Do you remember the old potluck dinners? Or have you ever been to an amazing food festival? There is usually an astounding amount of food or an overwhelming variety of delicacies. People who have attended these amazing food festivals will tell you to decide ahead of time to prioritize what you want to eat and carefully chose how much to eat. Plan ahead. I have made the mistake of trying my best to eat as much as I possibly could of everything. There was just too much to choose from, and I wanted to taste everything. If you do what I did, be prepared to be walking around, or sitting because you can’t walk around the theme park anymore, reaping the consequence of not planning ahead. From a parenting perspective that is exactly what is about to happen in the next months. We are about to enter a “parental training food festival” time. However, have no fear; this month is the start of a brand-new school year!

 

Strategic planning

Happy New Year! That is right. If you are a parent, this is the beginning of your new year. With this in mind, August is the time to think through the beginning of your family’s brand-new school year.

This does not just usher in the start of a new school year; however, it is a profound turning point for your child. It is the beginning of another year of educating and training, not just the beginning of a Sign-Them-Up Season. This month is the beginning of one-eighteenth of your child’s training for life.

With this in mind, August becomes a strategic planning month. To fail to plan means that the family calendar will be filled with things which the school and community throw at the family. This means the community and school become the lead trainers in the life of your child.

August is the month to decide what areas of training your child needs during the next twelve months. 

 

Self-centeredness

For example, are you noticing a self-centered attitude developing in your twelve-year-old? The question to ask yourself in the August parenting staff meeting is whether this is something you think important enough to deal with this upcoming new year (Philippians 2:4, Matthew 22:39). Loving your neighbor is a command, but certainly not a natural inclination. Hence, loving your neighbor must be taught.

Once you have established that this is important enough to spend your precious time training, look at the potential activities for this coming year. Will any of them help to train this Biblical mandate? Sports programs are wonderful, but they teach a child to excel physically while being at the center of the performance arena. Rosemary and I signed our children up for one sport a year and then moved on to other areas of training.

Find a place where your child can serve others. Serving others could be for the family to volunteer a couple hours a week visiting an elderly member of the church who is in a nursing home or homebound. It could be visiting the home of a widow and helping her with her lawn or dusting her house.

Is self-centeredness something worth dealing with? Certainly, it is. Working on self-centeredness will not happen unless the parent gets out front of the “Family Year” and creates a plan to teach this lesson.

 

Spiritual leadership

What about teaching the child to take spiritual leadership? If spiritual leadership is important, how about using your home as a place for a weekly Bible study for some of the kids from church or school. Ask the youth pastor for curriculum and encourage your child to invite friends.

It is not a matter of eliminating the sports and activities that your child is traditionally involved in each school year. It is a matter, however, of deciding that the school and community will not dictate what your child will be doing each waking hour. It is time for discerning parents to take control of what they will train their children this coming year. Extra-curricular programs such as sports and music have their place, but these activities just cannot be permitted to take up every extra minute of your child’s time. 

 

As parents, use August to get ready for this year’s “Parental Food Festival.” Decide and plan ahead of time what you will be training your child before the temptation to say “yes” to every opportunity overtakes you. What do you need to train each of your children this coming year? For your children’s sake, make their training a priority!

Visit parentingonpurpose.org for more advice from Dr. Bob Barnes and Torrey Roberts.

For more articles by Dr. Bob Barnes and Torrey Roberts, visit goodnewsfl.org/author/dr-bob-barnes-and-torrey-roberts/