This was a recent article I had published in Christian Parenting Magazine!
1. “Sunday Serving Surprises”
I want my kids to help someone not because they have to but because they care about the person. “Sunday Serving Surprises” can make it second nature for our kids to love others. With your kids, come up with ways your family can love others, and write them on small slips of paper or notecards.
Consider trying these ideas: Write notes about why a neighbor is awesome and put them in their mailbox or on their front door throughout the week (but don’t sign them, so you can encourage in secret!).
Ask an elderly neighbor if they need help with yard work or simply visit with them. Leave a note for the mail carrier in the mailbox saying you appreciate them. Surprise family members throughout the week by helping them with chores—do all the dishes or make their beds.
Bring first responders a poster thanking them for their service, along with a big batch of cookies.
Put all the ideas in an envelope and continue adding new ideas as you think of them. Sunday night, hide one of the “Sunday Serving Surprise” slips under a family member’s dinner plate.
Whoever has the slip gets to read the serving idea to do with the family that week and also gets to decide what dessert to have that night! The next Sunday, that person picks an idea from the envelope and hides it under someone else’s dinner plate, and so on. As our kids learn how to love others in practical ways, it will become a regular part of their lives.
To read the rest of the Article, click on the Christian Parenting Link below:
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Check out my Mother-Daughter Devotional about women in the Bible for 6-10 year-old-girls:
Linsey Driskill 