Press Play: Helping Your Kids Build ConfidenceSample

Today, we’re learning how important it is to stay focused on Jesus. I don’t mean staring at an image of Jesus without blinking. It’s more than that. It’s about making sure God and Jesus are the main focus of the day. Every day. It’s your son or daughter waking up in the morning and asking God to lead them through the day. It’s them making decisions by listening to God’s Spirit inside of them. It’s them reading their Bible and learning more about who Jesus is and what God wants for their life and staying focused on those things. 

And the more they practice, the better they will get at staying focused on Jesus. The first few times they try, life might get in the way. Life is busy. They get distracted. Math tests. Swim practice. Friend drama. Or even BIG life problems. Before they know it, Jesus isn’t their main focus. It’s not as easy as it sounds. 

Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus (Philippians 1:6, NIV). 

That verse tells us that no matter how hard it is to focus on Jesus right now . . . YOU WILL GET IT. And the beautiful thing about it is: the longer your son or daughter focuses on Jesus, the more confident in Jesus they become. And the easier it will be to press play on His plans for their life! Because when they’re focused on Him, they’ll see Him do amazing things all around them. 

It’s not all that different from the disciples. The longer they followed Jesus around and saw all the miraculous stuff He was doing, the greater their confidence in Him grew! 

But even they didn’t get it perfectly all the time. They paused. They doubted. They focused on other things. Just like all of us, they had to learn over and over and over how to stay focused on Jesus. We’re going to see that we’re a lot more like Jesus’ disciples than we are like Jesus. And that’s okay. Our kids aren’t supposed to be confident because THEY are perfect. Our kids are supposed to be confident because they follow and are loved by a GOD who is perfect. 

As we end today, I want your kid to read this Scripture kind of like a prayer: 

. . . Let us keep on running the race marked out for us. Let us keep looking to Jesus. He is the one who started this journey of faith. And he is the one who completes the journey of faith (Hebrews 12:1–2) . . . 

So, he or she can pray it something like this . . . 

Dear Jesus, please help me to keep on running the race You marked for me. Help me look to You always, Jesus. Thank You for being the One who started it all. Thank You for being such a good leader. I love You, Jesus. And I pray these things in Your name. Amen!