The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has an incredible program for children and youth to help them make and achieve goals.
Each time I read about this program I feel certain it was divinely directed.
I don’t know who came up with the idea, but I feel like I can imagine God literally pointing out, to a prophet or other church leaders, how the scripture in Luke 2:52 is a simple yet powerful sermon on personal growth.
The whole premise of the program is how Jesus grew in multiple different areas throughout His life, and so can we.
helping our family make goals
We just had a special family night talking about this scripture and setting some goals of our own for the new year. My kids are 11, 9, 7, and 4 and I just want to outline what we did to set goals in case you want to copy us!
Family Goal Discussion
First, I read the scripture found in Luke 2:52
And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.
Then we talked about what each word means, and how it relates to the 4 areas of growth outlined in the Children and Youth program:
- Wisdom = Intellectual Growth
- Stature = Physical Growth
- Favor with God = Spiritual Growth
- Favor with Man = Social Growth
I used this photo as a visual for the kids as we talked about each category:
Next, I gave them each a blank piece of paper like this one:
And we focused on one square at a time. I read the list of suggested ideas from the Intellectual category, and then we paused as I asked the kids to think of an intellectual goal they wanted to work on. They wrote that goal down in the corresponding square, and then each person wrote ONE SMALL THING they could do regularly to try to reach that goal.
Then we moved on to the next category and did the same thing until we had a goal and one small step for each category.
Sharing our goals out loud
We shared what we wrote in each category, one at a time, and I *did* guide them if I felt they had written something too hard, or too broad. For example, my 9 year old said he wanted to get better at writing, and his one small thing was to “write a book.” My husband and I counseled with him and he changed it to, “spend time writing each day.” Hopefully a full book will be in his future though!
Finally, we chose one category that we wanted to work on for now, and in a few months we’ll switch to a different category.
We already have an established Sunday routine of family scriptures and journal writing, so we are going to check-in on our goals during that time now too.
examples of goals for kids
Here are a few other examples the kids chose for their goals:
- Get better at basketball: Shoot hoops for 10 minutes each day
- Learn Spanish: Spend 10 minutes a day on Duolingo
- Learn about new cultures: spend 10 minutes each day reading about different cultures
- Get better at my new bike: Ride it one time each day
- Speak Kind Words: pray each day for help being kind to others
- Do Baptisms as often as I can: reach out to friends and family to help me schedule appointments
- Read the Scriptures more often: put my scriptures in a place where I will remember to read at least every other day.
Free printables to help your family set goals
I am a firm believer in the power of goals to help us transform our lives, and that transformation only happens when we include God in the goal making process. That’s probably why I love the Children and Youth program so much.
If you haven’t talked to your kids about this program yet, or ever, now is a great time to start. Click the button below to get the printables I used with my family – no email required! It’s just a free gift to help you apply goal making in your family!
Other free printables you might like for your family:
Happy new year, my friends!
Love, Abby
Abby Marie Watson 
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