Essential Life Lessons for Kids

When August comes, I always think about the moms who are sending one or more of their children off to college, perhaps for their first year. I remember the emotion that was involved in that change in our own lives. There were some difficult moments, but we had been duly warned that that day would come, so we had tried, by God’s grace to prepare our own hearts, as well as the hearts of our daughters. We certainly didn’t get it all right, and there were tears and aches in our hearts, but we had the goal of “preparation” as our motive for many years before the day of their departure ever came.

What did we prepare? We tried to prepare our own minds for the day the girls would leave home. We tried to remember through their growing up years that they didn’t belong to us – they were the Lord’s and He had loaned them to us for a time. Therefore, knowing that one day we would be “just the two of us” again, we strived to work at our marriage so we would be best friends and in love with each other, rather than strangers.

We also sought to prepare them for what was to come. We had discussions about subject matters that are sometimes sticky, but needful. I wrote this years ago concerning what parents should be teaching their children while they’re home –

There’s so much to teach our children, and I’m not referring to homeschool. I’m talking about the every day things – the stuff of life that need to be discussed with our children before they leave home.

Proper table manners, etiquette, respect for elders, submission to authority, meal preparation, laundry instructions, how to iron, how to respond when dating, dating standards, biblical convictions and doctrines…the list seems endless when we consider what we should be teaching our children. These are conversations you have with them in the routine things of life – while you’re driving in the car, sitting and having lunch at McDonald’s, or tucking them into bed at night. That’s what Deuteronomy 6:7-9 is teaching…And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.

I am amazed at how few parents teach their children the facts of life. If this is not taught by the parents, (mostly incorrect) information will be picked up here and there in lewd chats with friends. When girls approach puberty, take them alone to a special restaurant and talk with them about the upcoming changes. Make them understand God’s wonderful design and plan for their lives. Boys need chats with their father about how to treat a girl, how to be a gentleman, how to respond to girls in general.

I share this again with the desire to encourage those of you whose children are still in your home. Be teaching, talking and training your kids while they’re in your home. Love them enough to get them ready for what is ahead. Life’s changes are scary enough without entering it totally unprepared.

It takes time to have these kinds of discussions, and you might think you have lots of time, but just ask the mom who left her child at college how quickly that time will pass. Love your kids. Talk to your kids.

Teach your kids God’s ways so they know how to walk when they walk out the door for the last time.