A few weeks ago I mentioned an idea
that uses a bean counter to reward your kids for a variety of
behaviors. You can read about it HERE.
When your bean counter is full, you are to reward - a personal reward
and a service reward. I came across a terrific article in by Mary Jo Tate
that outlines several ways you can serve single-parent families.
I'd like to share a few of those that you can do as a family.
- Pray
- Pray for families that only have one parent at home. This is
something that even very, small children can do. When you pray
for these families regularly, you will be reminded of ways you can
serve them in a physical way.
- Money - Have a garage sale and
donate the proceeds to a single-parent family. Unfortunately life
insurance or child support often fall short of meeting basic
needs. You may send want to use your church deacon's fund to make
an anonymous gift to the family. Or, buy a gift card from a local
store and send it in the mail.
- Clean & Give - Clean out your kids' closets and donate toys, clothes or other items to these families
- Time
- Offer free babysitting so a single parent can run to the store by
her/himself. Offer to clean their home. If your own kids
have learned to clean, then you can go over as a family and help them
out. Of course, you don't want your own kids to spend more time
playing than cleaning.
- Hospitality - Have a family
over for a meal. What a blessing it would be for a single-parent
to get a free night without cooking or cleaning.
Any other ideas for ministering to single-parent families? Remember that the Core Phase of Leadership Education
is the place to start building a foundation of character in our
kids. Start when they are young and service will be a habit when
they are older.
FWIW, Mary Jo Tate is a fellow-blogger. Check out her blog at Here
Kerry
Ideas in this post came from "How You Can Help A Single-Parent Family" in Family Reformation, Winter 2004.
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