Elementary Years: Building Foundational Habits or Rhythms

Every Christian parent wants to give their child a strong foundation for their faith. What if the easiest way to do that is not through perfect church attendance or complex family devotions? What if instead it’s built on the tiny habits that you build around the house? The elementary years are the perfect time to establish these foundational habits.

It’s important to build routines when your child is young, as this helps provide a strong foundation for their faith as they grow and make their relationship with Christ more and more their own. Here are five ways that you can help your kid establish those helpful foundational habits and rhythms. 

Making Praying Natural

Model and talk to your kid about how praying happens all day long, and that it’s not a big production. It can feel intimidating to talk to the Creator of the universe, but God is also our friend and wants to have a relationship with us!

Help your kid understand that prayer isn’t just for before bedtime or meals, but for every small moment. When they see you praying when you get frustrated, or praying in gratitude throughout the day, they learn the importance of constant prayer!

Morning Worship Music

Here’s something to help ground you and your kids in Christ before you ever leave the house: while you and your kids are getting ready for the day, put on some worship music to listen to. This helps create the rhythm of praising God first thing every morning, ultimately reminding us of His goodness and faithfulness. We highly recommend Meck’s own creative and arts team, Meck Creative!

Nightly Bible Story

Try reading a Bible story before bed. Even a shorter story that your kid might have heard before can help reinforce important foundational ideas. This practice can also pave the way for your kid to get into the rhythm of spending time with God before bed when they are older. Also, this practice combined with morning worship music, means that the first and last thing that you and your child are thinking about is God!

Faith-Related Decisions

Encourage your child to make their own faith-related decisions as they get older. Let them pick out what Bible story they want to read at night, or what playlist of worship music they want to listen to in the morning. This allows them to participate in the routines as well and encourages them to take ownership of their faith, not just follow in mom and dads footsteps. 

Consistency

It’s okay that some weeks feel messy! Your kids won’t remember that one family devotion that didn’t go as planned. What they will remember is that you consistently made room for God, regardless of everything else. God values consistency over complexity.

Elementary school won’t last forever, but the goal is to establish faith rhythms and habits that will impact your child’s faith long after they’ve outgrown their booster seats. The goal isn’t to add more things into your busy schedule, it’s to seamlessly weave God into the schedule you already have.

 

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