While many say that wisdom only comes with age, we think it’s possible to help your kids live with wisdom far before they get old and gray. Here are some ideas to help you train them to make wise choices.
1. Be a model.
Do you make decisions rashly or without much thought? Do you rush ahead and consider the consequences later? If so, your children will likely think of this as the way to live. Strive to be mature and thoughtful in your own decision-making for yourself and the family, and explain your thought process to the kids when appropriate. You can teach them a great deal, for example, about being wise with money by talking about the family budget and which spending decisions make sense. You can teach your teen about being wise in relationships by talking through the pros and cons of various choices, and the consequences and risks that come with each.
2. Teach them to STOP and THINK.
Train your children to pause and consider their choices for more than a millisecond. If it’s a choice related to food, ask them to consider whether it’s a healthy food, what they’ve already eaten today, and how long it is until the next meal. If it’s a choice relating to friendships or other relationships, train them to ask if what they’re about to do is kind and fair, and if they’d want another person to do the same to them. Having the self-control to slow down and think about choices is 90% of the battle for wisdom.
3. Give them a standard to live by.
Once your child has learned to stop and think, they need a reliable standard of behavior and choices to check themselves against. For timeless wisdom and words to live by, Biblical Proverbs can’t be beat. Teach your children what it has to say about the kinds of decisions they face every day, and they’ll have a grid through which to make the tough calls. Even if they don’t have the guts to follow through and do the wise thing right now, they’ll know what the standard is and what they should be working toward.
4. Teach them humility.
It’s a completely separate character trait, but humble people are the ones who realize they don’t have all the answers and seek wise counsel when faced with a significant choice. Work to instill humility in your children, and train them to seek wisdom from trusted sources all the days of their lives and to ask God to give them wisdom. After all, it’s a promise they can rely on! (If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. James 1:5)
