ARK for Christian Parents in Churches and Parochial Schools
The most difficult, the most rewarding, and the most important job on earth is the parenting and teaching of our children. To help us with this awesome task, some of our church leaders attended a workshop this past spring that was sponsored by the ARKGroup. The ARKGroup has produced some amazing research regarding the origins of our children’s sense of self-esteem. This research, which was published in Self-Esteem Today, concludes that self-esteem is the product of unconditional love. When a child is told, "I may not like what you are doing, but you are my child and I love you. And, furthermore, there is nothing that you can ever do to keep me from loving you," we allow a child to value herself in spite of her imperfections. This gift of unconditional love, whereby we love a child for who he is rather than for what he does, is the key to a child’s appropriation of high self-esteem.
The contention of the ARKGroup is that the world’s greatest delivery system for unconditional love is the Christian faith. God, Who knows of our imperfection, still loves and accepts us without condition; and the proof of the unconditional nature of God’s love is Jesus Christ on a cross. For those of us who would be great parents (and teachers), the key lies in our learning how to love and to relate to our children in a manner that reflects the love of God. The ARKGroup has developed a program called ARK (Adults Relating to Kids). The purpose of ARK is to help us adults to become the vessels through whom the unconditional love of God, revealed through the Christ, is poured into the lives of our children. The ARK Program employs the best aspects of both a teaching and a discussion format. ARK Groups convene weekly for one hour during the school year. Each week, the ARKGroup facilitators will share one of the 27 lessons on "how to give unconditional love to our children." We also will have an opportunity to bring the Group’s wisdom to bear on our own child-rearing experiences. Faith-Based ARK in Churches and Parochial Schools When children feel loved and nurtured without condition, they come to respect themselves as valued children of God. This should be the end-goal of all parenting, for children with high self-esteem develop the inner strength to withstand the negative peer pressure that leads to anti-social and self-destructive behavior. Love-based (as opposed to fear-based) parenting is the single most important factor in molding our children’s futures. ARK Groups can be a keystone in a church’s Adult Christian Education Program. Employed as Sunday School classes or as mid-week offerings, they serve as invaluable tools for communicating God’s unconditional love to our children. Faith-based ARK can likewise be a wonderful piece of programming for the parents of parochial school children.

For more information, please contact the ARKGroup at 888-ARK-0744 (toll-free)