How Can Parents Help Kids Schedule Their Priorities?
Does your schedule reflect your priorities? Like it or not, it does – for all of us. Kyle points us back to how we can make sure we schedule our desired priorities.
For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Luke 12:34
Take a minute and look at your schedule. What does it say your priorities are? What do you say your priorities are? Does your schedule say the same thing you do, or that you would like it to?
The Word tells us our treasures reflect where our hearts are. Whether we look at our treasure as money, material possessions, time, or something else, it speaks to our scheduling and priorities.
Let’s take a moment to look at how we can help our kids (and ourselves) schedule a life that says we love God, and make sure our priorities line up with His!
- Choose Your Busy-ness. My guess is that if I were to ask, nearly all of us would say our schedule is busy. Life will always be busy, but choosing what we are busy with will show our kids what really matters to us. This action is a great way to show our children how to schedule their lives with the important things first. Matthew 6:33 gives us some great advice on where to start. Check it out and remember the impact our actions have on our kiddos.
- List it. Sit down as a family, or with individual kids and talk about the importance of priorities. Have fun making a list of what is important and then use some sort of planner or calendar to put those priorities on it. This will be a great time to talk about what the Bible says (Proverbs 19:21, Isaiah 32:8, what others can you find?) about both the priorities on that list and planning.
- Plan. Scheduling can seem like a daunting and silly task to kids, but helping them “plan” out life can help both them and you feel more on track and organized. This doesn’t need to be some fancy spreadsheet or chart, but having something simple that is “theirs” makes them feel important and is a great lesson in responsibility. Give them a spot on the fridge for a small whiteboard, with a simple day to day schedule for the family that has their tasks or events on it. Let them be a part of updating that process and then advance in detail as they grow and learn. Use this to show events like reading the Bible, church, time with family, etc. are planned first and then smaller things come after that.
We have been so blessed with so much in this life! Does your schedule and your priorities point it all back to God? Where can we start scheduling or reprioritizing to make this a truth today!? (Proverbs 21:5)
Camper Corner:
“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” -Luke 12:34
Each person’s treasure might be different, what is yours? What do your treasure and your time tell other people you love?
