Family
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God Has a Plan
God has a plan and it is different than yours. The sooner you get over this fact the better. While you are accepting this please remember – God is eternal and He has been about this plan for literally forever. So He has thought it through and since all wisdom begins and ends with Him you can be sure His plan is superior to yours. Abraham never planned to leave home, but that was God’s plan for Abraham. Abraham never thought he would have children, but God’s plan included the Seed coming through Abraham. After Abraham was told by God what was going to happen, when it did not come…
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Bible Study Basket: A Great Christmas Present Idea
Last year, we shared some links for a Christmas shopping list, and many of you took advantage of some of the ideas. [If you want to see that list, here’s the link.] This year, instead of tons of different products, we thought we’d give you one idea that you can build in your own way. This is a great idea for all those holiday parties or for that one hard-to-buy-for person on your list, because it is flexible and something that is actually important. It is a Bible Study Basket! The idea behind this gift is obvious: it is a collection of items that helps someone with their Bible study.…
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Thanksgiving Proclamation
This Thanksgiving Day, I would hope that all of us would take some time away from parades, meals, football, and preparations for ‘Black Friday” to reflect on how this unique holiday got started. It is interesting to me that, both the Congress and President Washington were involved in this proclamation. It seems to me that, while we may have made a lot of progress in a lot of areas during the past 225 years, we might be well advised to “return to our roots” when it comes to our acknowledgment of, and dependence upon, God. — Jim Faughn *** Thanksgiving Proclamation Issued by President George Washington, at the request…
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The Memories of a House
Tomorrow, they start packing and Friday we move out. For about 6 1/2 years, one address has been the place we called home. It has been a wonderful house. Still, it is made up of wood, concrete, vinyl siding, carpet, metal and other material “stuff.” Through the designs and work of people with different skills than I have, all this “stuff” becomes a beautiful and functional place to live. When looking for a place to live, we think about if our couch can go here or if all our pots and pans can fit in there; we consider if this room will work for an office or den or if…
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Praying Together
One recent religious survey noted that the average minister only prays three minutes each day. I found this astounding. I do not know if it is accurate, but if this is true, is it any wonder why the church is not growing?Hey wait a minute…maybe we should ask ourselves how much we are praying? It’s not that there is a required amount, but rather it has to do with where we are in our spiritual lives. Prayer is key. Prayer can change everything. I am finding that one of the most important things I can do to change and improve my own prayer life is to pray with others. When…
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Zager & Evans Miscalculated Slightly
Those of us “of a certain age” may remember an unusual song recorded in 1969. Among the things that were unusual about it were the following: It was recorded by a folk-rock duo from the state of Nebraska (of all places). It held the #1 position on the record charts longer than any other record of that year (even though such notables as Elvis Presley, The Beatles, The Fifth Dimension, The Temptations, and others also had #1 hits that year). It has no chorus. It just sort of progressed through an imaginary future timeline. It had a unique (and unusual) subtitle; Exordium & Terminus (Beginning & End). For those who…
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Training Your Children for Worship 3: Prayer Checklist and “Time for Worship” Cards for Kids {Free Printable}
Today’s post is the 3rd in our 4-part series of free printables to help you train your children for worship. If you missed either of the first two posts, below are the links. 1: A Devotional Guide on Worship 2: Family Devotionals on the Acts of Worship Today, we are sharing TWO free printables with you! FIRST, we have a “prayer checklist” that can be used either in a family devotional setting or during a worship service to help a child focus on the importance of prayer. While prayer is not meant to be just a “checklist,” we also need to teach our children that prayer is more than some type…
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Training Your Children for Worship 2: Family Devotionals on the Acts of Worship {Free Printables}
Last week, we shared the first of four free printables to help you train your children for worship. If you missed that one, which was a devotional guide about worship, click here and you can get it for free. To continue with the free stuff, we have another family devotional guide for you this week. This time, though, it is a SET of devotional guides. There are five in all, one for each of the five avenues of worship. As with the other guides, these are meant to help you have family devotionals that are only about 10 minutes in length and that help by getting input from the children.…
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Why We Made Our 7-Year-Old Sign a Minecraft Contract
Minecraft. I know very little about this game, except that our son has been begging us to download it for months. It is one of the few times he has truly fixated on something for more than a few days. After doing some light research and seeing that is a fairly harmless game, we decided to let him get the game on Leah’s iPad… …after he signed a contract. That’s right, our 7-year-old had to sign a contract to get and play the game. The short document stated such things as: He would pay for the game himself out of his saving jar. If he complained when told to turn…
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Training Your Children for Worship 1: A Devotional on Worship {Free Printable}
In our latest podcast, Leah and I talked about the importance of training our children for worship. Also in that podcast, we mentioned how we are going to be sharing some posts and printables to help you do that. We have settled on four posts–to be released on Wednesdays–and today is the first in those posts. The importance of a family discussing things in the home cannot be overstated. Through family devotionals, a family can gain a great deal of closeness and can focus more clearly on connecting with God. These times are also wonderful training grounds to discuss areas in which we want our children to grow. (By the…
