Lately....

Here's a peek into how our family is growing together in the Lord this year:

Memorization wall: Each week we review verses that we are working on or already know. Each new verse memorized means the clothes pin moves up the chart.  I converted this beautiful free printable growth chart by covering the growth marks with scrapbook paper, stickers and borders.  I love how it is great motivation to the girls and to me.

I had it on my heart this year to teach the girls a solid foundations of hymns. There are so many I love and find inspiring and I believe my kids should grow up with that heritage. As I began to look, I found this website that had compiled quite a few of the hymns that I desire to teach this year. I have made my own printables to go with them and am amazed how much the girls are enjoying it.

Each day our family has been reading scripture from The One Minute Bible.  This is a copy I've had since I was in High School. I know there are so many great devotional resources and children's Bibles available. In fact, there are so many I find it overwhelming at times. For now, this is working beautifully. Each day the girls are asking questions about what they are hearing and I pray this is whetting their appetite to want more of the scriptures.

Along with our scripture readings every night, we are writing down what we are grateful for in our gratitude journal.  We've talked about how as a family it is easy to rattle off things that we grateful for in general but it's my desire to practice more specific gratitude.  What specifically happened each day that we are thankful for.  I believe that there is incredible benefit in counting the small daily blessings as every good and perfect gift comes from above. (James 1:17)


One aspect of faith that is of greater struggle for our family is prayer. I always pray with the girls individually before bed but getting to "heart prayers" is still something we are growing in. Due to several "heavy" life circumstances going on in our family right now, I can sense that the girls are truly sincere, but it is my prayer that they would learn how to truly let their hearts come before God and bare their souls.  Personally, I am slowly journalling and praying through the Psalms and am finding such great peace, conviction and passion in my prayer life. As a family, I hope that we can all learn to live our lives in unending prayer. One tool I do have are these JOY cards, but I am not consistent in using them. I guess maybe this post will serve as a form of accountability to begin using them more.


I pray that you are finding ways to grow in the Lord with your loved ones. Please feel free to share any resources you have found helpful in your family's spiritual walk. And if anyone is interested in what I come up with over the year with our hymn study just let me know.

Blessings!

Gratitude Attitude

"Our fall was, has always been, and always will be, that we aren't satisfied in God and what He gives. We hunger for something more, something other." Ann Voskamp, one thousand gifts

The sin of ingratitude, dissatisfaction and discontent are nothing new.  They have been around since the Garden of Eden. Teaching the next generation to be grateful is also not a new idea but it is a practice that I believe to be of the utmost importance.  I know that I get whiny, ungrateful and discontent regularly and I need an attitude adjustment in my life before I lose all sense of the blessings I have in my life. 

Our society does not encourage gratitude.  Entitlement, self-importance and independence yes, but not gratitude.  It is my belief that gratitude goes beyond just good manners, although that is important and a great place to start. Gratitude is at the heart level and that is where I truly want to reach my children.  My life and the lives of those around me are so much easier when my kids have good behavior and show good manners but that is not my highest goal.  I want my girls to understand that to bring glory to God they need to have a deep gratitude in their lives that is much deeper than just their words and behaviors.  This is the only gratitude that can weather the storms that life has to throw at them.

In my post yesterday I talked about how we have been spending time over the last month learning how to control our whining.  This month we are trying to focus on the heart by practicing gratitude.  I made a simple Thanksgiving advent calendar which we will use.  Each night at dinner we will each say and then write down at least 1 thing we are thankful for that day.  It is a simple practice and doesn't take much time but will hopefully help our family focus on all the blessings God has given us and teach us to be grateful people. 

A simple canvas, chipboard letters and scrapbook paper. I am sure it could be more crafty but it will work just fine as it is.  This i placed right above our kitchen counter where we eat.

It is my desire to see my children grow to honor God through living grateful lives in a society that desperately needs it.  So, now it's your turn, how do you encourage gratitude in the children in your life? How could or has the practice of gratitude made an impact in your life? 

 Today's gratitude: That I have I have children who are enjoying a quiet rest time right now as I write this.  Selfish or not, it is definitely something for me to be grateful for today. How about you?

Pennies for change

Whining.  A word connects all parents to one another.  Some possibly understand it more than others but I don't believe anyone escapes it entirely.  All it takes to see that whining has always existed is to look at the Israelite nation and all the trouble their whining, mumbling and complaining got them.  Last month I wanted to take a time out in our family to see the effects of whining and having a grumbling spirit. So I set up a pennies for change area in our house.  Anytime we found ourselves grumbling, whining, or just having a negative attitude we placed one of our pennies in a jar.  At the end of the month we would be able to spend the leftover pennies in the "Mommy and Daddy Store".  Both girls, mommy and daddy participated and then at the end of the month the girls spend their rewards in our "store". 

We spent time talking as a family about the various consequences and benefits of living a life free of grumbling and complaining.  The store experience is a great teaching moment to allow the girls a concrete understanding about how there are rewards when we follow God's ways.  Even when we don't always see the rewards He gives us here on earth He does reward us. As the girls get older it is our intention to phase out the reward based system and operate more on an intrinsic motivation but it works for us in this phase of life right now.

This activity definitely had a good impact on all of us.  It is helpful for me to see how much my attitude needs to be surrendered and submitted to God. I may not always verbally complain but my sighs and my inward spirit are not always in the right place.  This activity drew that out big time!

Our pennies and jar. 

Lydia's rewards. She had a great month and learned to internalize her own self monitoring.

Emma's rewards.  She is still learning not everything is about her.

Mommy and Daddy store open for business.  (Better stocked than usual as we just got a scholastic book order back.) Most of the store is filled with dollar store, yard sale and thrift store finds.

I believe that when it comes to correction and discipline it is not only important to stop certain behaviors but to replace them with correct and God honoring lifestyle habits.  Stay tuned tomorrow for what we are working on as a family this month!

Day 31 prayer - Finishing Strong

Don't you realize that in a race everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize? So run to win! All athletes are disciplined in their training. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize. So I run with purpose in every step. 1 Corinthians 9:24-26a

Dear Lord, as this month of prayer for my daughters ends I know it is not really over.  I will continue to come before You with requests on their behalf and desire for You to lead me as I pray according to Your will for their lives.  I pray that Lydia and Emma would run for the prize, that they would not get sidetracked by the many distractions surrounding them.  Help me to teach them to live with a view of eternity and guide them to be disciplined in their lives when I am not able to be there. I pray that they would not measure their days as sucessful as the world defines sucess but as You define it.  I pray that they would run their whole lives for You and that they would follow hard after You.  Refine me and help me to pour out my life for my husband and children so that in the end I may not be disqualified but that I would finish strong.  Thank You Father, for this precious month of joining thousands of other women praying for the beautiful girls in our lives.  We know that You hear our prayers and we eagerly await the work You are doing as a result of our petitions.  I love You and pray that You would give Lydia, Emma and myself a desire to know You more.  Amen.

If you want to read the rest of the 31 days of praying for our daughters check out the MODsquad blog.  I did not post my prayers everyday but I did prayer.  I was very blessed as a result of this challenge this month and hope that you too prayer for your children and special kids in your life.  Blessings and thanks for reading!

Day 17 Prayer- Faithfulness

Lord, You are so faithful.  Even when we are not, You are.  I pray that Lydia and Emma would learn of Your faithfulness and Your steadfast love for them.  I pray that You would overwhelm them with experiences in life that allow them to see and personally understand Your faithfulness.  There will never be a situation that You will turn Your face from and there will never be a time where they will fall further than Your grace has the ability to catch them.  I pray that I am willing to be a testimony to how You are faithful to me and that they can learn from my love for You.  You are good, You are great and You are worthy of all my praise.  Thank you ever so much for Your faithfulness. Amen.

Day 10 Prayer - Endurance

We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop  endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because He has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with His love. Romans 5:3-5

Lord, I pray that Lydia and Emma would learn the importance and rewards of endurance.  Not all the rewards are immediately visible but they are life changing.  I pray that You would help them navigate the trials and difficulties in their lives and draw them closer to You during the times when they believe You to be distant from them.  I pray that  their character would grow through these trials and that You would ultimately and finally be their HOPE.  You are a great God and You can do in my girls lives more than I know.  I pray that You take these prayers and perfect them. Lord, help me teach my girls how to depend on You and listen to the Holy Spirit who can fill all our hearts with Your love. A love that is unashamed and never ending.  Amen.

Took the weekend off blogging but not praying.  Many blessings to you!

Day 7 Prayer - Thoughts

Dear Lord, I pray that Lydia and Emma would place their faith in You and find their hope in You always.  I also pray that they would learn the practice of taking every thought captive. The enemy wants nothing more than our minds because where our mind goes our body follows.  I pray that You would supernaturally guide them to place their steadfast mind on You and think of all that You have done and all that You are.  Allow their lives to shine brighter than stars in this dark and depraved world. Amen.

Day 6 Prayer - Hope

Dear Lord, what I really want to pray right now is that You would protect my girls.  That You would keep them from all harm.  But I also know that all of us will experience trials and sorrow.  They are a guarantee in life in this broken, broken world.  I know my best efforts to pray for protection from evil, from physical harm, from abuse and from so many of the awful things in this world are heard by Your ears.  You will protect them and lead them and guide them.  I pray that they look to You in every and all situations.  But more than the protection I desire for my girls I pray that You would produce in them an everlasting HOPE! A hope that comes in the darkness when all seems lost. A hope that reaches into the crevices and barren places of the soul.  A hope that overcomes the world. (John 16:33) You oh Lord are that Hope! I pray with everything I am that I am willing to give testimony to the Hope You have given me. (1 Peter 3:15) Let Your hope, Your love, Your faithfulness transcend and surpass any of life's circumstances.  You alone are my Rock and my Redeemer. May Your name be praised forever and ever. Amen.

Day 5 Prayer - Purpose

Obviously I'm not trying to win the approval of people, but of God. If pleasing people were my goal, I would not be Christ's servant. Galatians 1:10

Lord, it is so difficult at times not to go looking for our worth, significance and purpose in other people.  I pray that Lydia and Emma would not get caught in the comparison trap but would look to You for fulfillment and satisfaction.  I know that You want to work this out in my life as well so that I can model this type of God-honoring life in front of thier watching eyes.  Glorious Father, guide Lydia, Emma and myself to desire Your approval and help us to remember that bringing Glory to Your name is our highest purpose. Amen.


At times, when it comes to praying for our children the message is just as much for ourselves as it is for them.  Their eyes are always watching, observing and learning which means we need to desire God to do in our lives that which we plead for Him to do in their lives.  Thanks for reading and be blessed!

Day 4 prayer - Time

Father in Heaven, I pray that Lydia and Emma would learn how to spend their time wisely.  Let them learn to accept what comes their way and be led by You.  I pray that You would order their steps and that they would choose to look to Your plan for their lives.  You are a great God and worthy of all that we have.  May we all be a blessing to You in how we spend our time. Amen.

Day 3 prayer - Truth

You are following a different way that pretends to be Good News but is not the Good News at all. You are being fooled by those who deliberately twist the truth concerning Christ. Galatians 1:6b-7

Lord, I pray You would protect Lydia and Emma from the schemes of the evil one who wishes to twist and distort the Good News.  Freedom in this life comes only through faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ, His death and resurrection.  I pray that Lydia and Emma would be grounded in Your truth and have the ability to discern between truth and lies.  Lead and guide them on the path of truth recognizing You are THE way, THE truth and THE life.  As their mother, teach me how to instruct them to stay alert to satan's schemes and I pray that You would strengthen our family to turn to You in any and all situations.  Amen.

Be reminded that as parents God has given us the opportunity to make a difference in future generations by what we do now.  That is not something I can do without prayer.  We should never take for granted the importance of prayer on this parenting journey.  Blessings!

Day 2 Prayer - Rescue

Jesus gave his life for our sins, just as God our Father planned, in order to rescue us from this evil world in which we live. Galatians 1:4

Lord, I pray that Lydia and Emma would come to fully understand and accept the truth of Your gospel message.  I pray they would understand the depth of our human need and would place their faith in You alone. You indeed are the only One who can rescue.  I pray that they would grow to depend on Your ability to rescue them and that they would learn that in all things they can trust in You.  Lord, I pray that I am willing to let my children fall and fail so they can further understand Your divine ability to rescue them.  I accept Your grace in my life and acknowledge how often I want to be my girls rescuer.  Help me to always point them to the true Rescuer.  Lord, be blessed in my life and in Lydia and Emma's lives as well.  Amen.

Day 1 Prayer - New

Today is a new day and also the first day of a new month.  I am feeling an awakening and a stirring and I know God can do amazing things in my life and the life of my family members.  Today I am starting another challenge, or should I say journey, to pray for my daughters every day.  Now, this is something that I already do but I am joining the MODSquad in being intentional about it over the next 31 days.  I already have a journals with the requests I have made to God on behalf of my girls but I have a heart still full of more petitions to be made on their behalf.  If you wish to join me in praying for your daughters (sons welcome to) then check out the MODSquad website for more information.  Thanks for reading. Be blessed!

Lord, I thank You that You make all things new and that You have ordained the next 31 days as a public way for me to pray for my children.  This truly is a new thing You are doing in my life and I am excited to see all that You desire to accomplish.  Thank You for Your grace which is new every morning.  Amen.

Family Night - necessity

Some family nights are planned well in advance as there are certain stories and values I know I want to instill in my children. There are however some family nights that I plan out of complete necessity. This week we had one of those.

My children are sometimes one of the greatest mirrors I have into my own spiritual life and journey. I see own attitudes, behaviors and reactions reflected in what they do and say. That being said, one of the spiritual lessons that comes up regularly in our house is the impact our words have. Words are a BIG deal in our lives and as one of my friends says, "My mouth doesn't get me in trouble it keeps me there!" Oh how my words have such power in my life and the lives of those around me.

This week we focused on our attitude and our words being respectful. The virtue of the month at church is respect and we are continuing that here at home for the greatest application. Family night was pretty simple this week. We talked about our words and how often our words can hurt people and show either respect or disrespect. The girls have already memorized three verses on words/attitudes. They are as follows,

Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing. - Prov. 12:18

Kind words are like honey, sweet to the soul and healthy for the body. - Prov. 16:24

Do everything without grumbling and complaining. - Phil. 2:14

Throughout the summer we focused on some Proverbs and had done this activity with toothpaste talking about the fact that once words are out they can't be put back in. (Squeeze out toothpaste and try to have them put it back in.)

This week in conjunction with our bug week (Letter B preschool focus) we talked about the grumble bees. We read and watched Hermie and friends Grumble Bees and we started to use a chart to keep track of our "honey" words. Right now I just catch them in the act of kind words and give them a sticker to put on the chart but may change it because they are still having too many unkind words for my liking.


That's it, simple and timely. My own life is always in need of a refresher course in how I can use my words for good or harm.

Family Night - Zaccheus

Background on Family Nights

A couple years ago my mother gave me a book from Focus on the Family that was about how to regularly include a family night into your schedule. I really liked the concept so we adopted it and started having family night on most weeks. Many people have asked what makes family night different than other nights and the answer is that there is a spiritual focus and purpose. Both my husband and I are heavily involved at our church and would have it no other way. We pray with the girls regularly, talk about God and Christ daily and generally discipline (we call it correction) from a Biblical point of view but we wanted to have a focused time as a family where we could learn about God's Word together and learn from each other. As an educator and an advocate for children's ministry in churches I wanted family nights to be memorable, fun and easily applicable to our lives. Sometimes we focus on one theme (virtue) per month, sometimes it is a holiday theme, sometimes it is just a hodgepodge of various aspects of the Christian life I think we need to know but whatever it is we have fun and try to talk about it throughout the week/month. Often I come up with some sort of system or chart to document how we are practically working on applying what we are learning but not always.

I want to use this blog to just give you a peek into our family nights and give you some tools to use if you feel inspired to add them to your family dynamics. Please feel free to leave a comment if you have a question. I have taken the ideas I use from many other resources and not just my own brain but I am compiling them for however you see fit to use them. I will mostly be showing links and pictures and descriptions about our family nights and will add pictures when I have them but don't always have them. Hope you enjoy!

With the first day of school being last week I wanted to focus family night last week on just how much God knows us no matter where we are or what we are doing.

Main focus: God knows you and loves you!

Dancing/music: This is a personal addition that our family enjoys. We always dance and act silly together. It loosens us up and allows us to laugh and have fun together before our "lesson" begins. You in no way have to do this.

Opening activity: Game- Biggest and Smallest
Play a game that includes finding the biggest and the smallest of a certain object. Example: find the biggest book in the room, now the smallest. Biggest blanket, smallest blanket. Etc.

Story time: After the game we transitioned to the story of Zacchaeus. We read the story from their Bible. After we were done we acted it out and sang the very old, very dated Zacchaeus was a wee little man. (I never said family nights didn't include some cheese!)

Craft: I printed out this coloring page and the girls retold the story as they colored the page. Lydia worked on this word search, as she recently discovered word searches and liked them.

Closing: Reminded the girls that just like Jesus knew Zacchaeus, He knows us and loves us.

Prayer: There are a few different ways that we include prayer in our family nights. I will share more of them another time but for this night we used the prayer ball. The girls love using it and I think that is the best.

Reinforcement: We used this print out for reading before bed and the girls liked looking for Zacchaeus even though it was a bit too young for Lydia. Through out the week we have been talking about how God loves us and knows where we are, what we are doing, etc. and of course have sung the Zacchaeus song a couple time for good measure. All in all I enjoyed the lesson and the main point immensely.