Through this weekend only, Dave Ramsey is offering a free kids audiobook download! No need to part with personal information, sign up for email lists, or anything like that. Just a plain and simple free mp3 audiobook download of one of their kids books.

This freebie reminds me that I need to teach my kids to be financially responsible. They’re only 1 and 2 years old, so I probably don’t need to focus on that quite yet other than developing good financial habits myself to model and pass along to them when they get older.

In The Super Red Racer, Junior learns about earning money to buy a new bike. All of our kid’s items are fun, entertaining, and teach important life lessons.

It’s only free for a few days, so snag it if you’re interested.

We actually visited Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace Plaza about two weeks ago and watched his radio show live. We met him and talked for a bit, as well. Here’s our vlog of that trip if you’re interested in a “behind the scenes” look of The Dave Ramsey Show.

QUESTION: How do you teach financial responsibility to your children?

Our two-year-old loves to lead us in prayer now, and it’s so cute because she goes on and on and on and on…

But I’ve noticed that her prayers all revolve around either thanking God for things or asking Him to essentially keep us safe and make us comfortable. She doesn’t say it like that, but that’s what it boils down to.

And then it hit me: that’s what she’s learning about prayer from listening to me pray. Whenever we pray together I say things like,

• Help us to have good dreams and fall right to sleep.
• Keep us safe while we drive.
• Bless this food to make us strong and healthy.
• Help Hannah’s tummy to feel better soon.

Essentially, “Make my life better and remove discomforts.”

Praying for these things is not bad, of course, and most of them probably have equivalent examples in scripture. But overall, what if my children grew up praying for deeper things?

• Help me to understand your Word better.
• Make me a mighty woman of prayer.
• Give me the courage to talk about you with the people around me.
• Give me the wisdom to make tough decisions that are honoring to you.

If I want my kids to grow up with this kind of perspective on prayer, then I need to be setting the example and praying it in front of them regularly because what they learn about prayer during these formative years will be a result of mine and Dana’s personal prayer life modeled in front of them.

No pressure or anything!

QUESTION: How do you model a prayer life that you want your kids to adopt?

While driving, I noticed that Hannah, our two year old, was reciting almost every Dora episode word for word. I thought, “Wow, if she can do that, she’s definitely ready to start memorizing scripture.” But then I thought, “But where do I start with a two year old?”

When I was growing up, my parents made me and my siblings memorize a sheet of scripture verses every Friday before lunch. Although I hated it at the time, both my personal walk with the Lord and my ministry benefit more from all the scripture I memorized than almost anything else. I still use it almost every day, and I’d love for my children to grow up with the same spiritual foundation of memorizing the Word of God.

But honestly, I don’t know where to start. My parents took a topical approach with us, which was fine for us at the time because we were around 10 to 12 years old, but most of the words in those verses are words that my daughter wouldn’t even understand, let along comprehend what she was saying. Or is it even necessary that she understands it? She certainly doesn’t understand everything Dora is saying, especially in Spanish.

QUESTION: Where’s the best place to start with a 2-year-old in memorizing scripture?

There’s more details about the conference on their blog post here that also includes the speaker schedule, dates, and times everything is taking place. Just remember to register beforehand (it’s free!) and then you can watch the event live on their streaming page.

Check it out and let us know what you think!

Every Sunday we wake up a bit earlier than usual and I tell our kids, “Hey, it’s time to get ready to go to church!” It’s innocent enough, but to Hannah, our two year old, I’m reinforcing the fact that church is a building we attend once or twice a week. Although we all know that’s not an entirely accurate understanding of ecclesia, it’s what she’s learning from me. But what else do I say? How else do I teach her from a young age that church isn’t just a building we attend — it’s a body of believers, a group of people who are “called out?” Should I even bother with that at this age?

The second thing I noticed I’m teaching Hannah about church, though, is even more unhelpful. Every Sunday after church I find myself asking her, “Hannah, did you have fun at church today?” Out of all the things I could ask her and “debrief” about our time at church, why do I default to asking her about fun?! Why would I reinforce to her that the main thing I’m interested in hearing about is if she had fun or not? I certainly do not want her growing up thinking that church is primarily supposed to be an entertaining place.

Inside, I think the question stems from a heart that just wants her time at church to be a positive experience, but I’m not sure that I’m asking questions that help her understand even from a young age that church isn’t primarily about having fun nor having a nursery staff that makes sure she enjoys herself.

And when she gets older, will that expectation then transfer to youth pastors?

Of course, I could ask her perhaps a better question like, “Hannah, what did you learn at church today?” but will that teach her that church is primarily a place where we’re supposed to learn about God? What happens if that mentality sticks with her into adulthood and she gets to a place where she’s not learning much at church anymore? Will she be that person who leaves a church because, “I’m just not learning or growing here,” as if individual spiritual growth is the church’s responsibility?

QUESTION: I think I might be over-analyzing this, but I don’t know. What do you guys think?

“Our biggest struggle is the resentment we feel when you’re seemingly showing others more attention than us?”

No one in ministry thinks to themselves, “Ya know, I prefer to build resentment in my family while serving others.”

Usually one of two things happen.

One, we start down a slow process of one small step at a time in the wrong direction until one day we look up and wonder, “How did we get here?”

Or two, we think we’re doing great with the time we’re investing into our family, but our family feels otherwise, usually because we’re investing our time into the wrong things with them. Maybe we look at the clock and think, “Wow, I spent 5 hours at home today with the kids! Awesome! They must really feel loved!” when really all your little girl wanted was for you to show up at her soccer game.

I’ve told the story before, so I won’t repeat it again, but I personally know how this feels growing up as a pastor’s kid. Thankfully, when I confronted my dad during my senior year of high school, he immediately had someone else take over the Bible study and started coming to all my wrestling matches. He did the same for my brothers and sisters after that. He honestly just had no idea how I felt. As far as he was concerned, he worked from the church office in our home and spent many hours with us every day. We had plenty of attention, just not always when it was important to us.

Don’t assume the hours you invest into your family are always invested at the right times. Ask them.

QUESTION: What are some of the best times your family has spent together? What do each of those experiences have in common? How can you replicate it often?

I want to take a little different spin on that here for those of us who are ministry families.

In my opinion, there are two main obstacles to parents living out their faith for their kids:

1. The parents themselves are not at a place spiritually where they have a faith that’s worth passing on.
2. They really don’t know how to be spiritual leaders in their home nor what it looks like practically.

Furthermore, kids see that their parents often show one side of their personality at church and another at home. What does a kid do when his parents yell and swear at each other at home, but raise hands in worship at church? Youth workers complain that kids act one way at school and another way at church, but those teenagers may have parents who do the same thing between work, home and church. Kids see that and learn to imitate it. They see how faith doesn’t always influence what goes on during the week, and they adopt that “faith” exactly.

Here’s the kicker for me: What do my kids see when they look at me? Do they see a father who pursues the Lord in prayer, who shares his faith with those around him, who genuinely worships, who is sacrificial in serving others? I realize I’m not perfect and they will easily pick apart the struggling areas of my life, but overall, what do they see? Will they see a dad who serves in a church and teaches God’s Word to others, but fail to see how it connects with every aspect of his personal life?

It reinforces to me that investing into my personal walk with the Lord is becoming more and more important, not just for my own spiritual growth, but for that of my children. I need to grow for the sake of my children.

QUESTION: How have you seen your personal spiritual growth affect your children?

Author Charles Swindoll once found himself with too many commitments in too few days. He got nervous and tense about it. In this book, Stress Fractures: Advice and Encouragement for Handling your Fast-Paced Life, he writes:

I was snapping at my wife and our children, choking down my food at mealtimes, and feeling irritated at those unexpected interruptions through the day. Before long, things around our home started reflecting the pattern of my hurry-up style. It was become unbearable.

I distinctly remember after supper one evening, the words of our younger daughter, Colleen. She wanted to tell me something important that had happened to her at school that day. She began hurriedly, “Daddy, I wanna tell you somethin’ and I’ll tell you really fast.”

Suddenly realizing her frustration, I answered, “Honey, you can tell me — and you don’t have to tell me really fast. Say it slowly.”

I’ll never forget her answer: “Then listen slowly.”

Even while writing this, my two-year-old daughter came into the room to see what I was doing. Since I feel a bit of a time crunch to finish this before heading out to church this evening, my first reaction was to give her a little kiss on the forehead and keep typing. But when she wanted to climb into my lap, I had to put the computer down and hold her.

And I’m glad I did because these moments will be fewer and far between as she grows up. I need to listen to both her and my son slowly while I still can, not to mention my wife!

Ironically, because I took the time with my daughter, I have a much shorter ending for this post than I originally planned. It’s now finished with plenty of time to grab dinner and head out to youth group. I’m glad I listened to my little girl, even though she didn’t really say a thing.

QUESTION: What are some signs you recognize when your kids need you to listen slowly?

We’ve probably all heard of the importance of doing a regular date night with our spouse, but two weeks ago Dana had the idea of doing a Family Date Night. I’m sure others have thought of this before, too, but it was our first time to officially go out as a family and do something fun together and call it a Family Date Night.

My status on Facebook was,

Hoping to finish writing my 2nd book tonight, but first it’s family date night. Off to Pizza Hut then movie time with “Elmo Goes Potty” haha

For what it’s worth, I ended up finishing my second book last week instead, but it was worth it.

We brought the Flip camera with us on our Family Date Night to share with you guys and our YouTube friends. You can watch it here, or watch it embedded below.

We upload family videos like this several times a week for our YouTube friends. If you’d like, you can see our YouTube channel or click here to subscribe!

QUESTION: Have you ever done a Family Date Night? What are your family’s favorite things to do together?

I plan to read it more thoroughly later this week. If you’d like to check it out, Mark says this about it in the ebook’s introduction:

“This book is a simple attempt to help god’s men be a “poppa daddy,” as my kids call me…. I hope this book can be of some service to the men to whom God has entrusted children, for God’s glory, the children’s good, mom’s gratefulness, and dad’s gladness.”

The table of contents are:

1. Preface
2. The good life
3. Worshiping the god of our fathers
4. The fruitful vine
5. Cultivating kids
6. The masculine duty to provide
7. Instruction followed by correction
8. Protecting from sin and folly
9. Countering culture

Download HERE from TheResurgence.com!

QUESTION: Do you know of any other good, free ebooks on parenting for ministry families? Share it with us below!