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Raising a Testimony: How Taking Your Young Children in Public Can Glorify Christ 

“…let the sound of his praise be heard…” (Ps. 66:9) 

Have you ever noticed that young families with children often step back from church or social events? It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the chaos of small children. But what if, instead of avoiding these moments, we used them as an opportunity to share Christ’s love through our family’s behavior? 

Over the last several years, I’ve noticed that many young families with young children don’t go much. Leslie and I have found that it’s common for young couples to stop attending church activities such as worship, small groups, and Bible Studies when they have young children, especially when there’s nothing provided for young children. Many times, they won’t even accept invitations for dinner at friend’s houses.  

They just disappear, stay home, and coup up! Many feel this is normal and the way things are meant to be.  

Just recently, a young father told me that they’re waiting for their young boys to be better behaved before they venture out. The dad who told me this is a good man. Their boys are energetic, but I would not describe them as uncontrollable at all. However, I think there is a level of embarrassment here for him and his wife that should not be.  

Matter of fact, I’m going to proclaim in the strongest way I know how that going out with your children can be the greatest testimony you can have as a young parent to Christ.  

It wasn’t too long ago—at least, it doesn’t feel like very long ago—that we’d go out with our young children to restaurants and stores. Our public outings weren’t without challenges, and there was always a little bit of tension that would come with this as Leslie and I started to prepare for situations that would arise.  

Double Stroller, check 

Who gets who?  

Watch for traffic! 

Stay close!  

Okay kids, remember how to behave!  

You wouldn’t know it now, but at one time we had 3 children under 4 years of age. When Lila came along, we had 4 children 7 and under. Like many of you who have large families, we attracted a lot of attention when we went out.  

When we went shopping, Leslie would usually look around for what we needed while I watched the kids, talking and playing with them in the store. Going out into public together was something we worked on in private. We had a theory… 

Whatever the kids do in the privacy of our home will be escalated and scaled in public! 

Our theory was that small tantrums allowed at home would be large tantrums in public. Little disobedience at home would be bold disobedience in public.  

Therefore, we were much more active and quicker to punish a smaller infraction in the home, especially if we knew that something like that would not be tolerated in public. Here are a few examples:  

  • Hitting or mistreating siblings (aka, stealing toys) 
  • Tantrums were not tolerated in the home and doubly so in public. 
  • Disobedience for direct instructions or commands. (If we gave an instruction, we expected them to do it, and we taught them to obey “quickly, sweetly, and completely” as we discussed in this podcast.

We also didn’t threaten our children with delayed punishment as a matter of practice. Our goal was to be able to correct and teach our children while we were out and not need to threaten punishment. Let’s face it! There is only so much you can do in public in correcting your children.  

Therefore, the order of magnitude in correcting the children looked something like this:  

  • Direct instruction not to do something. 
  • Sometimes if we felt there wasn’t understanding, they would receive a more serious and forceful instruction not to do something 
  • If there ever was a threat of punishment given because of continued behavior or disobedience, it was never an empty threat. Even if it was inconvenient for us, we would leave if a child wasn’t behaving.  

Remember, we were much quicker to correct smaller infractions in the home to keep things from escalating to an uncontrollable level outside of the home. Consistency was key, and we rarely had issues when we were out together. 

We found that a focus on the oldest children would trickle down. The oldest child was usually the leader among the siblings and would impact the others. If he was well-behaved or at least listened well, the others were easier generally better behaved as well.  

It’s also important to remember that it’s easier for children who are well-rested to be well-behaved. As parents, it’s important for you to make sure your children are adequately rested to avoid unnecessary issues that come as a response to being exhausted and overwhelmed.  

Finally, we always endeavored to leave a place better or at least as good as when we got there. This isn’t easy with four young children, but we would clean tables when we got up to leave. We would put back all the knick-knacks our children pulled off the shelves. We would put clothes back on racks. And we would ask the children to participate in this.  

Were they perfect? No.  

But very often the employee in the store or at the check-out would complement us as a family. People at the store would tell us, “You have a beautiful family,” or “Your kids are so well-behaved!”  

This happened a lot. People noticed. It’s nearly impossible to not be noticed with four young children walking into a place of business. Your children are either going to bring joy to the people that are there because your children will come across as cute and happy, or they are going to be like a storm ravaging a landscape. Usually, there is no in-between.  

If your children are a joy, they’ll come across as unique.  

More than once a clerk in a store walked up to us and start a conversation with a question about which church we went to. There was often an expectation that we were Christian.  

Leslie and I tried to capitalize on this when we got back into the car with the kids. We would turn around and tell the children how their good behavior reflected well on our Savior Jesus Christ, and we’d thank them. We talked a lot about testimony.  

And this is the point that I want to make in this week’s email. By not going out as a family, you’re avoiding one of the best ways your family can testify to the goodness of Jesus Christ.  

Don’t drop out of church. Don’t avoid situations that don’t have nurseries to entertain your children. Accept invitations to other people’s homes, even if the other family has no children.  

It’s worth your time to parent toward situations like this.  

And finally, when your young children are well-behaved in full view of the public, it glorifies God. Make sure to let them know that! It’s part of how they can be used of God even at a young age. 

PS—We love seeing children at Teach Them Diligently conferences, and after almost every event we’ve produced at a convention center, we’ve been told by management how worried they were about having all those children around, but how amazing it was to see the way they behaved. God is using your kiddos to glorify Him when we’re all together at events as well! We sure hope to see you there again this year. Get your tickets now and make your plans to join us next Spring. At Teach Them Diligently, you’ll not only be encouraged in your homeschooling journey but also equipped with practical tools to parent with excellence both at home and in public. Let’s make sure our children continue to glorify God in every situation! 

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