What’s the most important thing you want to teach your children so they’ll be prepared to live on their own someday? Is it how to budget? How to cook? How to live within their means and debt-free? Or something else?
Leave your answer as a comment on this post by Friday, March 12, and you’ll be automatically entered into a drawing for a hardback copy of Life on the Edge, one of the books on the Recommended Reading List of my book Life Prep for Homeschooled Teenagers. As I said in that book:
Dr. Dobson discusses important subjects like choosing a career and a marriage partner, as well as just dealing with the ups and downs of life as a young adult in today’s society. His Christian faith is always evident in what he writes, yet his practical advice is valuable for readers of any faith.
Stay tuned for more giveaways!
NOTE: This giveaway is now closed…sorry if you didn’t win. Do try again with the 3/12 giveaway drawing 🙂
Above all else, I want my children to follow and trust the Lord. That is the most important thing that I can teach them. All the rest can fall into place from there.
Happy weekend! Thanks for doing this, Barbara. 🙂
My heart’s desire for my children is that they love the Lord and know His Truth. As they prepare for the day they will be independent adults, we pray they will have their spiritual armour on and have the mind of Christ to seperate Truth from lies.
My main concern is their walk with God. I am hoping that they learn all the other good stuff, too, but ultimately, it’s about them knowing God and Jesus as their Saviour.
To walk the straight and narrow…the path that leads to life…to not turn to the left nor right…to distinguish between the holy and the common…to abide in the vine who is Jesus Christ. This and this alone is THE most important thing for my children to take away from home when venturing out and starting their own.
most important, to serve…with a kind and good heart
I believe if they serve Jesus with a heart of gratitude that will fall in place.
After that, 🙂 to laugh and enjoy people.
then
how to cook, clean, organize and a love for books!
and to remember to call their parents!
My desire is for my son to grow into a godly young man, following the Lord with all his heart and making decisions based on what the Bible teaches. If he pursues God, he will find what God has for him as a career and find the wife and family God has for him.
I want them to know how to do all the practical things you mentioned, but the number one concern would be to follow Jesus and love Him above all, no matter what the circumstance.
I want my son to learn and know that it’s not all about him – it’s about surrender, ruthlessly eliminating ego and pride, being a good steward of God’s money and finding joy whenever and wherever he can.
If they can just learn to ask God first, and wait for an answer, about spending, about jobs, about potential spouse, about everything. Remembering who is in charge, and who knows and wants what is best for us, and just how imperfect we are on our own.
First and foremost, they are learning to wait on God for EVERYTHING!!! And secondly, I want them to know how to find out how to do just about anything, so that if they encounter something they don’t know, they will know how to learn about it.
I want him to learn to listen to that still small voice of the Holy Spirit and learn to rely fully on God, to follow the path that God has for him.
The most important thing for my daughter to learn is to love God and to be responsible.
The one thing that I think all children need most – besides loving and living for God – is a love of learning. I want to teach my kids to be excited about learning and to never stop learning through out their lives.
I really want my kids to have independent faith – a faith of their own in God. I also want my son to be independent with his diabetes care.
how to be pure!
I want my kids to know that as long as they walk with God and be still and listen that He will guide their steps and decisions as adults.
As I have read everyone’s post, they seemed to have covered the number one thing I wanted to say, which is following Christ, but even beyond that I want my children to not put God in a bottle. I want them to seek God and to find out who He is beyond the church building, beyond the pastors, because if they don’t know who He is for themselves nothing else matters. What I say about God, does them no good if they don’t experience Him. Once they do, then everything else will come. They will begin to see things (finances, a marriage partner, college, etc.)fall into place. So, marriage, finances, college, parenting, just working will fail, but if they truly know and experience God and see who He is to them, then they will prosper in life.
The most important thing I want to teach my daughter is to love and trust in her Lord Jesus Christ and to learn to listen to His voice. If she has a relationship with her Lord, she will make good choices in every other area of her life.
Gor her to be a good steward of her time and money would be my next pick of what I would like to teach her.
I want my last 2 DD’s still left at home to be able to use the wisdom of scripture and the power of prayer to expect God to guide them into their futures: husbands, family, vocation, etc. They come from a self-employed family, a loving, communicative family, and one who sees Christ as the basis for all decision-making and future hope. That is the legacy I pray they pass down to future generations.
To love the Lord their God with all their heart and soul and mind and strength, and to love their neighbor as themselves.
The most important thing I try to teach my children is how important it is to choose a life partner who is a best friend and who will be a great parent to any future children.
I would like for my son to be able to make wise decisions, not based on what he wants, but what God wants. He will also need to be able to do laundry, clean, and take care of himself.
I want my kids to love the Lord and to stay involved in church after they leave our home. It’s so hard for young adults to find their niche in the body of Christ sometimes when they’re on their own. To this end, they’re currently teaching Sunday School and participating in the worship team with hopes that they will continue to do so later because they enjoy if and want to contribute to their own home church wherever it may be.
I want my kids to love God and have hearts willing to follow and obey His word. I also want them to learn how to be a blessing to others and to understand better how they can use their gifts and talents to bring glory to God.
First, to love God and serve him…to remain faithful in the hard times….to remain pure….to love to learn…to be in his will no matter what the circumstances.
I want my children to live for the Lord. I want them to be so in love with Him that obedience and service flow out. I want them to live lives of integrity.
I want my children to understand grace; how to beleive it, to recive it, and to give it to others as an expression of gratitiude for having received it themselves. It is a daily need and a daily discipline to live this way, and it will change everything else they do.
The name of our school is the Salt and Light Academy. I want my children to leave knowing what they believe in order to share it with those they meet each day. To show their love for the Lord in their service to others. Our goal is to be Salt and Light in the the World.
I want all four of my children to learn to love Jesus with all their heart and soul, and mind, and to develop a lifelong yearning to spend time with HIM. I also want them to learn to depend on HIM for all things. I pray that they all listen and obey God’s still small voice in their choices for spouses, family, and jobs. Thank you for this opportunuty!
The number one important thing is for their focus to be on Christ. If they have this awesome gift then all else will fall into place! They will be equipped no matter what life circumstances come their way!
I wish for my children to have Jesus live in their hearts forever. And to know that God always loves them, and they are never alone. Then, I believe everything else will fall into place for them.
The most important thing I would like to teach my daughter is to trust in the Lord with all her heart, and to follow Him always.
I want our daughter and six grandchildren to learn and practice the art of loving God with their whole being and to extend that love to their neighbors. I want them to understand that knowing God is the ultimate pursuit. That trusting Christ as Savior is more important than anything they will every do.
I want my children to have their own relationship with the Lord and it not be just the faith of their parents. They also need to be aware of all the traps of the world whether it be a secular worldview, mismanagement of finances, the image and lifestyle society tells them they need, etc. They need to find Hope and Peace in a world that doesn’t provide it.
This sounds really interesting. The last Dobson book I read was dealing with the Strong Willed Child. ;p My son did NOT like that book btw. Of course he is now a teenager, so will probably like this one less. hehehe
Rule #1 that I teach my children is “Life is not fair”. After that I teach them to rely on God and family. This world is full of “me-me” people. When things don’t go our way, it’s OK to be mad, but then you have to find the good in the way things went, even if you didn’t end up on top!
I want my children to know how to TRUST God. To listen to that still small voice, and follow it no matter where it says to go, or what it says to do… there have been so many times I almost didnt trust, and my life would not be the same now..
I want my d.s. to be worldly wise. The great deceiver can blind to the truth and I want my son to recognize this. Listening to God and not worrying about what others think will help my son become the strong Christian leader he was meant to be, both at home and at work.
To LOVE GOD and to LOVE others.
What is the most important thing to teach your children?, There are soooo many answers that come to my mind.
I have two children, my son who is 20yrs. old who has just moved out on his own & a 15 yr. old daughter. I really hope and pray that I have instilled in them the ability to be an upstanding person which I think is very hard in this day and age….
I want my children to be self-learners, able to study and learn independently. That way they will be motivated to learn not just about academic subjects but be Berean Christians who search the Word for the truth. This will help them in all areas of life.
Like all Christian parents, my deepest desire is for them to know Jesus Christ as their personal Savior, and to develop a love for Him and His truths. On a more “earthly” level, I want them to learn to be content with whatever life brings them – content with what they are given, whether very modest and meager means or with grander means, whichever the Lord directs for their lives. I don’t want them always having to reach for newer, shinier brass rings, but to learn to be able to “bloom where they’re planted” no matter the circumstances, no matter the season in life.
I want my teens to be independent so I talk to them a lot. I tell them about budgeting and why it is important. I opened a checking account for each of them and show them how to keep their books up to date.
I want my children to love the Lord with all their heart and seek to follow Him always.
To live life with Lord our God as number 1. You can not go wrong leading the Lord’s life.
My desire is for my children to know God and always follow His ways.
My desire is for my children to be happy, healthy and have faith.
Of course we have no greater joy than knowing that our children are following the Lord. For me, that’s the pre-requisite, just as it is for pretty much everyone else who’s answered so far.
My big thing, however, is that I want my daughter to have the courage of her convictions. To be willing to stand up and fight for what she believes in. At 16, she’s recently been tested in the relationship area, and has come through beautifully, prayerfully, with her convictions confirmed and a mature and godly concern for the young man whose heart had changed toward her. We know, though, that this is the first of many such tests.
In years to come, will she be willing to choose aloneness in favour of just marrying any-old-body to avoid being alone? Will she be willing to stand beside her husband through thick and thin, no matter what? Will she be willing to speak out against corruption in society, or the desensitising of humanity? Will she stand up and fight for the right to home educate her own children?
My prayer is that she will have the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, but that when she stands up, the devil knows he’s got trouble and heaven cheers.
My 12 yr. old son lives every day on the edge. He was diagnosed with type one diabetes at thge age of nine. We have been teaching him how to be personally responsible for his life every day. He believes that God wants him to use his illness to inspire others to do good works.
My hope and wish is that my children will love the Lord, and have Him as part of their entire lives, and to do and have a far richer walk than I have myself.