It’s Walk to School Week this week and Mari Williams helps Christian parents to start conversations at home around how to look after God’s creation better
It’s Walk to School Week this week. Children throughout the UK will be encouraged to walk to school every day of the week. The aim is for children to learn about the benefits of walking for mental and physical health, road safety, and the planet.
As Christian families, choosing to walk—where we can—is one small step (no pun intended!) we can take to show our children how to live in ways that care for God’s creation. It’s important to teach our children what the Bible says about caring for creation and for those living in poverty, who are the hardest hit by climate change and environmental degradation. But it’s also important to actively show them how to ‘walk the talk’ in our everyday lives.
This is a journey our family has been on as we’ve sought—step by step—to intentionally live in ways that reduce our environmental footprint. We don’t always get it right, and we still have a lot to learn, but here are six areas of family life where we have tried to model our calling as Christians to steward God’s wonderful creation.
1. Tackling transport
My children now walk to school with their friends, but for years, when they were little, I walked with them most days—unless it was raining heavily or we were running very late! When the complaints came about “Why can’t we go in the car like our friends?” I took the opportunity to explain that we walked to stay healthy and to care for God’s world. We had some great conversations, and walking to school, church, and the shops has become an everyday part of family life.
There are other transport choices we can make to be good stewards. Public transport is often a better choice for the environment and can be a fun and interesting way to travel with children. Our children know that we deliberately don’t choose holiday destinations that require flights. We haven’t completely ruled out flying, but we only want to do it on very special occasions.
Given that transport is the largest source of UK greenhouse gas emissions—accounting for about a quarter of the total—this is a key area where reductions are needed, and we can all take steps to contribute.
2. Reduce, reuse, recycle
UK households throw away 1.7 billion pieces of plastic every week, and only 17% of this is recycled! So much of what we buy comes packaged in plastic, it can feel overwhelming. As a family, we’ve tried to take steps to reduce the packaging we buy and throw away. When the children were little, we had a zero-waste shop in our town, and it became a weekly activity to go and fill our containers with pasta, lentils, and dried fruit. It was quite stressful trying to avoid too much falling on the floor as enthusiastic little hands excitedly shovelled food into containers—but it was a great way to include the children in our quest for sustainable living.
Where we can’t reduce or reuse, we recycle. We’re fortunate to live in a region where our local council collects all recyclables as well as food waste, so composting and recycling are very much part of daily life—for us and the children.
3. Calling for change
Last year, as a family, we took part in the Big Plastic Count, where households across the country counted their plastic waste for a whole week. The children got stuck in and were much better than me at remembering to document every single piece of plastic packaging—every cucumber wrapper, tomato punnet, cereal packet, and milk bottle. It was a sobering experience for us all. Even as a family already taking steps to reduce plastic waste, we used 111 bits of plastic in one week—which adds up to 5,772 pieces a year!
God’s call is for us to live differently—and radically. To live in ways that love God and love others … and that includes loving God’s creation
But it was also a brilliant opportunity to talk with the children about the systemic changes needed to address plastic pollution. Our lifestyle choices are important, but until governments and companies take the action required to tackle plastic waste and other environmental crises, there’s only so much we can do. The children are now keen to take part in campaign actions by organisations such as Tearfund that call on governments and companies to act.
4. Prioritising pre-loved
I have a teenage daughter and (much to my dismay) she wants to shop at Primark. Thankfully, she’s also very happy to buy second-hand clothes. Most of the children’s clothes over the years have been pre-loved. In our church, clothes are passed from family to family—a brilliant way to save both money and the planet. Many of our clothes also come from charity shops. Scouring charity shops for bargains is an activity we all enjoy, where we stock up on clothes, books, and toys—saving money and lightening our footprint on the planet.
Read more:
‘Nature is the first cathedral’: 9 tips to help your children enjoy God’s creation
Eco-anxiety is a thing for children, but here’s how Christian parents can respond
5. Family food
Food is another big area where small changes can make a difference. We have a regular delivery from a local zero-waste business, which also supplies veg boxes from a nearby farm. While the children love red meat, they know it’s something we have as a treat, and when we do buy meat, we try to ensure it has been sustainably sourced. When we eat bacon or sausages, my son will check: “Were these pigs able to walk outside?”
Food choices can be controversial, and there isn’t always a straightforward ‘right’ option. But we all need to be more aware of where our food comes from, how it’s produced, and its impact on creation—and to make informed decisions about what we buy.
6. Saying no to “stuff”
Finally, the area of “stuff.” When our kids were little, one of my least favourite things about birthdays was the influx of gifts (often large plastic toys) that would be played with a few times before breaking and ending up in landfill. We all have too much stuff. We buy things we don’t really need—and it’s the same for children, who are bombarded with options.
Now, we try to prioritise giving experiences as gifts—tickets to events or fun activities like go-karting. It’s obviously wonderful for children to have games and toys, but it’s also good to ask: “Do we really need this?” and “Will it last?”
Step by step
As I said, we don’t always get it right. And when we look at the environmental crises facing our world, it can seem completely overwhelming. It’s easy to think, Why bother? But that’s not what God wants. God’s call is for us to live differently—and radically. To live in ways that love God and love others … and that includes loving God’s creation.
What small steps can your family take today to care for God’s world?
