Are you letting discipline ruin your relationships?

Being a mom is hard.  I mean, tears falling into my kitchen sink hard.  I’m going to be real for a minute.  I have two very sweet boys and I dearly love them.  One of them, though, well… he knows how to push buttons.  There are many, many times when I’m stretched to what I feel like is my absolutely limit.  There are many, many, many times when I’m standing in my kitchen crying out to God asking for Him to just… take… it.  Today I'm blogging over at Kaylene Yoder as part of the 30 Days of Raising Boys.  Stop by and say hi!

10 Days in the Fruits of the Spirit {Day 8 ~ Faithfulness}

Faithfulness can be hard.  I think sometimes we are too quick to give up on things.  I'm so thankful we serve a God who is faithful.  His love never ends and we are forever His children.  He will never stop holding us.  Such a great promise!  

Today's lesson is an ooey-gooey mess!  So messy, in fact, that Little Man wouldn't do it!  We still managed to make it through the lesson.  We were.... faithful.  ;)

FAITHFULNESS ~ I will not quit.

Psalm 89:33 ~ "But I will not take my love from him, nor will I ever betray my faithfulness."

The how-to is pretty basic.  Mix up a batch of cornstarch and water.  Play with the amounts until you reach a consistency that will hold together when squeezed, but return to liquid when you let go.  

As a teacher, I used some old classroom logic.  Let the kids play first... well before you try to teach.  I handed Little Man the bowl and he stuck approximately half a finger in before deciding it was too icky.  So for the lesson, we used my hands.  :/

I demonstrated a few times that I could squeeze the mixture and it would harden in my hand.  When I opened up my hand, it spilled out.  

"So what happens when I give up?"  It spills everywhere.  "Who never, ever, ever gives up on us?"  God.  Exactly.  We can squeeze and squeeze and squeeze and eventually our hands are going to get tired.  God never gets tired of holding us.  He is faithful.  

So when we make a big mess of everything, God will squeeze us and put us back together.  Isn't He cool like that?  The same God who holds the whole ocean in His hands holds us just as easily.  

God, thank you for loving us.  I'm sorry that I gave up when I __________.  I know that I should trust You.  I will not stop loving You.  Help me to be faithful when things are hard.  Amen.

I leave you with some of my favorite lyrics.  "Your love never fails, it never gives up, never runs out on me."

Need to catch up?  You can find the other Fruits of the Spirit posts here {Overview, Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness}!  Want to make sure you never miss a post?  Follow us on Bloglovin'!

10 Days in the Fruits of the Spirit {Day 7~ Goodness}

It's officially fall!  I love the crisp air, the feeling of a new season.  I know many people think of spring as a season of new beginnings.  I agree, but I also think fall is too.  We're approaching a season of thanks and of giving.  Every year, I strive to be a family that spends more time focusing on the aspect of giving and service.  It's a great time for a "31 days of kindness" endeavor.  Lots of opportunities for "good deeds" around these fall and winter holidays.  

This lesson was great on so many levels.  It gave us the chance to talk about so many different topics... friends, good deeds, obedience, repentance... As always, we started out with the videos and picture book.  If you missed any of the previous posts, you can catch up here {overview, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, resources}!

GOODNESS ~ I will do what is right.

Our verse for goodness was Matthew 5:16.

"In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in Heaven."

We started this lesson with a question.  What are some good things you can do?  The answers to this were all over the place.  What are some not good things we see people do?  Even more answers.  It amazes me how many of them involved farting and pooping.  Ugh.  I know God had a plan when He made me a boy mom, but sometimes I still wonder what He was thinking.  

"So Little Man, we need to be careful about who we surround ourselves with.  We want to be nice to everyone, but we want to make sure we are only being influenced by the good around us."  Note: the level of conversation will definitely depend on the age of your little one.  

After a little discussion, I gave him three bowls.  One had cooked pasta.  If we're completely honest, I thought I had some rotini pasta, but I was mistaken.  I broke lasagna pieces apart.  I would definitely encourage you to use some sort of small pasta pieces like rotini, bowties, penne, or macaroni.  The flat pasta was a little difficult.  I digress.  

Together, we came up with things that each of the bowls could represent.  "Little Man, what something that your friends do that you really like and makes you want to be around them?"  Church friends, kind words, friendly.  "Now what are some things kids might do that you don't want to be around?"  Lying, calling names, being mean.  We added blue food coloring to the "good" bowl and green to the "bad" bowl.  "Little Man, let's pretend that each of these pieces of pasta are one person.  What happens when they mix with the good people?"  They turn blue (good) too.  "Right, now what happens when we add them to the group of lying kids?"  They start lying too. 

We carried it a step further and I asked him to think of something to call the "clear" group.  His first comment was that they weren't bad, so we went with that.  I picked up one of the pasta pieces that had been stained green and asked him to predict what would happen if I added it to the clean group.  He quickly covered the bowl and shouted, "No, no, no, no!"  I think he got it.

At the end, I poured a little bit of bleach in a bowl.  I told him the bleach was like God's forgiveness.  I asked him to predict what would happen if I added one of the lying pasta pieces to the bowl of bleach.  It's really neat.  The bleach washes away the sin and the lies and makes it clean again.  "Little Man, God is amazing like that!  He forgives us and we are white as snow again!"

"Is it okay to be nice to everyone?"  Absolutely.  "Do we want to be good?"  Of course!  "How do we do that?"  Hang out with the good people.  Yes.  If we are going to be "colored" by the influences around us, we should make sure we are being colored in a good way.  We should absolutely be kind to everyone, but we need to make sure we are only influenced by the good.  We should make sure our friends help us to make good choices and do the right thing.  

Dear Jesus, thank You for being good and thank You for forgiving us when we are not.  I'm sorry that I wasn't making a good choice when I _______.  Please help me to be good.  Help me to be kind to everyone, but be a light for Your good.  Help me to make good choices so that other people will want to do them too.  Amen.

Couldn't we all use this lesson?  This world needs a few more lights in the darkness!

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15 Fantastic Verses to Memorize With Your Family {Ephesians 4:26}

Happy Sunday, friends!  Today I'm sharing a verse that I pray daily!  On a side note, I'm trying out a new look for the Scripture cards.  Any thoughts?

When we are angry, it's really easy to fall into the temptation to sin.  As a family, we are memorizing this verse as a reminder to stay calm when we are angry.  We can still disagree, but use kind words and a loving attitude.  We  can also seek to resolve conflict quickly so that relationships are not damaged.

Here's how it works.  Every Sunday (Scripture Sunday, if you will...), I'll post the set of four cards.  Save them as images and then print however many you want!  They are designed to print as a 4x6, but other sizes should work as well.  Print them on cardstock (or even just regular paper) and stick them in a photo album to review!

Want to make sure you don't miss next week's verses?  Be sure to follow us on Bloglovin'!

Y'all are awesome!  Have a great week!

10 Days in the Fruits of the Spirit {Day 6: Kindness}

All that patience you practiced paid off!  We're continuing on this marathon of Fruits of the Spirit!  Seriously, you should see my tabs bar right now.  I can't even begin to count how many windows I have open.  Lesson learned though... next time I won't start posting the series until I have all the posts written!  :)

I know we have some newcomers to Mommy & Her Men, so here's a recap from Day 1 over how the Fruits of the Spirit study works.  First, get some breakfast.  Not going to lie... in our house, cereal seems to be the go-to.  Then, get comfy at the table and get to work!   

While we were eating, I had Little Man watch two YouTube videos.  One is a song that we watched each day.  The other is a great series by a man called Hi Hi the Bible Guy.  He is fantastic!  He does objects lessons for everything and he does them big!  I'm talking fire, explosions, power tools, all of it.  Total boy stuff.  

After the videos, we would review the page in the story for that particular fruit and give him the descriptive phrase.  I'll go into that more later.  I would then read our verse of the day.  We would talk about it and I would guide him to make the connection between the verse and the fruit.  This was just conversation over breakfast.  In all of our talks, I tried to be very intentional about relating the fruit directly to Little Man.  We talked about things he specifically did or didn't do.  I made him come up with examples of how he could demonstrate the fruit.  All in all, they were good talks.  

After we finished eating, we would do an object lesson.  He LOVED these!  After the lesson, we would go back to our verse of the day and add our final thoughts.  If you have a child that is old enough, this would be a great time to journal.  Little Man isn't quite there yet.  I'm hoping after a few more units he will be.  

As we closed our lesson, we would pray over the verse, using our names to pray it specifically for us.  Finally, as an extension, he would work on the stained glass cutouts.  These were discussed in the Day 1 post.  If you missed it, you can get caught up here.  This was the time I would usually clean up breakfast.  Sometimes, he'd let me continue the conversation.  Other times, he felt he was all talked out.  If you really want to extend it, have them watch a Veggie Tales episode while they're doing the stained glass and point out examples of the fruits in the characters.  

And that's that!  I know it sounds like a lot, but it really isn't.  Eat, video, verse, chat, object lesson, pray, extension.  Maybe 20 minutes?  

Now that we're all caught up, on to our lesson on kindness!

KINDNESS ~ I will be nice to everyone.

Our verse for kindness was Ephesians 4:32.

Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

One of the things we talk about in our house is making kind choices.  We expect everyone in our home to use kind words and to demonstrate kind actions.  Lately, we're working on replacing some *less than respectful* words with kind words.  Let's try that again.  How can you make sure you're saying that with kind words?

For this lesson, all you'll need is your sink and some objects of various sizes and weights.  They should be objects that you don't mind dropping in the water.  Fill your sink with water and make sure the stopper is all the way in... speaking from personal experience here.

I started by asking Little Man to drop a heavier object in the water and make some observations.  It made a big splash!  Those are big waves!  Yes.  When you dropped the rock into the water, it made a big splash and lots of waves.  It changed the water.  It wasn't smooth anymore.

We compared the different objects to acts of kindness.  I asked him to think of some really big acts of kindness.  Giving blankets to the homeless.  Collecting food from the neighborhood to take to the food bank. Then we talked about some small acts of kindness.  Letting someone else go down the slide first.  Smiling at people in the grocery store.  We found some big, heavy items to drop and some small, lighter objects.  

As we dropped them, I kept asking for observations.  He figured it out pretty quickly.  They all made the water change.  They all made waves.  Yes Little Man!  Every object made waves in the water!  Just like every act of kindness makes a change in the person who receives it.  Sometimes people need a big act of kindness and sometimes they just need a smile.  Our job is to be kind to everyone... in big ways and little ways.

Kindness is ongoing.  We still talk daily about how to choose kind words.  We still try to be intentional about finding ways to demonstrate kindness.  I firmly believe that kindness is taught in behavior and not just in words.  As parents, it's our job to model it regularly.  In the way we treat strangers.  In the way we treat our spouses.  In the way we treat our kids. 

As always, we concluded our Breakfast with the Bible time by praying over our verse (using the "ACTS" model and the words from the verse) and working on his torn paper stained glass.  

"Jesus, I praise you for showing kindness to everyone you met!  I'm sorry that I didn't show kindness when I ______.  Please forgive me.  Thank you for friends and parents that show me kindness when they______.  Please help me show kindness to everyone.  Help me to forgive others when they are unkind to me.  Amen."

Have you been following the study?  Which day has been your favorite so far?

Don't miss Day 7!  Follow us on Bloglovin'!

Come join the fun!  We're linking up at Teaching Mama, Apron Strings & Other Things, and Arabah Joy!

10 Days in the Fruits of the Spirit {Day 5 ~ Patience}

Well, goodness gracious.  I am the worst blogger ever!  In hind sight, I probably shouldn't have started this series right before school started, especially considering I'm in a new grade level this yer.  Busy, busy, busy.  Be prepared for a Fruits of the Spirit marathon, okay?  :) 

 If you need to get caught up, here's where you can find Day 1 {Overview}, Day 2 {Love}, Day 3 {Joy}, and Day 4 {Peace}.

So let's be real for a minute, patience is a struggle.  I kept seeing the marshmallow lesson all over Pinterest.  I thought it would be a great way to introduce patience to Little Man.  Well, if this was a test, he would have failed.  :(  Clearly we have some work to do in this area.  

PATIENCE ~ I will wait without complaining.

Our verse for joy was Romans 12:12.

Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.

As a side note, I had planned on taking the picture at the end ... you know, a smiling face that earned the reward for being patient.  Didn't happen. I'm sure you all know what your little ones look like when they're struggling while they wait. 

Before we started talking, I set a marshmallow on the table in front of Little Man.  I told him that he could eat it right now and it would be fine.  BUT... if we waited patiently, without complaining, he could have three marshmallows at the end of Breakfast with the Bible.  Yeah.... he ate it.  I laughed.  

We attempted a conversation about patience.  I asked him to name some things that he is excited about or looking forward to.  We talked about how it feels to wait.  I asked him to think of things he could do while we waited.  Overall, I tried to lead him to the conclusion that he can pray.  He can spend time with God.  

Ultimately, I want him to understand that there are times we have to wait on God to answer a prayer.  We had a short talk about the ways God answers prayers.  Do you remember that lesson from Sunday School?  Yes.  No.  Wait.  That waiting part is hard, but it's something we have to do.... as kids and as adults.  Have you heard that saying, "While you're waiting on God to open a door, praise Him in the hallway"?  I want Little Man to understand that we can wait patiently for things on earth and answers to prayers.  We do the same things while we wait.  

We will revisit some lessons on patience.  I also saw a lesson about making a paper chain when you are waiting for an event.  Each day you can remove a link and write something you are thankful for in the time being.  I liked that.  I think we'll try that next.  

Just as we did with our other lessons, we ended by praying over our verse using the ACTS model.

"Jesus, it's awesome that You promise to answer every prayer.  I'm sorry for not always waiting patiently.  I get excited and I feel like I have to have it right now.  Thank you for teaching me how to wait without complaining.  Help me to be joyful while I wait, to be patient while I wait, and to pray while I wait.  Amen."

As with the other lessons, we read the book and watched the Hi Hi the Bible Guy video.   We finished up our lesson for the day with a "We'll come back to this again... and wait patiently in the meantime!"

Don't miss Day 6!  Follow us on Bloglovin'!

Come join the fun!  We're linking up at Teaching Mama, My Joy-Filled Life and 1+1+1=1!

15 Fantastic Verses to Memorize With Your Family {Psalm 118:24}

Happy Sunday, friends!  It's short and sweet today!  When our minds are filled with God's Word, all the ugly things have no room to sneak in!  Let's fill our minds today!  Here is another verse for you to memorize with your family!

Here's how it works.  Every Sunday (Scripture Sunday, if you will...), I'll post the set of four cards.  Save them as images and then print however many you want!  They are designed to print as a 4x6, but other sizes should work as well.  Print them on cardstock (or even just regular paper) and stick them in a photo album to review!

Spend the week memorizing these verses with your family!  Come back next week for the next verse!  We'd also love to have you hop over to the Facebook page and let us know your favorite way to practice your verses!  This week, ours is the Spoon Sort!

Want to make sure you don't miss next week's verses?  Be sure to follow us on Bloglovin'!

Y'all are awesome!  Have a great week!

10 Days in the Fruits of the Spirit {Day 4 ~ Peace}

Good morning!  It's an absolutely beautiful day outside!  On days like today, it's easy to have peace.  Other times, not quite so much.  Peace is an ongoing conversation at our house.  As adults, it's hard to truly rest in the peace of Christ.  As kids, it's even harder to understand.  While we talk about turning to God anytime we feel troubled, here's what we did specifically during our lesson on peace.  If you missed the other posts, you can catch up here (Overview, Love, Joy, Resources)!

This lesson is another super simple, no objects necessary, no prep required lesson! As a quick recap, we started every lesson with the Hi Hi the Bible Guy video and a Fruits of the Spirit song.  We read the page from Pups of the Spirit for the specific fruit of the day.  

PEACE ~ I won't be afraid because I trust in God. 

Our verse for peace was John 16:33.

I have told you these things, so that in me, you may have peace.  In this world, you will have trouble.  But take heart!  For I have overcome the world.

To start digging into peace, we had a quick chat about times that we felt afraid, worried, confused, or "troubled."  That was a new word and we spent a moment defining what it meant to be troubled.  Then, we talked about how we handled each of those situations.  Most of Little Man's responses were things like talking to Mommy, telling a teacher, crying, snuggles, or reading a story.  While all of these things are great, they don't offer the ultimate peace.

I apologize, but I don't have a picture of this object lesson.  I had Little Man put his hands together, prayer-style.  He rubbed them together as we listed all the things that trouble us.  Then I told him to "just stop."  "Look at your hands.  What does it look like you are doing right now?"  Praying.  

"Yes!  When we are feeling troubled, we can just stop.  We can talk to God.  We can give our worries and troubles to Him and He will ALWAYS help us."  

God doesn't completely take away our troubles, but He definitely gives us the strength to handle them and the peace to know that He's in control.  I'm taking it as a personal challenge to reinforce this in myself by trying to model it for my boys.  God has a neat way of teaching us those lessons!

Because of the nature of this lesson, it was crucial to carry it out into our day-to-day routines.  One of the things I've done is to make sure that I model what it looks like to give a worry to God.  If Little Man is feeling frustrated, I ask him if he's said his "10 Fingers" (Philippians 4:13 ~ I can do everything through Him who gives me strength.). When we pray at night, instead of keeping my worries to myself, I let him hear me pray about them (age-appropriate worries, of course).  

Just as we did with our other lessons, we ended by reciting our memory verse praying over our daily verse using the ACTS model.

"Father, I praise You for being in control of everything.  It's so good to know that I can always talk to You about things.  I'm sorry that I forget You are in control when I try to handle things myself.  I'm sorry that I didn't show that I trusted You when I worried about _____.  Please forgive me.  Thank you for taking care of me.  Thank you for helping me grow and learn.  Please help me to know that You are always with me every single minute of every single day.  Amen."

I hope you are enjoying these Fruits of the Spirit lessons!  They were fun to create and fun to do!  I've loved watching the growth in my Little Man as he has started thinking about them on a daily basis.  

Don't miss Day 5!  Follow us on Bloglovin'!

5+ Fun-Filled Resources for the Fruits of the Spirit

Ok friends... We're in the middle of our Fruits of the Spirit series.  Today, I'm guest posting over at Joy in My Kitchen!  She has some excellent things to say about being an example of the Fruits of the Spirit for our children.  I'm sharing a full week's worth of resources for the picture book we used during our study, Pups of the Spirit!  Hop on over and say hi!

I'd love to share more about the book we read and the extension activities we did!  I absolutely LOVE picture books.  I'll turn them into a mini thematic unit and we'll do different activities every day.  There are so many early literacy and math skills as well as Biblical truths that can be incorporated into these units!  This makes my teacher heart and my mommy heart very happy!  

Stop by Joy in My Kitchen to see what we did all week!  

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15 Fantastic Verses to Memorize With Your Family {Colossians 3:23}

Happy Sunday, friends!  Here at Mommy & Her Men, we are BIG on memorizing Scripture.  When our minds are filled with God's Word, all the ugly things have no room to sneak in!  Today, we are excited to start a brand new series with you!  Every Sunday, we will be featuring one of our top 15 memory verses.  Now, I'm going to be completely honest with you.  These are probably not the top 15 of all time, for ever and ever.  These are *my* favorite 15 for this very moment.  I mean... I'm pretty sure my favorite verse changes daily.  The Bible is just full of good stuff!

I'm going to keep this short and sweet today.  Go spend some time with that sweet family of yours!  Here is a set of four cards... one for each member of the family.  Each week, for the next 15 weeks, we'll share another of our favorite verses.  Here's how it works.  Every Sunday (Scripture Sunday, if you will...), I'll post the set of four cards.  Save them as images and then print however many you want!  They are designed to print as a 4x6, but other sizes should work as well.  Print them on cardstock (or even just regular paper) and stick them in a photo album to review!

Spend the week memorizing these verses with your family!  Come back next week for the next verse!  We'd also love to have you hop over to the Facebook page and let us know your favorite way to practice your verses!  Right now, ours is the Lego stack!

May I ask a favor of you?  Pretty please?  If you like these, be a good friend and share!  See those icons over to the left?  Click one!  Let's fill each other with God's Great Word!

Want to make sure you don't miss next week's verses?  Be sure to follow us on Bloglovin'!

Y'all are awesome!  Have a great week!

10 Favorite Bedtime Stories for a New School Year

In this house, we LOVE bedtime stories!  It's seriously an ordeal to pick them out every night.  The teacher heart in me will always love a good trip to the library, picking out a collection of books for whatever theme seems to fit the upcoming weeks.  Right now, back-to-school season is upon us.

(I'm going to pause right here and say that I just typed out, erased, typed again, and erased again about 6 different paragraphs all describing how I feel about sending Little Man off to school this year.  I am an absolute jumble of emotions over it, but that's a post for another time.)

Now, back to the point of this post.... picture books!  I love, love, love them!  I also love favorite characters... As a teacher, I would collect every single book about a certain character.  As a mom, I am beyond thrilled when my boys find a character they like and want to read every single book.  Love it all!

This week and next week are all about school starting for us.  Here is our list of our favorite characters' back-to-school stories (in no order at all because I'd never be able to actually put them in order)!

The Berenstain Bears Go to School

I love the Berenstain Bears!  They instill such great morals into their precious cubs.  I so wish I had the patience and grace of Mama Bear and she handles all of their adventures!

Pete the Cat: Rockin' in My School Shoes

My teacher heart loves the repetitive language of this book.  Early readers will enjoy "reading" the words along with you!

Llama Llama Misses Mama

Not going to lie, I *may* tear up every single time I get to the line, "It's too much for little llama."  Ugh.  It's too much for Mommy!

Franklin Goes to School

Franklin is just so good!  He's such a wholesome little turtle!  It wasn't until I became a teacher that I began to fully appreciate how good-natured Franklin is, but he was definitely Little Man's first favorite character!

How Do Dinosaurs Go to School?

We love the "How Do Dinosaurs..." series.  I like to act this one out with the boys.  Right now, they're at the age that Little Man will act it out for Baby Boy.  Hilarious!

There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Books

I don't know if this "technically" counts as a favorite character.  The Old Lady is a character, right?  Either way, I love them all!  The repetitive language is fantastic in this one as well.  It has a such a great rhythm and flow.  I actively seek out new books in this series.  When I saw that a school-themed version came out, it instantly went into the rotation!

The Night Before First Grade

If you have younger ones, there is also The Night Before Preschool and The Night Before Kindergarten.  All of them are super cute!

Froggy Goes to School

As a work-from-home mom, I teach from home.  I'm a 4th grade reading teacher.  My theme in my "classroom" this year is frogs.  I will definitely be incorporating lots of Froggy books.  If you hang around the blog long enough, you just might see a full year's curriculum based around Froggy books.  This, and the Old Lady series, are my absolute favorites.  Seriously, my favorites.

Curious George Goes to School

Curious George was Little Man's 2nd birthday theme.  He was a favorite then and he's a favorite now.  Who doesn't love an adorable monkey who is crazy curious about life?  I mean, what could go wrong with that?!

Clifford's First School Day

Clifford is great.  Puppy Clifford is absolutely fantastic.  He's precious!  He ranks right up there with Franklin.  He's helpful, kind, respectful...  Let's get some more of that into this generation, shall we?

Little Critter: First Day of School

There are actually a few Little Critter books that relate to school.  This one is on our list this year.  We own one of the other ones (The Best Teacher Ever).  I'm pretty sure we went through a phase and read that one every single night for a few weeks.  I may or may not have that one memorized.  I think Little Critter and Little Man could be brothers.

Yellowbelly & Plum Go to School

When I taught Pre-K, I had this in big book format.  We had a whole series of lessons on it.  I have very fond memories of circle times with this book.  I always love a good book that encourages great, healthy friendships in children.  Even as adults, that's sometimes hard to find.

Back to School, Splat

Splat the Cat is something else.  Little Man pulled out the Halloween story a few weeks ago and has been begging to read it every night.  Seriously, it's a battle if I say it's too early to Halloween stories.  We haven't gotten to this one yet in our list.  Hopefully it will be an acceptable substitution.

Minerva Louise at School

This one was also one I had in big book format.  Minerva Louise is just too much!  It encourage some great thinking as I asked my students to link the pictures and text.  Minerva Louise finds things like yarn, but thinks it's a funny sort of straw for her nest.  It's a very intentional book when it comes to making little ones use those good brains!

If You Take a Mouse to School

I mean... who doesn't love this series.  It's another one that I don't think can technically be considered a favorite character, but it's definitely a favorite series!  We own every single one!  See my post here about a busy bag activity for If You Give a Mouse a Cookie!  We got to meet Mouse at a library storytime last summer. Little Man loved it!

So there you have it!  *Most* of the favorite characters we love and definitely a great list of back-to-school read alouds for you and your little ones!  Pray over those precious babies and cherish every moment you have.  I'm reminded daily how quickly it goes by!

Every night, when I pray for my boys, one of the verses I pray is Luke 2:52.  I'd like to pray that verse for all of us today.

Father, may our children grow and seek to be like Your Son.  May they grow in wisdom and in stature, and in favor with You, God, and with man this year.  May their teachers grow.  May we grow as parents.  May Your will be done in our children this year, Lord.  Amen.

If I'm going to be honest with all of you, I'm struggling this year.  I'm having a harder time letting go this year in first grade than I did in Kindergarten.  Even as I type this now and I typed that prayer, I'm crying.  Can I ask for prayer from each of you?  As moms, we know it's hard to let our babies go.  Can we join together and pray for each other and our little ones and their teachers as this year begins?  I know we can.  Y'all are awesome.  

Want more picture books?  Follow us on Bloglovin'!  We'll keep them coming!  :)

Come join the fun!  We're linking up at Kid Minds!

10 Days in the Fruits of the Spirit ~ Day 3 {Joy}

Hello friends!  I missed being here last week!  Lots going on at the same time!  However, that intentional time with our children is an absolute must, so here is Day 3 of our Fruits of the Spirit study!  If you need to get caught up, here's where you can find Day 1 {Overview} and Day 2 {Love}.

This lesson was one of my favorites!  The object lesson was so super simple, but it has so much potential as our kiddos start to think more deeply about these concepts.  As a quick recap, we started every lesson with the Hi Hi the Bible Guy video and a Fruits of the Spirit song.  We read the page from Pups of the Spirit for the specific fruit of the day.  For joy, the book related it to being happy and having a positive attitude.  We took it one step further. 

JOY ~ I will be okay with what I have. 

Our verse for joy was Psalm 118:24.

This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.

For our conversation, I just jumped right into our object lesson.  For this particular lesson, you'll need a glass, enough marbles to fill it, a water dropper (or spoon, straw, whatever you want to use), and probably a plate or towel. 

I placed the empty glass on the plate and asked Little Man to start naming things that make him happy.  He said things like Minecraft, our puppies, playing Legos, pancakes, pizza, dessert, video games, etc.  Each time he said something, I poured a dropper-full of water into the glass.  "Those things can make us really happy, huh?  They're really fun!  But look at the glass.  Is it full?"  No.  The water never reached the top.  

Then I asked him to start telling me things that God gave us and things that bring us closer to Jesus.  He said things like family, the sunshine, going to church, reading our Bibles, singing songs.  Each time he said something, I dropped a marble into the water.  "Wow!  Look at how full the glass is?!  What do you think is going to happen?"

We finished the lesson by reciting our memory verse and dropping a marble as we said each word. "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  Against such things there is no law."  "Look!  The water just overflowed out of the glass!  God fills us with joy just like that!  When we find our joy in Jesus, we will overflow and can spread that joy to others!"

Now, Little Man and I did not do this next part, but it could potentially be really powerful if you had a child who was old enough to comprehend it.  If you filled the glass with water with all the "happy things," it could overflow.  Let it hang out on the counter for a week or so.  The water will evaporate.  When we fill ourselves with happiness from this world, we will never be fully satisfied.  It won't last.  That happiness will evaporate just like the water and we'll have to keep refilling ourselves.  The next week, fill it with marbles.  They obviously won't evaporate.  When we fill ourselves with joy found in the Lord, it's not easily lost.

Just as we did with our love lesson, we ended by praying over our verse using the ACTS model.

"Jesus, it's so amazing that You can fill us with joy when things like video games and toys can't.  I'm sorry that I don't always choose joy.  I'm sorry that I didn't choose joy when I got upset about _____.  Please forgive me.  Thank you for waking us up today!  Thank you for giving us the sun and the rain.  Help me to remember that I can be joyful and rejoice in You even when I am sad or upset.  Amen."

I went off to clean up breakfast and he worked on his torn paper stained glass.  He would randomly think of something else that would fit into one of the two categories ... happiness or joy.  He'd mention it and we'd decide which category it fit in.  

So, I really loved the object lesson for joy.  I think there is so much potential for deep thinking and the teacher in me just loves that!  But it's also so true.  Throughout the week, I found myself asking Little Man, "Are you choosing joy right now?"  As time has gone on, I find myself more and more telling him to go add a fruit to his basket because he did such an excellent job of choosing joy even when I know he would have rather done something else.  He opened my eyes.  God's really cool like that and uses our kids to humble us regularly.  I had an incident this week that just really upset me.  I was running my mouth to my husband ("I can't believe she said that!  What kind of friend is she?") and just being pretty ugly.  Well, Little Man overheard me and very politely reminded me that I should be choosing joy.  Yes, kid, I should.  I don't need to seek approval from friends, coworkers, or anyone else on this earth.  I find my joy in Christ.  Thanks for the reminder, Little Man.

Don't miss Day 4!  Follow us on Bloglovin'!

Come join the fun!  We're linking up at Teaching Mama, My Joy-Filled Life and 1+1+1=1!