Raising Honest Kids
Email 1
Copy/Paste the following email:
Subject Line: Raising Honest Kids, Part One
A Big Children’s Ministry Greeting-
We are back with our monthly dose of parenting goodness. Every month we try
to offer you a helpful, heaping spoonful of inspiration and challenge in the form of our Online Parenting Classes. These short 3-4 minutes videos are our way to say we love you and want to try to keep your parenting healthy and strong!
We have loved hearing your reactions and questions from these monthly little spiritual family vitamins! We have so enjoyed listening to your stories of how your family is taking some of the advice offered each month as a way to go deeper and get stronger as a family.
We know some of these topics are challenging, but they are the topics that
parents just like you around the country are asking to hear about. This month is no exception with the topic of “Raising Honest Kids!”
I know that is a challenge and frustration issue in many of your homes. I hope this small measure of truth and wisdom helps you this month!
https://vimeo.com/parentministry/review/331881109/261dd7f18a
Praying for you –
Children’s Pastor
Email 2
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Subject Line: Raising Honest Kids, Part 2
Hello Families & Friends of our Children’s Ministry
We are so excited to head into the spring and Easter time of the year around our
ministry. God is doing so many amazing things as we move toward the exciting
summer months.
I am writing you today to let you know we have another fresh Online
Parenting class to share with you for this month. Each month these have become
more and more popular. I know they have sparked some wonderful
conversations in your homes, and we are also seeing some great blessings as many
of you apply these hints to your home.
This month’s topic is again, a great one. It is titled “Raising Honest Kids”. You
know you are going to want to watch this one right away.
What do you think!? What outstanding hints and helps for your home! Truth is
such a hard thing to teach in our homes, isn’t it? We live in a world where half-
truths and outright lies are rewarded and complete honesty is looked at as naive.
It is hard to teach our kids the value of truth and the disappointment it is to others
when you are not completely honest.
As you sit down with your family this week and talk this over, I would suggest
reading over the Proverbs 11:3 verse again as a family. Have a time of discussion
of what everyone thinks that it means. Maybe even think of some real-life
examples of how someone was “ruined” because of their continued dishonesty.
There are certainly enough examples in history and even in current events/news
about dishonesty that has brought “ruined” lives, careers, and relationships.
I would love to hear from you and your family about how your discussion goes and
in what ways I can support you in those discussions.
In truth and honesty-
Children’s Pastor
Video Script
Raising Honest Kids
Welcome to this months online parenting class! There is nothing more frustrating
than catching your kids in a pattern on lying. I promise it will make you want to pull your
hair out! This month we want to tackle the topic of honesty and how to raise honest
kids.
Honesty is a value, but honesty is not easy. Many times as a kid and as an adult
honesty is risky and costly. Honesty fuels trust in the long term but for a kid, it’s
momentarily easier to tell a lie. Raising honest kids begins with helping our kids
understand the tension between the benefit and difficulty of honesty. It never helps kids
when we hold honesty up as a standard without helping them navigate the tension of
choosing honesty.
The Scriptures say this about honesty…
Proverbs 11:3
The integrity of the honest keeps them on track; the deviousness of crooks brings them
to ruin.
Honesty keeps us on track where lies lead to trouble. It’s important that our kids know
we want them to live an honest life not just tell truth when we ask them if they brushed
their teeth. Telling the truth in small things leads to being truthful in big things…in life.
Here are a few tips to help you raise honest kids…
Challenge lies and reward and praise all honesty.
Don’t let little lies slip. Challenge your kids when you catch that they are not being truth
tellers. We know it’s easy to let those things go and hope kids get better, but honesty is
a learned habit. While you challenge lies make sure and praise honesty. If your child
admits to a lie, give grace; forgive, then course correct. Honesty should be rewarded.
Model honesty.
Kids need to see you be a truth teller. Work hard to show them what honesty looks like as you interact with your family. When you mess up, tell the truth and apologize. When you make commitments to other people follow through. When it would be easy to lie find a way to tell the truth in love. Model what you want from your kids.
Watch for bad influences.
Your kids’ friends have a deep influence on them. Your kid’s social media access also
has a big influence on them. Be present enough to know the people around your kids
and to be able to call out dishonest influences. When kids get around people who are
dishonest many times they pick up the habit. Keep a steady eye on who is influencing
your child.
To have kids of character lead them in that direction! Praying for you as you invest in
your child this month.
Texts/Tweets
TIP: Choose a hashtag for your tweets and use it consistently. That will tell Twitter to store a list of your tweets on one place for later reference.
Tweet One: Raising honest kids begins with helping our kids understand the tension
between the benefit and difficulty of honesty. #honestkids #honestparenting #parenthelp #jesusmama #christiandad #parenting
Tweet Two: Truth in small things leads to being truthful in big things in the life of our
kids. Teach your kids honesty now while they are small, so they will begin honest lives. #honestpolicy #truthtraining #parenting #momlove #dadlove #raisingkids
Tweet Three: Honesty is a learned habit; so is dishonesty.Teach your kids the habit of
honest words and honorable actions. #honesty #truth #godlyparents #dadlife #momtruth
Tweet Four: Kids need to see their parents as truth tellers in life; otherwise, they will not
believe them in the most importance truths of God. #truth #truthtellers #truthfulparent #momtruth #dadtruth
Tweet Five: It is a parent’s role to call out untruth in the life of their child, whether it is
verbal, written, or digital. Don’t let dishonesty influence your child. #truth #lifestuff #watchfulmom #parenting #parentingtruth
Tweet Six: Kids of character are kids of truthful direction. Map a course of truth for the
road of life in your child. #truthroad #lifemap #kidtruth #character