Parent Guide For Teaching Your Kids About Lent
Celebrating the Christian calendar with children can be meaningful and spiritually forming for our families. The celebration of Advent leading up to Jesus’ birth at Christmas and the joyful celebration of Jesus’ resurrection on Easter are typically regular rhythms for families. This year we want to encourage and challenge you and your family to participate in Lent – the 40 days (excluding Sundays) between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday. Lent is a period of time when Christians reflect on the suffering that Jesus endured on the cross. It is a time to remember that Jesus died, that he gave up his own life for ours. We believe that the observance of Lent can be a meaningful experience, even for families with children, and can be a great opportunity for you to model faith to your children as the primary disciple makers of your children. Here are some ideas for how you can use this season to teach your children about Jesus and what he has done and is doing in all of us. These revolve around the 3 disciplines commonly practiced during the Lenten season: fasting, praying, and giving.
GIVE SOMETHING UP
The practice most often associated with Lent is fasting. Fasting during Lent is a way for followers of Jesus to identify with him in his suffering. Although fasting typically involves abstaining from all or some kinds of food, people can also decide to abstain from something else that is meaningful to them. For example,
maybe you and your children could fast from watching TV or playing a favourite video game. Make a commitment to do this as a family so that each family member can encourage each other in what they’ve given up. Make sure to remind your children, however, that we are choosing to give these things up to identify with what Jesus gave up – his own life for us.
PRAY AND READ THE BIBLE TOGETHER
Another discipline practiced during Lent is an increased emphasis on prayer. More regular Bible reading is also common. Perhaps you can commit to read a passage of the Bible together as a family. Or you can commit to picking up one of our Holy Week devotions from the Kids Ministry check-in and participate in these readings and reflections together as a family. These readings can be particularly helpful for younger children if it is read from a children’s Bible story book. Some parents hesitate to read the Bible with their kids because they feel they don’t know enough to teach their kids. However, the point isn’t so much about teaching as it is about experiencing the story together. Pray together about whatever you may have learned from the passage. There is great value in reading the Bible and praying on your own, but these done in the presence of other members of the family have an even greater benefit of strengthening the bond between parents and children.
GIVE A KIND GIFT
Giving special gifts to those in need (sometimes called “alms giving”) is yet another discipline traditionally associated with the Lenten season. Try having your kids go without buying something they would normally buy during the week and have them save that money in order to give it away. We will be taking an offering on Easter Sunday that will go to a cause within our community. Or you can brainstorm with your kids ways you can give as an expression of the gifts we receive from Jesus. Have a family meeting to talk about some of the things that Soul Sanctuary does for those in need in our community and how they can contribute. Take them to the Missions Partners page on our website. Remind your children that, because of the generosity that God has shown us in Jesus, we can be generous as well.
No matter what disciplines you practice, the goal is to journey together toward the joy of the resurrected Jesus on Easter Sunday.