What if there was one habit you could begin with your 8 to 12year-old right now that could help them prepare for the pressure, opinions, disappointment, conflict, and decisions they're going to face in middle school? Because here's what is changing at the 8 to 12year-old range. Your child's decisions are increasingly becoming their decisions and their consequences are increasingly becoming their consequences. You won't always be standing beside them when somebody makes fun of them. And you won't always be there immediately when a friend turns their back on them. You won't always hear what someone tells them in the locker room or lunchroom, classroom, group chat, or practice field. So the question becomes, who will your child trust when you're not there standing there to tell them what to do? You see, there are thousands of videos online about how to create good habits, the habits of successful people, self-improvement, self-discipline, how to change your life, all of those. But in this video, I am exposing the backstory of one of the most successful leaders in the Bible who came through the middle of opposition because of the one habit connected to what God calls good success. And this man's name is Joshua. And I'm exposing his backstory in this video that can help your 8 to 12 year old s be successful in and through the middle school years. Joshua's story becomes even more powerful when you understand where he came from and how it so relates to your 8 to 12year-old. You see, approximately 600,000 men came out of the Exodus of Egypt. They experienced things you can barely imagine. You see, they saw God delivered them out of slavery. They saw all the plagues and their ability to miss all those plagues. They saw the Red Sea being divided and they walked across on dry ground. Think about the miracles that they saw. They didn't hear somebody else's testimony about the Red Sea. They experienced it. They walked through the dry ground and then they saw the Egyptians. The sea covered over over them. Not somebody's else's testimony about the Red Sea. 600,000 men walk through the Red Sea. Yet from that unbelieving generation, there were only two men, Joshua and Caleb, who were specifically identified as the exceptions who would enter the land God had promised. So if I'm studying the habits of successful people, I want to study somebody who has finished well. And Joshua is somebody who has finished well. It is an incredible the book of Joshua is an incredible study in what it means to believe God and eventually experience what God promised. And this is what your 8 to 12year-old needs. And if you want to study the life of Joshua with your family, I've created the 50-day journey called Joshua Bible Study: Leading Your Family to Victorious Living One Day at a Time. You can get it on Amazon and begin walking through Joshua with your child today. But before I tell you the habit, the one habit that made such a difference in Joshua's life, I want you to understand why your 8 to 12year-old child needs this. Why they need this example, why they need this study before they get into the middle school years. Psalm 78 tells us something remarkable about this 600,000 people called Israel. The problem wasn't that God had not given them evidence. The problem was that when the next problem came, they failed to believe and trust God. Psalm 78:22 actually specifically says, "Because they believed not in God and trusted not in his salvation." I want you to think about that. They could believe God when the Red Sea opened. They could believe God when water came out the rock, but they struggled to believe God when dinner wasn't on the table. They could remember an enormous miracle yesterday and panic over today's problem. And that's middle school, isn't it? And mom, doesn't that happen to us, too? Your child may believe Jesus gives eternal life. You may believe Jesus for your eternal life. You may believe that God created the world. That your child may too. We may believe all the Bible stories that we've taught them. Your child may believe all the Bible stories that you taught them, but then Monday comes and the bully starts harassing them. They make the mistake on the team. Their best friend doesn't want to sit with them. And the list goes on and on and on of the of the reasons why they can't trust God. Everybody around them says something that's not true about them, that contradicts what they've been taught and who they are. When all these problems stack up in their middle school day and in what they are experiencing, suddenly the question really isn't, do you know something about God? The question is, do you trust God? Do you middle schooler trust God? That is why when we talk about the best habits to have in life, we have to ask a bigger question than will this make my child more productive. Will this habit help my child trust God when life gets hard? That's the question that we need to ask. Will this habit help my child trust God when life gets hard? This is one reason I believe ages 8 to 12 are such an important window in for a child because in those years you're moving from simply telling a child what to do to helping them understand why they believe and what they believe and helping them learn that their decisions are becoming their decisions and their consequences are becoming their consequences. They are owning their decision and that preparation matters. It matters when they're 8 to 12 years old. Recent studies of middle schoolers show children encountering bullying, social pressure, exclusion, shifting friendships, stronger peer influence. That doesn't mean your child is doomed to make bad decision. What that does mean is that your preparation from 8 to 12year-old matters for your child's middle school. A lot of self-improvement content ask how do I become better? How do I improve my life? What are the best habits for me to develop? Those may be worthwhile questions, but that's not what's important for your 8 to 12year-old. What's important for your 8 to 12year-old is deeper than that. This is the time to help them practice asking what what happened, what am I feeling? And most importantly, what does God say is true? And do I believe God? Do I trust God right now? What is the next wise step God is asking me to do? Because eventually, Mom, you're not going to be standing right there. you're not going to be there. And for hours, if your kid goes to public school or is away from you, you're not right there. So, what was the habit? What is the habit that you're building? And the one habit that Joshua had, the one habit he had was consistently reading and studying the Bible. It's not another productivity tip, not merely a habit tracker where your child checks off a box and said, "I did my reading plan today." You see, the goal is not simply completing the habit. The goal is what the habit is producing. Listen to what God told Joshua. It's in Joshua 18. This book of the law shall not depart of you out of your mouth, but you will meditate on it day and night. Then your way will be prosperous, and then you will have good success. God connects Joshua's success with continually keeping the word before him, thinking about it, and doing what it says continually, not occasionally. Not only when life falls apart or not only when it's good, but day and night thinking about God's word day and night. Joshua wasn't being prepared merely to know Bible information. Joshua was being prepared to live differently when pressure came. And that is exactly what your 8 to 12year-old needs before the middle school years. There are plenty of lists online about best habits, good habits, bad habits, best habits for students, best habit for healthy family, even the best habits for men or boys or girls. But Joshua shows us that one of the most important habits you can build is the habit of continually returning to what God has said, studying God's word, and doing what God's word says. Now, I mentioned good success earlier. When I talk about good success, I'm not talking about raising a child that just gets everything they want, setting a goal, and says, "Yeah, I'm going to have that." I'm not promising your child will make the team or get straight A's or become wealthy or or never have painful experience, but think about the words good. Good carries the idea of welfare, of benefit, of something pleasant, of helpful, of favorable in its character or tendency. That's the character. And then success. Success is satisfactory completion of something. A person actually reaches the desired result of good of benefit. For Joshua, good success meant experiencing the realization of what God has promised, what God had spoken. Joshua believed God would allow them to enter the promised land and give them the promised land. And Joshua walked with God and Joshua obeyed. And Joshua eventually stood in the promised land. He realized the actualization of God's promise. That's the kind of success I want for our children. Not simply knowing what God said, but realizing the actualization of what God had said, but developing a firsthand awareness of God that God can be trusted. and I obey God and he was with Joshua and he will be with me. Sometimes we fail but God helps us. Everybody else said God couldn't do it. God wouldn't do it but God's word proved trustworthy and God allowed them to enter the promised land. That is experiential faith. And in the New Testament, Jesus Christ was the lamb of God that was slain before the foundation of the world. And it was him who realized through his resurrected life that we can experience the life of God that is in Christ Jesus. And so we as New Testament believers have that one habit of Bible reading to realize the actualization of the resurrected life of Christ Jesus. And that will get us through the middle school years. It is meditational that day and night that will enable us to overcome the peer pressure, the friendship drama, the obstacles of the middle school year. And the best time for your child to begin those habits of faith is when they are 8 to 12 years old. In the 8 to 12 year old age range that they can learn to walk by the spirit and not fulfill what they want to do, but walk under what God wants them to do. So when we're talking about how to become better or how to change your life, scripture gives us something deeper than behavior modification. Scripture teaches us how to walk with God day by day by day. Victorious living one day at the time. There's another reason repetition matters. What your child repeatedly gives attention to helps shape their learning. Their developing brain between ages 8 and 12 changes as children learn, practice, and repeatedly give attention to things. I'm not simply saying that reading one Bible verse automatically rewrs a particular brain circuit. But scripture has long taught us the importance of renewing the mind. Romans 12:2 says that we are transformed. We are changed by the renewing of our mind so that we can discern what God's will is. So think about what you are repeatedly putting before your child. Are you repeatedly helping them see that God is faithful and he keeps his promises? Are you repeatedly putting before your child that God is present and God always tells the truth and he cannot lie? Are you repeatedly putting before your child that God's wisdom is best and God forgives and God gives strength? God's ways can't be trusted. Does your child do you know that? Does your child know that you're helping your child with this one habit build a mental framework for interpreting all of life? And that very goal, that goal is very different than self-improvement. Simply becoming more disciplined, more productive or more impressive. That is biblical self-disipline. Oh, it serves a much greater purpose. We want our children trained to listen to God and believe God, trust God, and follow God. Before there was a social media feed, constantly trying to shape what your child thinks. God gave his feed, his word. His word has been declared since all eternity. Somebody's feed is going to shape your child's in how your child interprets life. Somebody's feed, somebody's word that they've admitted is going to shape your child's life. This one habit will truly change your child's life. There are no shortage of people online telling us what successful people do. some of the advice. It may be helpful, but before an algorithm teaches your child how to be a successful person, let's make sure God's word is teaching them what good success actually is. And let's make sure Instagram isn't disciplining them before scripture does. Let's make sure the loudest kid at school doesn't override God's authority in their life. Let's make sure their friend's opinion does not outweigh God's truth. Because everybody in the middle school has an opinion. And as a wise woman once said, everybody's opinions are like belly buttons. Everybody has one. But somebody else's belly button doesn't get to decide what you do with your life or what your child does with their life. And neither should somebody else's opinion. And that's why the Joshua Bible Study isn't simply about teaching your child the events of Joshua. For 50 days, you're helping your family practice trusting God through conflict, disappointment, pressure, courage, obedience, and decisionmaking. You're taking one of the best habits to develop consistent Bible reading and Bible study and practicing it together as a family. And you're creating opportunities now to talk through these situations before middle school makes the decision real and irreversible. It's that kind of preparation your child will get with the Joshua Bible Study, Leading Your Family Victorious, One Day at the Time. It's on Amazon. 50 Days to Walk Together. Be sure to look it up today. the description. The link is in the description. Imagine mom, imagine your child walking into the middle school with this framework already developed. When a friend rejects them, instead of immediately deciding, well, nobody likes me, they have learned to ask, what does God say is true? They're not derailed when somebody bullies them. Instead of allowing that person's word to become their identity, their identity is found in what God says about them. What's the wise response? And who is with me that can help me when they fail? When they mess up, instead of deciding, I'm a failure, I quit, I give up, they ask, "What can I learn? How can I make this right? How can I repent? And God is still with me. When the middle schoolers crowd says, "Everybody is doing it. Your child has practice saying Joshua didn't go along with the crowd and he won the promised land. Everybody's opinion doesn't determine what I decide. What Joshua learned." That's the success he developed by studying God's word day by day. And when the people had come back from Canaan and they saw the giants and they concluded, "We can't do this. We can't do what God's asking us to do." Two men, Joshua and Caleb, saw the same circumstance. They saw the giants, but they factored God into the equation. And Joshua cultivated belief in God despite the opinions of others. And mom, that can be one of the greatest skills your child carries into middle school. Belief in God and trusting God, no matter the circumstance. This is why I want you to consider doing the 50-day journey as a family experience, not simply another Bible study. 50 days from now, I don't simply want your child to know more facts about Joshua or even more facts about the Bible. I want your family to have spent 50 days talking about fear and how to handle it. Courage and how to have it. con consequences and how to avoid bad consequences. Obedience and how to walk in obedience. Conflict, how to resolve it. God's promises and how to grasp them. Hard decisions and how to make them victory, how to claim it, and failure, how to avoid it, and what it looks like to trust God through it all. You're not waiting for the bully to teach the lesson. And you're not waiting for friendship drama to start the conversation. You're not waiting until your child is surrounded by pressure. You are preparing before the pressure arrives. And the transformation you're looking for isn't simply we finished a book or or we checked off every one of the 50 pages in the Joshua Bible study and we and we finished it. The habit is about going to God's word and knowing what God's word says, thinking about God's word day and night. You could use a habit tracker. We have one in the front of the Joshua Bible study for you. But you can and and actually you could even put the Bible study on your calendar. You could have it stack it with a breakfast or a bedtime or a family routine of some kind. But remember, the goal isn't the check mark. The goal is helping your child build one of the best habits they could have in their life. and that it continually reminds them that God can be trusted, that they can believe God. At the end of Joshua, I want your family to be able to say with greater conviction like Joshua did, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Get the book, The Joshua Bible Study on Amazon and start the 50-day journey today. Prepare your 8 to 12year-old for middle school. And dear, if you're a mom who has a child 8 to 12, preparing for middle school, subscribe because that's what we do here. We help you prepare your child before the pressure pressure of middle school arises. And if this video encouraged you, would you like the video and share it with another mom? Maybe the mom of one of your child's friends. And tell me in the comments, what is one situation you want your child to be spiritually prepared for before middle school? And if you'd like to talk with someone personally about helping your child prepare for these years, there's a link in the description for a free 15minute faith mom conversation. I'd love for you to get that on the calendar. Schedule that so that your child can be prepared for the middle school years. And before we end today, I'd like to pray for you and your family. Father in heaven, we thank you that you are the same God. You are the God of of Joshua. You are the God who said you that you can be trusted, that you can be believed. God, we thank you for the book of Joshua. We thank you for the life of Joshua. We thank you for the one habit of Joshua to study the Bible, to meditate on it, to read it day and night that he may be prosperous and have good success. And God, I pray for every mom of 8 to 12 year olds all over the world. I ask you God that you would help them to teach their child this one habit and for them to develop this one habit in their household so that they may have good success and specifically be prepared for the middle school years. And I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. And we are so glad that you have stayed to the end. I'd love for you to join us as we walk through the Joshua Bible study together. I'll link the playlist right here.
