{"id":118498,"date":"2021-10-01T12:08:49","date_gmt":"2021-10-01T18:08:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/?p=118498"},"modified":"2021-10-01T12:08:49","modified_gmt":"2021-10-01T18:08:49","slug":"3-spiritual-life-skills-for-kids-and-ideas-to-teach-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/articles\/topics\/parenting\/essentials\/3-spiritual-life-skills-for-kids-and-ideas-to-teach-them\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Spiritual Life Skills for Kids (and Ideas To Teach Them)"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

I leaned against a truck yesterday at sunset while a photographer cooed at my son, coaxing a smile for his senior pictures. My son towers over me now\u2014weird, considering he used to fit in my abdomen. My hourglass of time with him home has trickled down to its final grains.<\/p>\n

When we arrived home, his chore was to repair anchors in the drywall, a life skill not yet attempted. So he and I toted a drill, hammer, and screws up from the garage, and eventually, the coat hooks in his room were remounted where they should be(ish).<\/p>\n

It feels good to check off another life skill. I like that his chin tips just a little higher after he gains new competencies. He tinkered around in his self-purchased, vintage car recently, rightly gathering any source of knowledge other than myself for electrical issues. The victory hoot when he got his turn signals working again was priceless.<\/p>\n

Yet what if in focusing on the seemingly urgent life skills for kids (homework turned in! CPR! Sew a button!), we miss the best?<\/p>\n

If my son can grill a hamburger or make a dentist appointment but associates prayer with drudgery or has sexual values as smudgy as our bathroom mirror, I\u2019ll have missed the point in eternal ways.<\/p>\n

How can we make space for what matters forever? How can we squirrel away life skills for kids that make them want to connect with God? Could spiritual life skills be as natural to them as putting their clothes in the hamper? (Well. More natural than that, hopefully \u2026 )<\/p>\n

Spiritual life skills for kids: Start here<\/h2>\n

Here, a few spiritual life skills for kids to get you started.<\/p>\n

1. Prayer.<\/h3>\n

It can feel easier to teach a form of prayer that strikingly resembles Alexa, Siri, or Google: Please order this. I need help with this. <\/em>I think of this as \u201cgrocery-list\u201d prayer. It has its place. We want kids to develop habits of, say, praying for another country. Praying for friends. Remembering to confess sin.<\/p>\n

And while we totally want to approach God with every<\/em> kind of request (Ephesians 6:18<\/a>)\u2014including pet lizards and winning the pinewood derby\u2014it can be helpful for kids to imagine what they would say if they went on an ice-cream date with God. What would they want to talk about or ask? What would they tell him they like about Him?<\/p>\n

Because we want to communicate that prayer is intimate and natural.<\/p>\n

At the close of a recent phone conversation, my mom said to me simply, \u201cWell, let me pray for you just a minute.\u201d It wasn\u2019t awkward, because this was the culture of my family of origin. Like breath. Like air.<\/p>\n

But what if prayer was never a part of your family\u2019s subculture? <\/a><\/p>\n

Well, I pray for my kids as they pull on backpacks for school. Later, we pray about something they\u2019re stressing over. I might pull them into my arms; prayer can be a point of connection. Just like you might associate pumpkin pie with warm feelings at a grandparent\u2019s at Thanksgiving, our kids can associate prayer with comfort and closeness.<\/p>\n

The easiest way to incorporate prayer as one of your life skills for kids is to make talking with God an ongoing conversation in your own home\u2014involving Him as you would anyone else in your home. Sure, it may be awkward at first. So was kissing your spouse, until you got the idea.<\/p>\n

2. Community.<\/h3>\n

Our kids may be the one of the most isolated generations to ever walk the planet. Long hours with video games, computers, and yes, social media leave our kids disconnected<\/a>, anxious, depressed, even aggressive.<\/p>\n

Our kids constantly play in the shallow end of community: surface-level relationships that numb and retrain our healthy hunger for authentic, deep relationships. We\u2019re rarely fully present<\/em> with other people.<\/p>\n

Which makes presence<\/em> one of the best gifts we can give our kids.<\/p>\n

Practically speaking, how can your family move toward connected community with each other\u2014moving outward from there\u2014and away from isolation?<\/p>\n