Creative Strategies for Teaching Values to Your Child

As a Christian parent, you want your child to hold to godly values… but how exactly does that happen? It’s great to model values in your life, but sometimes your family will also need some tools to make values more tangible. Values should be an incredible life-giving foundation that helps your family walk in God’s design so you don’t want to miss those opportunities.

This little guide will walk you through strategies based on the ages of your family so that you can dive into how to teach values to your child. They’re ideas to help inspire you, so read through this list and jot down the other ideas it might prompt you to consider!

TEACHING VALUES TO YOUR CHILD: YOUNG KIDS IDEAS (4-11)

These early years are formative in the life of your children, but the good news is that repetition is often the key to success. You don’t need to add more to your plate. You just need some simple, repeatable, and memorable habits that reinforce values as part of your children’s routines. That’s the power of values and traditions!

• The Contribution Checklist: If you use a chore chart with your kids, add values onto the checklist with ideas of how they could practice those. (ie. Sharing toys is tied to generosity) This can help them begin to see how values contribute to the home and make it what you want it to be.
• Love the Invisible Challenge: Ask your children to think about someone who they think might feel lonely or forgotten and choose a way you will show love to them.
• The Beginnings & Endings Habit: Pick one value to start and end each day with by having a simple phrase you repeat. Make it a habit they can participate in too by reciting it with you. For example, if “joy” was one of your values, start the day with “Good morning! Today is a day for joy!” and end the day with “Goodnight! Jesus is our joy.”

TEACHING VALUES TO YOUR CHILD: TEENS IDEAS (12-17)

In this season of life, your teenagers are learning to find their place in the family and how to take the foundation they’ve been given and apply it to their own lives. Values are a great way to give them tools for their own lives but also as a way to stay connected as a family. You need the common practices that bring you together.

• Faith Roots Research Project: Have your teens pick a person in your family or a person of significant influence in their life to interview and learn their faith story, what shaped their life. Extra credit for recording a video to share the story!
• Hard Conversation Practice Session: Have everyone put ideas into a hat of a hard scenario you might face when it comes to your values. Take turns drawing an idea and discussing or role-playing what the response could be to that situation.
• The Values Month: Assign each of your children a value for the month (get examples here!), and ask them to bring back one action they will practice tied to it each week and one scripture they’ll memorize. Have a challenge over the month to catch and celebrate people practicing the values.

TEACHING VALUES TO YOUR CHILD: YOUNG ADULTS IDEAS (18-25)

If you are just beginning practicing values with children who are young adults, the most important key here is that you invite them into the process. It’s not something you can force. As you look at these ideas to teach values to your children, look at them as strategies that you could use during intentional times as a family (ie. holidays, summer break, Sunday catch-ups, etc.).

• The Family Giving Challenge: Identify a cause tied to your values and plan together how you will give through your finances, time, and talent.
• Hold a Fail-a-bration: Started by author Brad Montague, a “fail-a-bration” is a time to celebrate even the failures in life and the lessons you’ve learned. Use it as a space to share both the funny stories and the vulnerable moments. Talk about what you are learning and growing in.
• The Tradition Launch: Invite your children to participate in coming up with a new family tradition that helps represent who you want to be as a family now. Especially as children are older, this can be an important way to generate conversation and make the family feel invited back in to create something meaningful together in your new season of life.

VALUES FOR YOUR FAMILY ARE THE FOUNDATION FOR GOD’S DESIGN

Now that you have these ideas, treat them as a starting point. Generate more ideas together as a family and get talking about what comes next! One of the core things we teach here is that values should be protective AND attractive. It’s not just about what you won’t do, but they should also create a lot of joy and connection as a family. Values become a fundamental way to stay connected and to practice all God intended for you.

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Want some more help making values practical in your value? Check out our quick Values in Action Kit! It’s an easy PDF download challenge with instructions and easy tools to use that will help you identify and begin practicing values as a family.