20 Questions to Open the Heart of Your Child - Part 1

By The Advanced Training Institute International

Listening to gain understanding and bond with your child.

The questions listed here can guide you in bonding sessions with your sons and daughters to help deepen your relationship and give you insights into their needs.

Take time to get to know each of your children. Set aside time just to ask questions and listen.

Don't teach or answer with your ideas, just ask more questions. If you need to, write their answers down.

You could use a notebook for each child and record their answers in it.

1. What foods do you like or dislike the most?

     Goal: Break the ice and establish an easy, open atmosphere.

2. Who is your best friend?

     Goal: Discover who holds the greatest influence of their peers. (See I Corinthians 15:33.)

3. Who do you most want to be like when you grow up?

     Goal: Find out the type of character they are moving toward.

4. What embarrasses you most in our family relationships?

     Goal: Discover what you are doing or what is going on in the family that causes them to reject themselves.

5. What is the greatest fear in your life?

     Goal: Find out if Satan is binding them with fears. (See II Timothy 1:7.)

6. What is your favorite activity?

     Goal: Gain insights and ideas for activities and projects to do in a special time of fellowship with your children. These times can enhance your relationships with each other.

7. What is your favorite song? Favorite kind of music? Favorite group?

   Goal: Discern if they are embracing music with a destructive message.

8. Outside our family relationships, who has the most influenced your life? How have they influenced you?

     Goal: Determine who influences your children as a role model.

9. What do you like to learn about the most?

     Goal: Gain insights into their gifts and interests and areas in which to train them.

10. What accomplishment in your life so far gives you the greatest sense of achievement?

     Goal: Discover how you can build up their self-worth and put a spiritual emphasis to it.

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http://ati.iblp.org/ati/family/articles/family/questions/