The Obedience Game – Character Development Series – Shhh! It’s not really a game. Don’t tell your kids. It’s a teaching opportunity. Slap a few stickers on the name “game,” and you are good to go. If you are working on teaching obedience to kids, you have come to the right place. Is the concept of obedience is out dated? I don’t think so. I would encourage you to consider the points laid out here.
Obedience
“Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.” – Luke 11:28
Teaching Obedience to Kids
If you present an idea with enthusiasm, personal engagement and call it a game, kids are generally in for the fun. It’s called “buy in,” and it is fun to establish as part of the family experience.
The obedience game is a simple idea that translates into real life obedience. Who isn’t a parent who desires a little more of that from our kids?
What is important about obedience? If they never learn to obey you, they are going to find it really hard to obey God. You want to create your family to be an earthly reflection of our relationship with God. God has his “rules” that He wants you to learn to obey because he wants the best outcome for our lives. He doesn’t love you more or less based on your obedience, but life can go a lot smoother as your trust and obey Him through the both the times of fun and excitement as well as the times of suffering and pain. If you think about the pain imposed on humanity in this life, most of it comes directly from someone stepping outside of a desire to obey God. By teaching our kids to obey us, we would hope it would translate into their own relationships with God as well as their relationship with others.
The Obedience Game – Character Development Series
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Materials Needed to play the Obedience Game
I just made this game up, and it is really simple. The rules? You get a sticker if you obey right away, completely, correctly and with a happy heart. We started earning letter stickers to spell the word “obedience.” Then, it was a race to see if the kids could earn 10 additional stickers. I would then give them fun things to do – well, mostly fun things. I slipped in a few helpful things as well.
Here are some of the examples I asked of them:
- Run to the front door and then come back and give me a high five.
- Jump up and down 5 times.
- Run around the house.
- Go find a ball and throw it to me.
- Give your brother a hug.
- Sit on the piano bench.
- Crawl and touch the toy car and come back.
- Put your two dolls on the stairs away in your room.
- Go to your room, fold one item of clothing, and put it away.
- Go find a pair of sunglasses and put them on.
After we played a while with those rules (going one at a time), we made it into a competition. I asked them to do similar things, but they had to race to see who could obey first. After the game was over, I made sure to tie it into real life reminding them that in our family we obey right away, all the way, and with a happy heart.
More Obedience Lessons in our Character Development Series
My Favorite Books for Teaching Character to Kids
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NOTE: I’m not convinced these books are going to be around forever. I believe, unfortunately, that they are out of print. I have snatched up all of them I can. If you are interested, I wouldn’t wait.
Buzzle Billy: A Book About Sharing (Building Christian Character)
Handy-Dandy Helpful Hal: A Book About Helpfulness (Building Christian Character)
Casey the Greedy Young Cowboy: A Book About Being Thankful (Building Christian Character)
Sammy’s Gadget Galaxy: A Book About Patience (Building Christian Character)
Sir Maggie the Mighty: A Book About Obedience (Building Christian Character)
Miggy and Tiggy: A Book About Overcoming Jealousy (Building Christian Character)
Max and the Big Fat Lie: A Book About Telling the Truth (Building Christian Character)
Boggin Blizzy and Sleeter the Cheater: A Book About Fairness (Building Christian Character)
Sylvester the Jester: A Book About Accepting Others (Building Christian Character)
Suzy Swoof: A Book About Kindness (Building Christian Character)
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I love this game idea. It’s kind of like Simon says, but who’s Simon? Lol. Tying it into real life… Obeying right away… is great training! Thanks Meaningful Mama for sharing.
Another great idea! Thanks!
This is great! Really I just love all your posts! Thanks for linking to Mom’s Library!
I only just found your site. I’m loving what I’m reading already and am excited to apply them in my family. It seems that the link for “happy heart” is broken. I would love to see what you have to say about that. Just a heads up. And thank you!
I’m so glad you found me. Welcome and thank you so much for letting me know. I think I’ve fixed the link now, but here it is for your convenience. Blessings!