Eight Great Ways to Raise Strong Kids: Serve Together with Your Child

This blog series is adapted from "Woman of Valor" written by Marilynn Chadwick. To download the full book, please go here. by Marilynn Chadwick If you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday (Isaiah 58:10). Whenever possible, David and I included our children in serving others. In fact, some of our most fond memories as a family were going to our sister church in uptown Charlotte and volunteering with their ministry. We would regularly feed the homeless and worship with their congregation. They became like family to us. It was one of the highlights of our kids’ childhood. When Michael was around eight, I took him with me to work with some moms and children from a different fragile community in the Charlotte area where I volunteered. One little boy, also named Michael, happened to have a handicap. He couldn’t walk on his own and had to be carried around by an adult. Our Michael wondered how he could help. The program director told Michael the little boy simply needed a special kind of orthopedic crutches in order to walk on his own. Michael persisted until I called our orthopedic doctor friend, who just “happened” to have some of those very crutches available. Michael made sure the other little Michael received those crutches. I told him the little boy’s mom had been praying for some crutches for her son. To which Michael replied, “Cool…I answered a prayer.” I agreed. It is very cool to find ways that we can actually be the answer to someone else’s prayer. I know I keep saying the same thing again and again, but with good reason. We find life as we give it away to others. From my experience, this is one of the greatest gifts we can give our children. Find ways to serve with your kids. Teach them to give their lives away to others. Watch as God develops eternal fruit in their hearts by cultivating a life that is “others focused.”