24 Ways to Live Like Jesus

The Foundation for Jesus-Like Character

     I shuffled past all of my friends down the row of chairs. The room was dark, and it was hard to navigate through the maze of feet and chairs. I could feel every person I walked past looking at me, but I had to do this. There was no way out. As I reached the end of the row and stepped out into the aisle, there was my dad. He put his hand on my shoulder, and I told him.

     My dad doubled as my youth pastor when I was in high school. Our youth group had loaded up our church's 15 passenger van and made the 3-hour trek down to St. Loius for a conference. As we sat in the arena and listened to the speaker, I was convicted. I began to realize that the faith that I proclaimed was at odds with the way I lived. I believed in Jesus, but I didn't act like it. It was at this moment in front of all my friends that I knew I needed to tell someone. My dad was the listening ear as I made a commitment to live like Jesus. Now, I just had to figure out what that meant. 

     Faith in Jesus is the foundation for building Jesus-like character in our lives. Without his grace, we cannot live like him. Changing our behavior does not earn his love. Instead, we respond to his great love by becoming more like him through our actions, our motives, our thoughts, and our affections.

Elements of Jesus-Like Character

     At Camp, we want everyone to grow in their faith and share it with others. We developed a helpful tool to easily explain biblical character qualities to our campers. We call it the "Elements of Jesus-Like Character" chart. We've used these 24 character qualities in our summer camp program to teach children what it means to live like Jesus. The chart is designed like the periodic table, because we see that these character qualities are the building blocks of godly character. Each box contains:

• The name of a Character Quality
• An opposing quality to help further understanding
• A short, simple, and memorable definition
• A Scripture reference to see where this character quality is found in the Bible

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     We've seen first hand how kids respond to these character qualities, and how well the definitions stick with them. We're committed to helping you disciple your kids at home, so we want to give you a free, high-resolution download of this poster! Print it out, make it your desktop background, or make it into a wall-hanger in your kids' room.

We pray that God will use this simple chart to help you make disciples at home.

P.S. We'd love to hear how you use this chart at home. Let us know what you do to help you kids live like Jesus by sending us an email at office@cocusa.org.

Pointing Your Family to Jesus in Traditions & Unplanned Moments

     It's Saturday morning. A beam of sunlight sneaks through a crack between the curtains, and my family is up. We head out the door, snug in our hooded sweatshirts and jeans as the crisp fall air hits our lungs. When we arrive, we stand in line for almost an hour. People catch up with old friends as they wait. Everyone is in a good mood, especially considering how early it is. My wife, my son, and I finally reach the front of the line and are rewarded with our prize - a styrofoam plate piled high with sausage links and pumpkin pancakes.

     Year after year, the Morton Pumpkin Festival pancake breakfast is an event we don't miss. This is a tradition years in the making. More than getting a plate full of good food, we go for the memories and connections we make over pancakes. We all have traditions in our families that bring us together. But how can we make the most of those moments to point our families to Jesus?

Traditions

     Your family already has more traditions than you probably realize. Think about how you celebrate holidays. Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter, 4th of July, Memorial Day - you probably do something special to celebrate these days. What about the different seasons? What family activities do you enjoy during the fall? Summer? Winter? Spring? How does your family commemorate birthdays, graduations, anniversaries, marriages, or other milestones?

     You don't need to completely overhaul your family plans to point to Jesus in the midst of them. Setting aside a moment to pray as a family during your gathering is a natural way to remember God's faithfulness and blessings. For holidays like Christmas and Easter, break out the Bible after your meal and read the Gospel stories. Have a few family members share a memory of a time when the birthday girl reminded them of Jesus. Whatever the event, you can find some new ways to prioritize your family's commitment to become more like Christ.

Unplanned Moments

     Ok, so maybe you have some new ideas to point your family to Jesus in your traditions. But what about all the other days of the year? How can you continue to lead your family in discipleship when it isn't Christmas, Easter, or your kid's birthday?

     There is no app, shortcut, or cheat-sheet to make sure you take advantage of every teachable moment as they come up. Pointing your family to Jesus when those sponteous moments present themselves takes awareness and self-discipline. Commit yourself to look and act - look for ways to turn a mundane situation into a worship experience; act on those impulses and speak up. It may be helpful to set a small goal for yourself. "When I notice a moment to point my daughter to Jesus, I won't shrug it off. I will talk to her about it at least once today!" The more it's on your mind, the more you will notice the Holy Spirit at work around you. God gives you so many chances each day to praise him, all you have to do is pick one!

     As I ate pumpkin pancakes with my family, we thanked God in prayer. We talked about all the joyful people that came together over pancakes, and how the feast we'll have with our Father in heaven will be even more incredible than our delicious fall breakfast. You can leverage the traditions you already have with your family to point them to Jesus - you just have to look for opportunities and act on them!

Discipline and Celebration: Discipleship at Home

     There's tension in my house. I try to navigate it every day with my kids, but it's tough to balance. I want my kids to grow to know, love, and live like Jesus, but I sometimes that seems like an unattainable goal. In parenting them to live like Christ, I've found two contrasting areas that are an especially difficult challenge: Discipline & Celebration.

Discipline

     Discipline is a skill that every parent learns along the way - no one comes by it naturally. All kids need to be corrected, and it's amazing to me how young kids are when they start to exhibit acts of defiance and selfishness. Without correction (and sometimes even with it!), that defiance can grow into full-blown tantrums and fits. As parents, we're tempted to choose 1 of 2 extreme responses. We can swing to one side by hesitating to correct our children at all. We let them run the show and just try to make ‘suggestions’ to their behavior. We can swing the other way and become an ultra-authoritarian ("You do what I say or else!”). This can border on tyrannical if done without compassion or restraint. Neither of these extremes is a good option because neither one points kids to Jesus.

Here are some things to keep in mind as you point kids to Jesus in correction:

Check your motives.

     Are you wanting to "drop the hammer” because you're angry? Are you avoiding disciplining your child because it’s too hard? We need to make sure our motivation is to help our kids become more like Jesus. If we do, we’ll avoid both correcting in anger and not correcting at all.

Connect your discipline to God's Word.

     Children need to know the reason behind discipline. Never correct your kids without teaching them how to behave in light of God's Word. Help them to see not just what they did wrong, but what they can do right next time. Share a verse or passage of scripture that teaches them how God wants them to behave.

Right the wrong.

     Give your children the opportunity to apologize and make amends. For young kids, you might need to walk them through what to say and what to do. For older children, remind them they should make things right and give them a chance to act. This is also a great moment to teach the other person how to show forgiveness and unconditional love.

Include consequences. 

     If there aren't consequences involved in discipline, it isn’t much more than a conversation. Far from being cruel, providing an age appropriate consequence teaches kids that their negative actions can bring negative results. Hebrews 12:11 says, “No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening - it’s painful! But afterward, there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way."

Celebration

     The other side of the coin is celebrating your kids' good behavior. Surprisingly, this is also a difficult time to point kids to Jesus. If your kid does something awesome - like great work on a school assignment or helping a sibling without being asked - it's far too easy to simply say “Good job! I’m really proud of you.” What’s wrong with complimenting your child? Nothing in and of itself. But if you never go any further and point to Jesus in your compliments, it opens the door to selfishness, pride, and behavior that's motivated by people-pleasing and not serving God.

     Changing our compliments to things like: “That was awesome, I love it when you live out your faith in Jesus by…” or “Great job winning that race, God has certainly gifted you.” Small tweaks to our compliments keep everyone's focus in the right place.

     In discipline, in celebration, and in every situation, we must remember to point to Jesus in our words, actions, and attitudes.

Fostering a Heart for God's Word - Discipleship at Home

     In September, my wife Emily and I will welcome our third child into the world. Third. As in three human beings for whom we are responsible. Sometimes I feel inadequate to guide these three little blessings throughout their life. When I really stop to think about it, it’s easy for me to feel overwhelmed by everything I want them to become. I want them to love others, pursue their passions and gifting, and stay far away from the Green Bay Packers. Mostly, I hope Emily and I can disciple them and model Christ for them in a way that helps them find an authentic love for and faith in Jesus.

“Listen, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength. And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today. Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up.” - Deuteronomy 6:4-7

Parents First

     These verses give us a template for how to disciple our kids. God uses His Word to help us understand His nature— who He is and how we can have a relationship with Him. Spending time in the Bible is crucial in order to know God. We as parents must love the Lord our God wholeheartedly and seek to know Him better through studying and applying the Bible on a daily basis. If we want our kids to find a heart for God’s Word, we must model that in our own lives.

     This can be difficult depending on how old our kids are and what stage of life we’re in, but even allowing our children to watch us spend time in the Word helps them see the value and importance of it in our lives. Parents are the primary model of God’s Word to our kids. Although God has given parents many resources and relationships to help disciple our kids, this is not a responsibility we can shift to youth leaders, pastors, or other family members.

Help Develop the Habit

     Discipleship at home starts with our own relationship with Jesus, but the next aspect is just as crucial. If we want to foster a heart for God and His Word, we have to encourage our kids to read the Bible and interact with it regularly. Moses says to repeat God’s commands to your children and talk about them at home, on the road, when you go to bed, and when you rise. He uses these words to suggest that we should be discussing God’s commands with our kids constantly and consistently, no matter where we are. Here are some suggestions for helping your kids interact with God’s Word:

• Find an age-appropriate Bible for your kids like The Jesus Storybook Bible for younger kids or The Kids Slimline NLT Bible for elementary-age children. We use the Jesus Storybook Bible with my kids. They love to look at the pictures while we read to them, and they are learning that every story points to Jesus.
• Find a Routine. Consistency is crucial in order to form a habit. Find a time that works for your family and commit to it. We read in the Bible every night before bed and every morning during breakfast. Although my kids are only 1 and 3, they both value these times, frequently reminding me when it’s time to read. Remember that it is just as important for you as a parent to form your own personal Bible reading habits as well.
• Apply what you’ve studied. At Camp we like to ask these questions in order to put our Bible study into action:

1. What does this teach us about God?
2. What does this teach us about people?
3. What lessons can we learn and apply today?
4. Who will you share this with? When?

     This might look different for your family depending on how old your kids are, but we need to take the time to discuss what we are learning and how we are applying it in order to grow. Ask these questions around the dinner table and be sure to follow up with what your kids share throughout the week. Be ready to share your own answers with your kids!

Don’t Be Discouraged

     If you’re like me, this responsibility can feel like such a blessing and a bit of a burden at the same time. Remember, spending time studying and applying the Bible is an issue of the heart, not an obligation. As our hearts grow closer to Jesus, we are able to model our faith for our kids.

How have you helped your kids study the Bible? What challenges have you faced? What tips or resources do you have to share?

Serving With Your Family - Discipleship at Home

    Have you ever found yourself in a season where circumstances or daily routine tasks have gotten in the way of your ability to help others? Is it difficult to show your family what it looks like to love like Jesus - to feed, clothe, house, give, and listen? We found ourselves in that same spot just over a year ago, and decided to stop making excuses, and to start serving intentionally.

    One of my spiritual gifts is serving. I discovered early on in my teenage years that helping others gave me great joy. God developed this gift through many different experiences (including working at COCUSA!). As I got older, it became increasingly difficult to set aside time to serve. I had so many “excuses” not to host people in my home… until my husband and I helped plant a church. It was one of the most challenging and growing experiences that Isaac and I have been through together. Through serving in our church, our marriage has gotten stronger, and we have been able to positively impact people in our community together in the name of Jesus.

 The Bible says…

“Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.” (Romans 12:9-13)

This all seems pretty straightforward, right? Love God, love people, hate evil, and serve others. Easier said than done, especially when you’re juggling a job, parenthood, relationships, house maintenance, paying bills, the list goes on. But God makes it very clear in his word that if we want to love and serve him, we need to love and serve people. This is an essential principle of Christianity, and the example Jesus set throughout his entire earthly ministry. 

“A new command I give you: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:34-35)

    My husband and I want to set a standard of generosity (with our time, finances, possessions and love) for our future children and let it be a foundation for our marriage. Here are some practical ways to get involved that have helped my family as we try to serve alongside each other. 

Get connected within your local church.

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  Almost every well-established church in your area will have a ministry where you can volunteer, make donations, prepare meals, or help fulfill other needs within the church body.

Serve organizations in your community.

• Research food pantries, homeless shelters, pregnancy centers, and other non-profit service-based organizations in your community. Go grocery shopping with your kids for the food pantry, collectively help someone with yard work, or take the family to a nursing home for the afternoon to brighten someone’s day. Help is always needed, and there are a lot of family friendly ways to serve men, women and children in need!

Be Available.

• Simply take time to be intentional with the people in your life. Opening up your home, offering to buy someone’s coffee, or making yourself available to others is the first and foremost way to set an example for your kids and show them how to love and serve others throughout daily life.

How does your family serve together? Give us more ideas by sharing a comment!

Teaching and Modeling Prayer - Discipleship at Home

Once Jesus was in a certain place praying. As he finished, one of his disciples came to him and said, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.”

Luke 11:1 (NLT)

     Jesus gave us the perfect model for living a prayerful life. Even so, the people who spent the most time with him still needed help developing their own habit of prayer. My wife and I are also still growing in our habit of prayer. While we wouldn't consider ourselves prayer-experts by any means, we've made a choice to make prayer a priority in our home. We believe it's much better to model prayer for our kids than it is to teach them "about prayer," because ultimately the goal is that our children will be comfortable praying to God, not just able to say prayers. I hope that this post helps you to teach and model a vibrant prayer life to your kids.

Create a Routine for Prayer

     As my wife and I lead our kids in modeling prayer, here are some routines that we use to work prayer into our family life.

• Meals: This is an obvious time to pray. Maybe even too obvious. The danger is that we might say a rote, thoughtless prayer instead of authentic, real prayer to the Lord who gave us all of the grub on our plates. My family adds specific things to pray for at each meal. At breakfast we have a list of medical needs that we pray for. At dinner we pray for a missionary family or group somewhere across the globe. The specifics you choose aren't as important as looking for something to get us past the “Good bread, good meat, good Lord, let’s eat!” style of prayer.
• Bedtime: At bedtime we ask our kids to tell us about their favorite part of the day. We also ask if they have anything that they are worried or scared about. These are great conversation starters, but also natural connections to turn to prayer. We often ask our kids if they want to pray (sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t). We also make sure they understand that prayers don’t need to be fancy or long (just read Matthew 6:7-8). Sometimes, a one-sentence prayer from the heart is a huge win for my kids.
• Leaving: When someone leaves the house for the day (which is usually me going to work), we pause and pray for the day. We pray that we can all grow more like Jesus throughout the day. We’ll also pray for safety or protection depending on what’s going on. Bill Allison of Cadre Ministries has a Disciple-maker’s prayer that's a great “on your way” prayer to start your day.

 

When your routine fails, pray anyway

     The reality of life, however, is that it isn’t always routine. Sometimes life smacks you over the head, and you have to do your best to stay afloat until it returns to normal. Modeling honest prayer during these stressful times is even more important than the routine times for prayer. Last fall my family went through a pretty stressful time surrounding a vehicle purchase. For two entire weeks, every prayer we said centered around God watching over our vehicle situation, restoring what was ours, and protecting us. Our kids learned that if a situation is causing you stress, you can bring it to God and ask for his help and peace. Your kids will notice if you turn to God when things are hard (and they'll also notice if you don't).

     "Any-moment" prayers are useful when your kids are stressed or upset. We might gloss over an upset child by labeling their issue as "just a kid-problem." We might tell them to "get over it" when a sibling is mean to them or they scrape their knee. But in these tough moments, we should show them how to pray for God’s help. We can pause and pray with our kids right then, whether we think they are being whiny or not (and trust me, I’m still working on this one).

     Prayer is both awesome and scandalous: We can approach the God of the universe with seemingly trivial requests or concerns. The best way to teach our kids to do that is to model it ourselves. 

“And so I tell you, keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.”  Luke 11:9-11 (NLT)

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Peter Lindell is the Executive Director at Camp of Champions USA. You can read his bio on our Full-Time Staff page.