Teaching Kids to Serve

For many of us, raising our children to be the kind of people who seek to serve others is high up on our priority list.

We want our kids to think of the needs of other people and to be the kind of people who bring positive change wherever they go.

So how do we help our kids learn to serve? Here’s three ideas to get started today.

1. Share Stories to Inspire Kids to Serve

The Bible, of course, is full of examples of lives of service. The more we share these stories with our kids, the more they will absorb this pattern and way of living.

Try delving into the stories of Jesus and the way in which he served others (for example John 13:1-9) or the way life happened in the early church as people looked out for each other in the community (see Acts 4:32-37) .

Why not consider sharing a simple story before you have dinner each evening or as the last story before bed? Get creative with your storytelling. Are there any figures or props you could use to bring the story to life?

And don’t forget to ask your children what they thought about the story. Simple question like “what did you like best?” or “what seemed important to you in that story?” can bring out what children are learning about service as you explore these stories together. And, of course, it’s also great fun!

2. Model How to Serve

As scary a thought as this can sometimes be, children learn most of what they know from watching us. We can talk about service all we like, but what will always have the most impact for our kids is seeing us serve.

How, for example, do we approach church? Is it a place that we go as a family to be served or do we turn up with the intention of serving others? Are we part of keeping our community running? Do we volunteer when things need to get done?

Another impactful action is to serve with your kids. Why not bring them along to help out with you at community events or to do a beach clean-up or other acts of service for the local environment?

Seeing you serve, and doing it joyfully, will be extremely powerful in helping your kids to learn that, like it says in Matthew 20:28, it really is better to serve than be served.

3. Create Family Traditions Around Serving

In the busyness of family life, it can be hard to keep a focus on serving and sometimes it slips from our radar. So how about setting regular times in your year when you switch your family’s focus towards serving others?

Times that are traditionally about receiving (Christmas, I’m looking at you!) can be a great time to refocus our kid’s attention on helping other people. Could your kids take on random acts of kindness in the days leading up to Christmas? Or perhaps you could all choose a charity together to give to alongside your usual Christmas spending?

You don’t have to wait for Christmas to roll around each year to do this though. Why not make the first Sunday of the month a ‘Service Sunday’ where you think of something positive to do to serve someone else?

I hope these ideas have given you some inspiration for teaching your kids to serve. Ultimately, serving is a way of life. It is something that kids absorb when it is part of the family culture.

Some simple tweaks can make all the difference in raising kids that look to the needs of others and who know the true joy of serving.