Encourage Habits That Uncover God’s Vision

One of the greatest benefits of educating your children is that you can focus their learning on the strengths you see in them, related to the purpose God has for them. As early as 9 or 10 years old, your kids could be starting to “major” in a certain subject because they have the freedom and your guidance to do so.

As God tells us many times in His Word, we should be living out the purpose we’re created for. As in Proverbs 29:18 (KJV), “Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.”

Whether adult or child, we need to seek out our purpose and uncover what God put inside us. Easier said than done, I know! However, I have been doing a few different things with my two boys that I initially started to give them a growth mindset and overcomer attitude. These activities have given me much more insight into what they value, and what spiritual gifts are coming out in them.

Habits for Life

I picked up a few habits the past year that I do to renew my mind and keep moving forward with God’s vision for my life. I’ve adapted them slightly for my kids, and am actively working to make these habits something they will take with them throughout their lives.

Write and Review Goals

Each of my boys have a notebook where they write goals in different areas of their lives. They write down what they’d like to see in their life in the areas of money, health and learning. We also write down specific progress that they each will make in their learning subjects, which I mainly set goals for.

Thankful List

In the same book with their goals, they write down three things they are thankful for. It’s simple stuff like chickens, board games or colour. This activity alone has shown me some new things about my boys, and led to some interesting conversations.

Five Ideas

The initial concept for getting my boys to come up with five ideas on anything was for creative expression and abstract thinking. These ideas don’t have to make complete sense; it’s a brainstorming activity that I usually give a bit of direction with a topic. Some of those topics have been:

• Things to do in the snow
• What to do without a screen
• Places I want to visit
• Sports I want to try
• How to train our dog

These lists are good to look back on, so having them in a book of their own is helpful.

Getting started with any one of these will open up a new way for your kids to see the world around them. It will also provide a lot of opportunities for conversation where you can get more clarity on what their true interests are, and how you can guide them in the direction God created them for.

Steph has been building businesses, mostly from home, for over 10 years, motivated by her strong determination that her two youngest boys would be educated at home. Now, she coaches entrepreneurs to start and grow their business from home. She and her family are all comfortably nestled in the trees in Central Ontario. She loves being a home-body and building up her permaculture property. Learn more about Steph at www.creatingworkandplay.com