One Thing – Disciple

Let’s start the year trying One Thing that you can try or do that will bring your family closer to Jesus.

One Thing you could do is disciple your child. Discipleship is bringing someone from unbelief to belief. As parents, we are perfectly positioned and equipped to daily and easily show our child the reality of a day-to-day life with God.

Being part of a church community is an important part of your child’s faith development but what happens at home is more important. As Rachel Turner (from Parenting for Faith) puts it “even on your worst day, you are more effective than the church on it’s best day”.

It’s not about family devotionals or family worship time (although these could be awesome!!). It’s really just about inviting Jesus into every area of life at home. Our homes are designed for discipleship. We have rhythms everyday where we can invite Jesus into – meal times, leaving/coming home, play, bathtime, tantrums, reading.

Parenting for Faith is one of the best ways to way to bring faith into the every day. Check out the Parenting For Faith’s key tools that we can use every day.

Here are some cheat sheets you can print off, put on your fridge to remind you each day of these simple tools.

If this is all new to you, or you are looking for more opportunities to have faith conversations, start with One Thing:

• Say a prayer/blessing in the car on the way to school
• Ask a God focused question at dinner time
• Share your own prayer during the day and what happened after you prayed
• Commit to a family prayer time or bible reading/story time once a week
• Have a word of the week (start with the fruit of the spirit) and look for opportunities to see it in action in the home and bring it up in converstion.

There are so many ways to disciple your child. For some more inspiration check out some of these websites. Follow them on Facebook, Instagram or sign up to their mailing lists to get regular updates:

• Parenting For Faith – contact Andrea if you would like to do the course. Follow on Facebook, Instagram or sign up to their mailing list.
• The Kitchen Table project – more tools and encouragement about doing the small simple things at home
• Axis – helping parents connect with their kids in the modern world. Aimed at parents with teens but useful for any primary age upwards. Sign up to the Cultural Translator, their weekly email outlining the latest pop culture trends. They provide guides on how to discuss different issues with your teen, eg identity, sexuality, tik tok. Check out our CV library selection of guides.
• Focus on the Family
• You Version bible app – such an awesome resource if you don’t already use. Has tonnes of devotionals you could do as a family to talk about any issue you can think of, from racism to overcoming anxiety. A great way to show God’s perspective on topics that affect us today.
• Some more resources from Axis including books, podcasts, articles