If you are a missionary or a pastor, here are a few hints to help keep your family spiritually healthy. I pray that these tips will be a blessing to you.
• Each day display ways to your family how you love the Lord with all your heart.
• Don’t get so busy with the ministry that you fail to help your children develop their own personal relationship with the Lord.
• Be a father who leads his family in spiritual matters so that your children will not feel rejection or turn away from the Lord.
• Be a parent who helps his children work through stressful situations that they might experience on the field.
• Develop meaningful family traditions on the field. (Birthdays, holidays, rewards)
• As a parent, show affection to your children and to your mate.
• Have fun with your family. Some of the most godly families are those families who have fun together.
• Use your children in the ministry. This will show them that you respect and value them, and it will also show them that they are not just tag-along children.
• Give them responsibilities and enlist them in doing wholesome work.
• Give Biblical reasons for the rules you set. Live more by the principles of God’s Word instead of “I said so…rules”. Search His Word together to find verses that are relevant to your rules.
• Pray at different and unusual times and places together.
• Always try to sing together. (car, working, playing)
• Memorize verses together.
• Look for different and creative ways to do family worship. You don’t have to do them every day, but on the days you do them, make them meaningful.
• Teach your children the importance of delayed gratification. Instill in their minds the value of self-denial for the sake of their futures.