Wednesday, October 21, 2015

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!

Are you letting discipline ruin your relationship with your kids?  Try thinking this one simple thought to build them back!



Thursday, October 8, 2015

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!  

Day 8 {Faithfulness} of a 10-Day "Breakfast with the Bible" Study over the Fruits of the Spirit for you and your little ones!  Includes a memory verse, discussion time, picture book, object lessons, and extension activities!

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."

Day 8 {Faithfulness} of a 10-Day "Breakfast with the Bible" Study over the Fruits of the Spirit for you and your little ones!  Includes a memory verse, discussion time, picture book, object lessons, and extension activities!


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'!


Monday, October 5, 2015

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.  

Day 7 {Goodness} of a 10-Day "Breakfast with the Bible" Study over the Fruits of the Spirit for you and your little ones!  Includes a memory verse, discussion time, picture book, object lessons, and extension activities!

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!

Day 7 {Goodness} of a 10-Day "Breakfast with the Bible" Study over the Fruits of the Spirit for you and your little ones!  Includes a memory verse, discussion time, picture book, object lessons, and extension activities!


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Saturday, October 3, 2015

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.

15 fantastic verses to memorize with your family!  Printable Scripture cards for everyone!  This is great so everyone to memorize verses at the same time!

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!

15 fantastic verses to memorize with your family!  Printable Scripture cards for everyone!  This is great so everyone to memorize verses at the same time!

15 fantastic verses to memorize with your family!  Printable Scripture cards for everyone!  This is great so everyone to memorize verses at the same time!

15 fantastic verses to memorize with your family!  Printable Scripture cards for everyone!  This is great so everyone to memorize verses at the same time!

15 fantastic verses to memorize with your family!  Printable Scripture cards for everyone!  This is great so everyone to memorize verses at the same time!

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Y'all are awesome!  Have a great week!







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