teaching our kids such values, we can also teach them compassion and kindness.
When our children see us modeling these values, our children will take them more seriously. Of course, no one is talking about perfection. In fact, messing up and asking for forgiveness will teach your children the value of forgiveness and humility. And of course, they will see us making a point of changing and improving ourselves.
I hope this short blog is meaningful to you and will help you in developing strong Christian values to your children.
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