Fathers shepherding children.

While this blog normally focuses on the church's ministry to children I thought I'd slip in an inspiring and practical article about fathers caring for the spiritual development of their children. It has a couple of suggestions about how to do this. It also focuses our attention on the power of personal ministry to children and for me, sparks ideas about how we can mentor children one on one.

Here's a snippet. You can find the rest at: http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/tgc/2010/07/21/how-can-i-make-sure-i-am-individually-shepherding-my-children/

How can I make sure I am individually shepherding my children? – by Brian Croft

This faithful father shepherded his seven children by taking one morning a week to meet individually with each of his children. Seven days in a week–each of the seven children got one morning each week with their dad. They prayed, read scripture, talked, and read a book of that child’s choosing. Inspired by his amazing example, I came home and established a similar model in our home that I remain faithful to this day. Here is what I do to individually shepherd my four children regularly in addition to our regular time of family worship, as well as implications attached to it:
1) Monday through Thursday each child gets a day and on his or her appointed day stays up 30 – 45 minutes later than their siblings to meet with me before bedtime. I thought they would be excited about it for a few times, but then grow bored with it. Not so. Years later, they look forward to that time more than anything, which provides a natural accountability when you are tired from the day and are tempted to skip for that evening.

Have you heard or used any other practices? Let me know what you've discovered or used.