Blessing of Responsibility

We teach our children responsibility from an early age. Please pick up your toys. Don’t forget to brush your teeth. Have you fed the fish? But how often do we teach our kids about the kind of responsibility that’s most important to the Lord: the duty to care for others? Our kids must first be taught to look for needs around them and then be challenged to take action. Are we teaching our kids to step in or look the other way? Do they see another’s hardships as a personal calling to help or someone else’s job? Making beds every morning and finishing homework at night are worthy goals. But helping an elderly man cross the street, befriending a lonely classmate, or bringing canned goods to the local food pantry—meeting these kinds of needs and taking this kind of responsibility can change the world.

READ

Parents, read Galatians 6:2 over your children:
Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.

BLESS

Pray the following blessing over your children:

(Child’s name), may you know the joy that comes from caring for others. May your heart be open to the needs of people around you. May you give of yourself, help those who need it, and carry the burdens of your neighbors. (Child’s name), always remember that by helping someone else, you are truly serving Jesus. May your life be filled with the blessings that come from meeting the spiritual, physical, and emotional needs of others. Amen.