Christ Walk Kids: A 40-Day Spiritual Journey for Tweens and Teens

By Anna Fitch Courie

Developed as a companion to Christ Walk: A 40 Day Spiritual Fitness Program, Christ Walk Kids is an exciting 40-day journey for youth (ages 11 and up) to explore mind, body, and spiritual health.
This book helps kids set physical goals by committing to walk different routes based on routes in the Bible. Each chapter explores a topic that everyone thinks about, but not everyone knows how to address. Anna Courie opens up a discussion with youth about health topics they think and talk about amongst themselves, but puts the dialogue in the perspective of spiritual development. Key to the success of this outline is that each day there are topics for youth and parents and/or youth leaders to use as they explore health in a safe environment.

Youth are encouraged to participate fully in the Christ Walk program by physical challenges (walking, running, or biking “biblical” routes); mental challenges (deep discussion and thoughtfulness of youth health risks); and spiritual challenges (biblical references and spiritually grounded self-development). Youth and parents are urged to participate together in the Christ Walk program so that the church can address the health of the entire family holistically: mind, body, and spirit.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Morehouse Publishing
• Release date: Sep 1, 2016
• ISBN: 9780819233202

Anna Fitch Courie

Anna Fitch Courie is an Army wife, nurse, and the author of three Christ Walk books and The Adventures of Cancer Girl who finds her calling where health and spirituality intersect. A consultant on building community coalitions on health, she is a graduate of Clemson University, the University of Wyoming, and Education for Ministry (EfM). She lives in Columbia, South Carolina.

Book preview

BIBLICAL BIG IDEA #1

And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us. —Ephesians 5:2a (ESV)

You are going to take a journey over the next forty days. You are going to take this journey with yourself and with God. I want you to pick a Bible route from the list in Appendix A and commit to doing exercise that will add up to the miles of this journey.

Ask your mom, dad, or church to get you a fitness tracker (Fitbit, pedometer, Garmin Connect, or something similar). You will want to clip this to your pants or wrist to track the exercise you do each day. You can write your daily miles in this book and then add up all the miles of exercise you do for the next forty days to see how far you can go.

Why should you do this? Forty days is a powerful time in the Bible. It can also be a time for God to transform you as a Christian. The next forty days are all about making a covenant with God about taking care of your body. Your body is God’s temple in the world and all the things you do with your body show God’s love to other people.

In addition, it is fun. How far can you go? Can you get mom or dad to also track miles over the next forty days? Can you beat them? Can you beat your brother or sister if you have one? Put a chart on the refrigerator including everyone in the family to see how far we can go together on a walk with Christ the next forty days. We will talk each day about different things you can do to live a healthy life with God. It will be fun! Come on!

What do you need to do?

1.

Get a fitness tracker.

2.

Pick a Bible route from Appendix A to commit to walking, running, biking, swimming, dancing, or other activity.

3.

Start exercising and tracking your miles.

4.

Read about the Bible route you chose and think about what God was doing in the world on this journey.

5.

Read a chapter a day for the next forty days and let us discuss what it means to be a Christ Walk Kid.

THINGS TO THINK ABOUT

1.

What exercise do I want to commit to for the next forty days?

2.

How can I get my mom, dad, siblings, a friend, or someone else involved?

3.

What promise will I make to God the next forty days?

DAY 1 Steps taken: __________________________ Miles journeyed: __________________________

Exercise chosen: _____________________________________________________________________

What I told God today: _______________________________________________________________

Something I thought about: ____________________________________________________________

BIBLICAL BIG IDEA #2

God created humanity in God’s own image, in the divine image God created them, male and female God created them. —Genesis 1:27

God made boys and girls in God’s image. We each have characteristics that reflect what God looks like. Each of us carries a little bit of Christ in us.

Instead we are God’s accomplishment, created in Christ Jesus to do good things. God planned for these good things to be the way that we live our lives. —Ephesians 2:10

Because we carry a little bit of Jesus in each of us, our job is to take care of the bodies that God gave us and use this body to do God’s work in the world. When we use our bodies to do God’s work in the world, we are reflecting the love of Jesus in each of us to everyone around us.

During Jesus’ time on earth, people did not have cars, airplanes, trains, or other automatic transportation. They either walked or rode camels or donkeys. This is why during the forty days of Christ Walk Kids you are focusing on accomplishing a walking (or other fitness) goal. Think about the different journeys that people took during Jesus’ time on foot. What do you think it would be like to be a part of that journey? Do you think it was hard to walk all the time? Do you think it would be exciting to be a part of Jesus’ adventures?

Our bodies are special: They move, run, work, love, hug, hold hands, give high-fives, dance, play, and serve others. Your body should be special to you. You should take care of your body and treat it as though it is a gift from God (because it is).

THINGS TO THINK ABOUT

1.

What do I think of my body?

2.

How can I remember that a part of God is a part of my body?

3.

What do I think of taking care of my body and doing God’s work in the world?

DAY 2 Steps taken: __________________________ Miles journeyed: __________________________

Exercise chosen: _____________________________________________________________________

What I told God today: _______________________________________________________________

Something I thought about: ____________________________________________________________

BIBLICAL BIG IDEA #3

Go in peace. The LORD is watching over you on this trip you’ve taken. —Judges 18:6.

God calls us to take care of our bodies. Your body is the tool God has to make change in the world. God’s word says we should honor our body.

Don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you? Don’t you know that you have the Holy Spirit from God, and you don’t belong to yourselves? You have been bought and paid for, so honor God with your body. —1 Corinthians 6:19–20

Because God has given us such a cool tool to do work in the world, we need to take care of it just like any other tool. I’m talking about our bodies! This means we need to eat a variety of healthy foods, we need to exercise, we need to rest, and we need to laugh daily. When we have joy and happiness in our lives, we are able to share that joy and happiness with others. When we are taking care of our bodies by eating, sleeping, exercising, and finding joy each day then we are building a strong temple. This temple that is our body is then more able to do God’s work