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This is the time of year when many of us go crazy setting goals for our health, our job and our finances.  But what about for our families?   Do we spend as much time thinking about our family’s spiritual health as we do thinking about how to lose those extra holiday pounds?

If our 2015 goals don’t include what we’re going to do to help our kids grow in their faith, then we need to rethink our priorities.   No other goal has as much long-term payoff as helping our kids to follow Jesus.

So, where do we start?  Just start by taking a step.  Take a look at the life of Jesus.  He invested most of His time in three sets of relationships.

Up: Jesus had an intimate relationship with His Father God.  Throughout the gospels we see Him sneaking off to be alone with His Dad in heaven.  Jesus said, “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30).  As believers we get to share in this intimacy.

In: Jesus had a relationship with the family of God, the disciples.  In John 13:35 Jesus set the pattern for relationships with other believers when He said, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

Out:  Jesus constantly reached out to those in world who didn’t yet know God.  Think about Zacchaeus and the woman at the well.  In Luke 19:10, when Jesus said that He’d “come to seek and save the lost,” He wasn’t kidding.

As followers of Jesus it’s our job to copy to the life of Jesus by living a balanced spiritual life up, in and out, or as we say at my church, doing life with Jesus, in community, on mission.

As parents, our role is to help our kids imitate the life of Jesus as well.  So look at these three areas for your family.  Is your family living up, in and out?  Which areas are you strong in?  Where do you need to grow?

Just pick one and take a step.

We can’t change everything next year.   But do you know what we can do?  We can change ONE thing.

So what’s your one step?

Is it starting a family devotional time?  It is committing to praying with your spouse for your kids once a week?  It is guarding family dinner time so you have a chance to connect once a day?  Is it finding an opportunity to serve as a family?  Is it inviting other believers into your home so your kids can see what friendships of faith look like?

Whatever it is, just do it.  Just take a step.  Make one degree of change.  Do one thing different and watch what God will do!

P.S.  If you’d like to get started with a family devotional time in the new year, here’s one I wrote you can download for free.

You can get more spiritual parenting tips and family devotionals for your new year by subscribing here.