God calls us and our children to do great things. We cannot do these things without the foundation of Christ’s message and faith inside of us. Our job discipling the next generation is to train them and help them recognize when they are ready to walk on water.
Thursday, February 28, 2019
Wednesday, February 27, 2019
Your Children Can Walk on Water
Train your children to do something amazing by following Jesus. Peter saw Jesus and wanted to do what he did and Jesus empowered him to do just that. Jesus still empowers us to speak his Word, change eternities, announce condemnation and forgiveness -- more amazing that walking on H2O! But we can settle for just getting by each day. We can settle with training our children to expect nothing big from God.
Tuesday, February 26, 2019
Our Children Will Struggle But Christ Keeps Coming
Life is a struggle. It is. We can ignore it or deny it and avoid looking at it, but it still is there. The only thing that is more real than struggle is our loving God and his Son Jesus. We need to be real with our children on both realities for them to have the power to be amazing in this life and empowered forever.
Monday, February 25, 2019
Bless Your Kids By Getting Alone Time
Life is so busy in 2019 -- both out of necessity and because of the choice we and our children make. But we cannot keep our children so busy there is not time to connect with God. Most importantly we adults need to take time to be alone with God so we can love our children with God’s love.
Friday, February 22, 2019
What if Children Had to Pay Back Their Parents?
God is full of grace and mercy and as mentors or parents or teachers we need to reflect that to our children. God still acts with justice and punishes sins when they are not covered by the blood of Jesus through faith. That law reality needs to be taught to our children so that the gospel is needed, bright and powerful.
Thursday, February 21, 2019
Teach Your Children There is a Time to Tattle
Is tattling always wrong? Anytime someone does anything to hurt others or to make themselves look better -- it is a sin. But there are times we need to go to authorities for the sake of the authority and for the person misbehaving. Training our children to be loving disciple teammates that hold others accountable and are willing to be held accountable is the art of discipling.
Wednesday, February 20, 2019
Take a Trip With Your Children -- Not a Power Trip
Our children need to practice having authority and wielding grace. We find ways to let them supervise siblings or classmates and direct them on how to not abuse that power. The best way to train them is to model it for them and point them to God’s total power and abundant grace.
Tuesday, February 19, 2019
Our Children Are Owed Nothing But Given Everything
Most have to admit that they can never pay their mother back for what she did for them. Just giving birth is more than anyone can pay back. We can still try by loving our parents and caring for them when they are older and need us. We cannot pay God back for his mercy and care and gifts but we train our children to live a life of paying back.
Monday, February 18, 2019
REAL Relationships Make Your Leadership
Proverbs 18:2
A fool finds no pleasure in understanding but delights in airing his own opinions.
If you're like me, as soon as you read this Proverb someone's face popped into your head. Sadly, one of those faces was mine. We all have experience with the "over-talker", the "story-topper", and the "never-stopper". Which one are you? Which one are you most often guilty of being? Before I began my leadership development journey, I was an "over-talker" and a "personal attacker".
My self-esteem was so low that I would constantly attack people and their ideas, because I thought somehow this was making me look smart. I would argue with people even if I actually agreed with them. Thankfully, God threw me the life-line of personal development and leadership development because that is what He used with me to hone me into the man He had always intended for me to be.
Normally, low self-esteem and low/no self-confidence is the cause of why people become the fool. Sadly, this disease leads to multiple bad attitudes: being...unteachable, sarcastic, argumentative, using profane and vulgar language, boastful, self-centered, and disrespectful. When you look at this list it is easy to see why the fool "takes no pleasure in understanding".
In order to "seek to understand", you have to be humble and teachable. You have to stop talking and listen to the other person. The only way that we gain understanding is by listening; whether it's listening to another person, reading a book, or listening to an educational audio. In conversation, try this little experiment:
Ask a question to start the conversation.
After that, make every statement you make end with a question mark.
Do not make a demonstrative statement, or an "I" statement, until you are asked a question.
What's the point of that little experiment?
When you are asking questions, you can't "air your own opinions". When you are asking questions you are showing that you delight in understanding the other person. When you do this, you are making huge deposits into that relationship. Imagine the affect this could have on your marriage. What if you actually did this with your children? What about your friends? If you start doing this you could actually end up with all 3!😃
The reality is that we all want to be liked, even people who claim otherwise. The quickest way to get people to like you is to ask them about themselves. Most people love to talk about themselves. So let them. Let them impress you with how awesome they are. They will love you for it! The kicker is that when you do this you will find out that people actually are amazing. They have great ideas. They know some stuff that you don't. They have done some stuff that you have never even imagined doing.
This is how real relationships are built. This is how you have a mature, grown-up conversation. This is how you build influence. This is how you build a large social network. The more meaningful relationships you have, the greater your impact will be on the world. When you start building social capital like this you will become the Great Connector. You will be able to connect people together who otherwise would have never met. Imagine the impact two, or more, passionate mission-minded individuals will have on the world once you introduce them to each other!
I have talked about the ripple effect before, but if you will become this kind of leader you will never see the end of your impact. This is the way that you impact the next 100 generations. You could never do that on your own.
In Launching A Leadership Revolution (LLR) Orrin Woodward and Chris Brady talk about Level 5 Leadership: Developing Leaders Who Develop Leaders. In the past, I looked at this selfishly. I looked at it as though I would be personally mentoring leaders who would mentor leaders...and so on. Part of Level 5 Leadership is personally mentoring leaders, but that's not all there is. In the LLR book they actually call the five leadership levels: The Five Levels of Influence. Leadership is influence.
The reality is that you don't have enough time to mentor every leader that is needed in the world, but what if you could start connecting leaders to each other and then let them expand their influence synergistically around the world? If you keep a Connector's mindset, and focus energy on connecting leaders to each other their passion, vision, and mission will ignite a Leadership Revolution around the world. This is something you could never do on your own.
Remember how this all started: seek understanding and stop airing your own opinions. Leadership starts when people actually like you and respect you. There is no short-cut to Level 5 Leadership. You only get there by listening to the wisdom of Solomon. Then submit to God's plan and watch Him bless it however He chooses. It will be greater than you could possibly imagine!
God bless
Jason Fredrick
Can You Forgive Your Children Too Much?
How much forgiveness is too much? Our children keep doing the same wrong things. Our spouse does the same wrong thing. We do the same wrong thing! Forgiveness might seem to have a limit, but not with our God in Jesus. Forgiveness is the key in relationships and training our children.
Friday, February 15, 2019
Give Your Kids the Keys
God trusts us with the next generation. He could just send angels to raise them but he trusts us. He also trusts us with the keys to heaven and that we would use them with our children and teach them to use them. Unfortunately, they are underused and under-appreciated.
Thursday, February 14, 2019
Put Children On Solid Ground
Confess? When most hear that word they assume it is confessing some crime or evil. When do our children hear about someone saying what they hold to be true and seeing that as a beautiful, admirable thing? This age has made our hearts’ beliefs out to be private but God calls us to be public. Train your scholars, mentees and kids on how to boldly confess.
Wednesday, February 13, 2019
There's Nothing Better Than Hearing Children Confess Jesus!
Do you take for granted that children love Jesus? Do you love to hear them sing about Jesus and say who he is? How much more does God love to hear voices proclaim who is he! Rejoice that anyone -- especially our children know Jesus is their Savior.
Tuesday, February 12, 2019
Who Do People Say Jesus is Today?
There are many different opinions about who Jesus is. Our children will be confronted and surrounded by different thoughts. We need to ready the next generation for this and help them truly listen and understand where others are coming from so they can share the hope they have.
Monday, February 11, 2019
How Do Your Children Answer: Who is Jesus?
Who is Jesus? Good question to ask, but even a better one to know the answer to. What will our kids answer? How do we train them know just what the answer is but how to express it in a way that others will be interested in? Our children will hear many different answers to this question and need to be ready to love the answer God’s word and the Holy Spirit has given.
Friday, February 8, 2019
How do We Disciple a Post Christian Generation Z?
The new generation is growing in a post Christian world where secularism dominates. Christian teachers, parents and mentors need to acknowledge this and disciple accordingly. This new world offers threats and opportunities. Our children are less likely to be half-hearted Christians. They will be all in or not in.
Thursday, February 7, 2019
How do We Disciple a Sexually Fluid Generation Z?
James Emery White says the youngest generation sees themselves as sexually fluid. Young celebrities have stated as much. They do not want to be forced to choose between boy or girl or for their partner to choose. We need to be diligent is discipling our children to love their gender and God's invention of marriage and evangelize those around them.
Wednesday, February 6, 2019
How do We Disciple a Multi-Racial Generation Z?
Will racism ever disappear? There will always be sin and sinners who love to push others down. But the next generation will not fit into the checkbox racial categories and will have global connections to all types of people. Perhaps this will bring the world together in a a way that has never happened before. Whether this will be good for the spread of the Gospel will be seen.
Tuesday, February 5, 2019
How do We Disciple a Wi-Fi Enabled Generation Z?
How often are your children online? When they are not online, how long would it take for them to be? 10 years ago Google wasn't a verb -- now it takes my children 10 seconds to Google something. This means something good and bad for discipling our children in Jesus.
Monday, February 4, 2019
How do We Disciple a Recession Marked Generation Z?
Our children are so different than us! If you have ever said this, you are not alone and it is not your imagination. James White writes about this in his book, "Generation Z." In my podcasts this week I will apply his five identified generation markers to our current work of discipleship.
Friday, February 1, 2019
Are You and Your Children Sick?
Many people - church attenders and otherwise - have the wrong idea of what congregational life is. They might think church is for the cleaned up and to hang out with other good people -- like a country club. Jesus describes his church as a hospital with an emergency room and rehab. We need to train the next generation to see church Jesus' way.
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