Training up children to have a servants heart

Our family service board.

I have been meaning to do this post for almost a year now and kept putting it off. Every time I sat down at the computer to blog, I had something else I wanted to post and thought maybe it wasn't something anyone would have interest in anyway. Well Sunday night we had some friends over and they were really excited about our "family service board" and wanted to make one for their home. So here I am, finally posting about it. I think maybe my readers will enjoy it and now it has even more meaning because I have proof that it actually has worked for almost a whole year in our home.

We use a very large chalkboard because that's what I had. You could use anything really; a white board, a poster board, or whatever else you already have handy.
Write this verse (Rom 12:10-11) or any other verse that speaks to you and your family about serving others before yourself.

And under the verse I write each of our names (which I have blacked out in this photo for privacy reasons). Our goal is for each persons name to have other family members initials next to it by the end of the week. That means that every time my son serves my daughter with out being asked (like putting her clothes in the hamper that she has left in the bathroom) he gets to write his initials next to her name. Make sense???

*blacked out our names with hearts because I don't use my kids names on my blog anymore and if you are wondering what the sloppy writing is, that is our 5 year old writing initials for everyone. When I serve him, he runs and writes my initials next to his name...

 

LET ME JUST TELL YOU, this little silly chalkboard puts a fire under my kids butt. They are eager to help dad take out trash, clean up food from the floor, clean up after each other, help me with putting away dishes.. Of course in the long run I'm hoping that we our teaching our kids to step out of their selfish space and serve others before being asked. Praying this pours out of their lives in ministry work when they become adults......however for now, it's a huge blessing to me and keeping our home clean. I need all the help I can get these days.

So I pray and hope it works for your family the way it has for us. Have fun with it, change the verse once in a while and don't feel bad if there is some weeks you feel like they aren't into it anymore. We all have bad weeks! Just encourage them to use it again the following. week.

We are just a family trying our best to raise up children with a servants heart. That is the one character trait I KNOW will help my children in the future;as spouses,employees,followers of Jesus and pretty mush every other area of their life. We need less selfish people in our world. I pray pray pray for this quality in my children.