Be an example in purity

Be an example in purity 1Tim 4:12

What does purity mean? Purity means free from contamination.

As believers, we understand that we are Spirit living in a body. The bible tells us that our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit 1Cor 6:19. So, we can’t talk about holiness without paying attention to the body and mind. In this post, we will look at how we can be pure in our body, spirit and soul.

The body:

As a family, we can be an example of how the body should be honoured as God’s temple through modest dressing, hairdo/haircut etc. Personal hygiene must not be neglected too.

Activity one: Ask each family member to describe what modest dressing looks like and what ungodly dressing looks like. Make it clear to your children why we can’t conform to worldly fashion even though we live in the world Jn 17:16.

The soul or mind: This is where we make our choices. There are measures we must put in place to ensure that our soul is free of contaminants. As individuals/family, what do we feed our minds with through the media or physical interactions?

Activity two:

Soul food:

Get a blank sheet-A4 or A3 paper. Ask each family member to write down contents they feed on daily without fail. Please help your younger ones to write down their contributions. An adult will then identify identical contents e.g music, You Tube shots.

You can drill down by asking people to be more specific e.g name of artist or music title; You Tube shots they enjoy the most e.g comedy, tricks.

At the end, guide your children on how they can determine what they should engage with and how much time they can allot to different contents.

To benefit maximally from this activity, don’t be judgemental. Allow the children to contribute freely. If you pick on any ungodly content, an adult or even another child can flag it, and as a family you may discuss why it’s not a good content. However, you will need a separate time to have a meaningful conversation with the child involved about this wrong choice of content.

The Spirit:

This is where every action is controlled. Allow some time for careful thinking before answering these questions:

Who is Lord over your Spirit?

What do you feed on spiritually to ensure maturity in the Spirit?

Explain to your children the way to ascertain who rules over their spirit.

For example, people tend to give quality time to what they enjoy doing and find it hard to switch to other activities when it is time to do so. Help your child to understand that if evening devotion is 7pm and the preceding activity was playing an online game; no matter how much the child loves online games, if the love for God is more than the love for games, it won’t be difficult to switch off the game and get ready for devotion time.

Activity three:

‘Do you love me more than these’ Jn 1:15. Explain this verse and ask each family member to list what ‘these’ represents to them, that is, things you love doing so much that you would struggle to say ‘no’ whenever there’s an opportunity to do such activities e.g shopping, crocheting, drawing, drumming, playing games.

Round off this activity by explaining to your children that friendship with God does not mean less fun, missing out on their favourite activities, rather it is about loving God more than all other things. It is about God been the most important in their daily life and trusting God to help them enjoy all other activities in a way that glorifies Him.

Family circle: Pray for the help of God to love Him more than anything else, and to live in holiness body, spirit and soul.