Welcome to 2022, and all the hope a new year brings to our lives! As my family visited Times Square in NYC in mid-December, we noticed that the ball was being prepared for it’s traditional drop to signify the start of the new year. These kinds of markers are important for people to celebrate–not just the passing of time, but to help us re-frame and refresh our perspective about our current reality. January is ideal for acting on new goals and establishing new rhythms. What new goals or rhythms has your family launched in 2022?

We wouldn’t be alone in wanting healthy rhythms for learning and growth this year. Yes, we are living through a pandemic, and in our present we are navigating increased worries about physical health as well as consistency in instruction for kids at school and desiring engaging days which reinforce positive mental health outcomes. We should remember, however, that this is just a whiff of time in the greater timeline of life, and we can use the hours given us to develop strong habits immersed in God’s teaching. Jesus taught us through stories, healings, and prayer to trust God in ALL situations and to follow Him.

Modeling healthy habits can be a key factor in seeing them replicated in our kids. If we want our kids to be people of character, we need to exhibit ethical behavior. If we want our kids to long to learn from God, we must be willing to dive into scripture and listen to the Holy Spirit. If we want our kids to generously serve others, we must give time on our calendar for serving opportunities. The hard part is consistency. What my husband and I have found is that it’s much easier to stick to our goals if we’ve already made the decision to follow the new habit, and coupled the new action to a previously established habit which we are keeping. This prevents us from having to make many little decisions every day on how we follow the goal–the heavy lifting is done, and we daily ask Jesus to keep us true to our plan. Plus, there’s tons of grace when we fall short, and we ask God to dust us off and return us to the right path. 

Jesus never intended for us to walk this road of parenting, modeling, goal-setting, and behavior shaping alone. It’s fun to parent together! Plus, we are more effective if we reinforce each other and keep one another accountable. So, although we all have our own race to run, we can all be in the same stadium to cheer for each other, and we all have at least one training buddy to run alongside. Epic parents, let’s get better together, and establish new rhythms in 2022 that not only further our individual family goals, but also our Epic community goals. Sign up for a small group to learn and grow in faith within the community this spring. Join the Epic Kids team so we can get to know each other and our kids better while building a thriving kids program. Pray for Epic families. In short, lean into this community and share your gifts–your family’s life will be enriched as you learn and grow as followers of Jesus.

We hope this monthly blog is encouraging for your family. For more week-to-week information on Epic Kids @ Home family lessons, activities, and prayer prompts, please visit the Kids page on our website and join our Epic Family Facebook Group. We post resources each week to support your family in Bible study. 

Happy New Year!

-Annikki