How to Help Your Child Pick Good Friends

We can't keep our kids in a bubble forever. What we can do is coach them on how to make the very best decisions and then trust them to do just that.

 

Who is influencing your child?

The number one influence in your child’s life is family. The second is friends.

As adults, we know that choosing your friends carefully is SO important. The right friends support and help you become a better follower of Jesus. The wrong friends can lead you to ruin. “Walk with wise people and become wise. A companion of foolish people suffers harm.” (Proverbs 13:20 NIrV) However, the reality is that kids don’t choose friends based on “wisdom.” 

They choose friends based on who is…fun, available and similar to them.

Teaching Kids to Pick Wisely

So, how do you teach kids to choose a wise friend? In MecKidz, we teach kids to look for three things in friends that are attributes of a wise friend:

1. Do they love Jesus?
2. Do they treat authority figures with respect?
3. Do they treat smaller or weaker kids with respect?

This week, ask your kids these questions about their closest friends:

• Do they ever talk about Jesus?
• How do they treat their teachers, coaches, or other authority figures?
• How do they treat their younger siblings or others smaller than them?
• To help you start the conversation, watch this video from MecKidz. 

It starts out funny with two friends sharing dad jokes to try to make each other laugh. Then it tells the story of David and Jonathan: the strongest friendship in the Bible. It ends by giving practical ways for kids to include God in their friendships.

We pray that you help your kids learn how to choose friends wisely.

 

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