The new year is a good time to start fresh with your kids.  Use it as an excuse to sit down with your family and establish some clear guidelines on what you are going to expect from them.  Try giving up some of your own vices as well.  This will help children understand we are all in this together.  For example, I told my kids I wanted them to get back in the habit of making their beds every day.  They used to do this before we got a little more hectic in our schedules.  I also got out of the habit.  So, I confessed and told them I was getting back in the making-the-bed routine as well.  They both got excited that I had to put in some extra effort like them.  And, I think they take a little pleasure when Mom admits she is not perfect!
 
Try this lesson to help instill the idea of doing the right thing even when we don’t want to.
 
Play the “Hard or Easy” game.  Each person has to think of something one does and the others have to decide if this is hard or easy to do.
 
For example:
Is it hard or easy to make a cake?
Is it hard or easy to eat ice cream?
Is it hard or easy to open Christmas gifts?
Is it hard or easy to clean the bathroom?
Is it hard or easy to do math homework?
Is it hard or easy to obey your mom?
Is it hard or easy to follow rules?
 
Now discuss the result of all of those tasks.  Were the results worth the hard efforts?  What about the easy efforts?
 
Ask:  Is it hard to follow God’s will for our lives?  Help them understand that sometimes it is hard and sometimes easy, kind of like following rules.  It depends on what you want to do as opposed to what the rule says you should do.
 
Explain that’s how we learn to follow God’s will for our lives rather than our own.  Give examples of how doing what you don’t want to do sometimes brings the best results.  Give an example for your own efforts at following God’s will for your life.  Did you ever have to make a big decision that you didn’t really like at first, but you knew it was the right thing?  What happened from that decision?