Raising Patriotic Kids

-

Independence Day with our family is about as cliché as cliché gets! It’s family, food and fireworks.

In typical Texas fashion, the weather will be scorching hot. We will head over to my in-law’s home and the older kids will immediately run into the backyard and jump in the swimming pool. The toddlers will beg for attention from the grandparents. The women will congregate in the kitchen where we will talk about Pinterest and the kids. The men will stand around the grill, watching the older kids swim and taking turns flipping the hot dogs and hamburgers.  As night falls and the sun-drenched children begin to tire, we will head out to see fireworks. Our family will jump in the SUV with pillows and blankets in tote and head to our favorite fireworks watching spot. After the fireworks show, we will drive the sleepy kids home, tuck them into bed and call it a night. What a day!

All of this fun… that’s what the day is about, right? Well not exactly. I’m pretty sure there is a significant reason for the holiday and it’s not BBQ!

Like other holidays, the significance of the day can be over-shadowed by fun activities. That’s why it is important to talk to your kids about holidays and help them understand their importance.

Conveying the Importance of Independence Day to Children

Before we have our family fun time, we will sit the kids down and explain the significance of the day. Here is what we will be telling our kids:

Independence day is the day we celebrate our country’s freedom. While today we will have lots of fun, it’s important to know why we are so thankful that we are free.

We are blessed to live in a free country where we have the right to choose our religion, worship God how we want, and vote. That is a freedom that not all countries have.

There are many men and women who work very hard to keep our country free. We must always remember to be grateful for those who serve our country.

For the little kids, you should keep it short and sweet, but drive home the things about Independence Day that mean the most to your family. If your children are younger, use words that they will understand, including things that they know and people to whom they can relate. These small talks help shape your family’s values and inform a child’s understanding of why holidays are so special.

One great activity you can do with your younger kids is have them write letters to our U.S. Military Men and Women, past and present, for their sacrifices, dedication, and service to our country. If you have a relative or neighbor who has served in the Armed Forces and they are home, today would be a great day to hand deliver a note of thanks!

 If your children are older, you might read to them from the Declaration of Independence or a book like In God We Still Trust: A365- Day Devotional.

Whatever you do, enjoy your Independence Day and God bless the U.S.A.!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

You did it! Congratulations on finishing the Love Does Challenge

-
Image
You did it! Congratulations on finishing the Love Does Challenge! We pray that you've been inspired to go out and love others this month with an audacious love like Jesus!  Remember: love isn't something we do, it's someone we become as we start to live out God’s love for others on a daily basis. So if your journey still feels like a work-in-progress, and five days didn’t seem like long enough, we invite you to dive deeper into the Love Does experience by starting the five-week Bible study. This study is perfect for personal use or for small groups. Why not start a neighborhood group in your home and start loving on the people around you, right where you are? Invite your neighbors over for a Love Does video night! Or recommend the Love Does  study as your next church group experience!  Inside the Love Does study you’ll get: All 5 videos sessions with Bob Goff: 1) I’m With You; 2) Free to Fail; 3) Audacious Love; 4) Be Not Afraid; 5) Follow Me Discussion to...
Read more

Everyday Holy

-
Image
The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.  — Genesis 12:1-2   Sometimes when circumstances get too big or seem to be different from what I want, doubts start creeping in.  What if this isn’t the right thing? What if I heard God wrong? What if I’ve made a huge mistake? What if I’m totally screwing up my child and she ends up living in a van down by the river? I get scared. I realize this doesn’t make me different from anyone else. We all like to feel in control of every aspect of our lives, and it’s hard to surrender that control. It’s hard to say, “I trust You” — no matter what. One of the few constants in life is that things will always change. And I, like many others, hate change. It leaves me feeling unsettled, unsure, and insecure as I try to find new footing in different c...
Read more

Very Great in the Little Things

-
This God is our God. — Psalm 48:14 “God is great in great things, but very great in little things,” says Henry Dyer. A party stood on the Matterhorn admiring the sublimity of the scene, when a gentleman produced a pocket microscope and having caught a fly, placed it under the glass. He reminded us that the legs of the household fly in England are naked, then called attention to the legs of this little fly which were thickly covered with hair; thus showing that the same God who made the lofty Swiss mountain attended to the comfort of His tiniest creatures, even providing socks and mittens for the little fly whose home these mountains were. This God is our God! A doubting soul beheld a robin’s nest in a gigantic elm and heard a still small voice saying, “If God spent a hundred years in creating a tree like that for a bird, He will surely take care of you.” God is so interested that He takes us one by one and arranges for every detail of our life. To Him, there are no ...
Read more