How to Have a H.E.A.R.T. For Your Kids Chapter 1

This week we are blogging about Chapter 1 of How to Have a H.E.A.R.T. For Your Kids at The Pelsers.

Chapter 1 focuses on the H - Have a Heart for the Things of God
Some quotes I liked from Chapter 1 include:

• In order to reach the hearts of your kids, you must first have a heart for the things of God.
• As intentional parents, we do not panic, we pray. We do not give sermons; we give scripture.
• . . . Then someone is rude to someone or grabs or yells or something, and I pray because I'm in danger of slipping back into my old habit of sermonizing. At a time like this, God wants me to seek Him, ask Him for insight, and wait for Him to touch my child's heart.
• Our praise should be complete, total, unashamed, and enthusiastic. 
• Have a heart for God and don't be afraid to show it! Praise Him out loud. Pray and lift him up!

This chapter is a combination of showing how ME having a heart for God is SOO important in having a heart for my children! That they are going to learn about God, not from what I say, but what they see in me. That is something that is somehow so easy to forget, at least for me. 

The other thing that stood out to me in this chapter was that we need to be "loud" for God. I'm not sure how I feel about that. . . the examples given were how we loudly and unashamedly cheer for our favorite sports team but keep quiet about God. The thing is, I don't cheer loudly for favorite teams and such either, it's just not me.  . . so that has me pondering . . . I get what she's saying, if we're willing to speak up about other things but not our God then what's that say about who's most important to us? But on the other hand, I would feel awkward yelling and screaming and jumping up and down about a sporting team too, so if it's just not something that's part of my personality, does God really ask me to be loud and enthusiastic about Him? Because I just don't think there's any way around the fact that it would seem (and feel, and be) fake and forced and put-on, and that's not a good witness for God either.

That said, I do think the underlying point is valid. We need to truly love God and not be ashamed of Him, in front of our children and the world! I just think How we are "unashamed" will look different in different people depending on our personalities.

Go over to The Pelsers to see what others thought of this chapter.