Product Details
Cultivating Healthy Families: Helping children be themselves
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Introduction: “What do my peers think of me?” It’s a question that produces anxiety in children of all ages. When kids feel as though they don’t fit in, children’s ministers can help.
Summary:
Kids are constantly comparing themselves with other kids via social media.
Children’s ministers can step in and help kids become acutely self-aware.
- Teach children that their identity is not found in the measures of the world. It’s given to them by their Creator.
- With your help, children will know who they are in Christ and be confident in that identity.
- Teach kids that they can stand out even if they don’t fit in.
Encourage kids with your words.
- This doesn’t have to be formal teaching, but every week, you can speak words of life to the children. “God loves me. God created me. God guides me.”
- Kids are getting the negative messages from their peers so often, so you can’t tell kids enough just how special they are in Christ.
- The efficacy of your encouragement will come down to your relationship with parents and kids at your church. If the kids know you love them, they will listen to you as you encourage them in Christ.
There are two gardens in which we want children to grow up.
- The first is a strong family system.
- The second garden? Your church can be that second garden by helping to cultivate Christian friendships, provide a good environment, and giving children other Christian adults to serve as mentors.
Thought Starters:
- What small strategies can you use each week to remind children that they are created in Christ?
- What deeper methods might your children’s ministry program use to comfort kids who’ve been bullied or feel like they don’t fit in?
