Matthew 18:10 “See that you do not look down on one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven.”

Being a mother is the most important job you will ever have. You need to raise your children to be loving and happy, kind and respectful, strong and brave and most importantly you need to foster their relationship with Christ.

You can do this even if you are not a mother. Children mirror the attitudes and behaviors they see around them every day.  If you talk negatively about other people, they will learn to talk negatively about other people. If you blow up at them for every mistake they make, they will learn to blow up at their friends for making a mistake. If you think everyone is “out to get you” that attitude will pass down to the children around you.

But if you do unexpected acts of kindness for other people, children will pick up on that too.  If you model happiness even when things are difficult or show appreciation and respect to teachers and police officers, children will learn to react the same way. If you make a point of telling them they are making you proud when they do something good, then you are filling them up with confidence and they learn to encourage others around them.

Fostering a relationship with Jesus works the same way.  It starts with things like commenting on what a beautiful flower or sunset God made for us.  You can buy a devotional book that is age appropriate and sit down together at night or after dinner and read it together.  You can watch shows together, like The Chosen, that teach you about Jesus in a way that is interesting to kids.  You can pray at meals or when there is something bothering them.  Just this week one of my sons was struggling with online school and friends.  After we talked about what was going on, I asked him to sit down so I could pray for him.  This is modeling what you should do when you have problems, go to God in prayer.  There are great Christian messages on YouTube too that are current and relatable to youth.  Spend some time listening to them and then share the link of the ones you want them to listen to via text. 

Jesus loved the little children and talked about them often as an example of what our faith should be like. Jesus also warns us in Matthew 18 that we should not cause the littles ones or young believers to sin by tempting them or by neglecting or demeaning them. We should help young people to avoid anything that could cause them to stumble in their faith and we should steer them toward Christ by our example, our words and our acts of kindness.

Dear Jesus, please bless all the mothers today and all women that have influence over our children. Fill them with your Holy Spirit so that they can be examples of Jesus’s kindness and love.  Amen.