Human beings are creatures that must have something to work toward, to look ahead to, to plan and act on. In other words, we need to accomplish things. To do that, we set goals.

We set goals in our personal life, work life, in relation to our families and for our own personal growth. Having goals allows us to control change instead of just letting things happen. Without them, we are like a ship without a rudder. That’s why it is so important for children to learn to set goals early in life.

Goals can be very simple to start with and appropriate to the age of the child (setting a goal to put his or her toys away before dinner time, for example). There are many excellent books written about goal setting that can be helpful to parents for teaching their children or for anyone wanting to learn how to set goals effectively and then achieve them. And below is a link to a helpful study on the subject.

Scripture says to “train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6). Setting goals is an important part of training children, and gives them a skill they will use for the rest of their lives!