source YouTube
Spelling Your Name
My daughter, Sari, is almost 4 years-old. I can’t believe how fast time flies! It seems like only yesterday that Amanda and I were childless and living the kidless life! My how things have changed!
Sari is a pretty smart young girl. Our daycare ladies tell us often how amazed they are at her mental progress and prowess (I’m sure they tell all the parents that, right?). Sari has been able to recognize her name for a while now, but it has been a recent phenomenon that she is able to spell and craft her name (like in the picture above).
In honor of her upcoming birthday and this milestone in her life, I thought I would dedicate today’s blog post to my oldest daughter, Sari. I’m proud to be your dad!
Saul (and Jonathan) Die and David Becomes King (story & video)
Regime change seems to be difficult sometimes. It was no different in the early years of Israel’s monarchy. King Saul had reigned for a while, then was killed in battle. Normally one of his sons would be installed as the next king, but God had rejected Saul’s kingship and passed it on to David. As David assumes control of the country, some violent things happen. But eventually, over a period of time, David unites the entire land of Israel under his kingship and establishes the capital city of Jerusalem.
**Note**
This story is rather violent in nature. A lot of killing takes place.
source Vimeo
Click Here to watch the version of this story we did 3 years ago.
A Story about Boundaries
Once upon a time there was a young, misbehaving princess who was taken away from her royal parents by magic. Actually, she was taken by a person of magic: The Wise Woman. Through a wild set of circumstances, Rosamond (the young misbehaving princess) found herself in a meager, common home in a faraway country side, with a shepherd and a shepherdess. This was The Wise Woman’s doing. You see, she was wise, and new exactly what young Rosamond needed to cure her mal-nourished character of spite and spoiled-rotten-ness.
The day that Rosamond arrived in the home of the shepherd she acted out something fierce. When asked to do some basic household chores, she stormed out of the house screaming like the spoiled child she was. The shepherdess calmly spoke to an unusual dog named Prince to go and fetch this wretched child. Prince bounded after the former princess and drug her back against her will. Surprised, unsure of herself, and quite a little afraid of Prince, Rosamond proceeded to obey the shepherdess’ instructions and requests. It was amazing though, Rosamond and Prince got along splendidly after this first unfortunate encounter. They became fast, best friends.
Later on that day, Rosamond began to return to her old rotten self, and when she had a moment alone when she was out in the field, took it upon herself to runaway from this wretched family.
“But she had not gone more than a dozen paces, when she heard a growling rush behind her, and the next instant was on the ground, with the dog standing over her, showing his teeth, and flaming at her with his eyes. She threw her arms around his neck, and immediately he licked her face, and let her get up. But the moment she would have moved a step further from the cottage, there he was in front of her, growling, and showing his teeth. She saw it was of no use, and went back with him.
“Thus was the princess provided with a dog for a private tutor—just the right sort for her.
“Presently the shepherdess appeared at the door and called her. She would have disregarded the summons, but Prince did his best to let her know that, until she could obey herself, she must obey him.”
And so it was
“that so long as she neither lost her temper, nor went against orders, she might do almost anything she pleased with him.”
…with Prince.
Quotes taken from “The Wise Woman and Other Stories” by George Macdonald
Watching You
There was a sermon that I preached a couple of years ago called “Watching You: Stewarding the Rising Generation.” I wrote kind of a plea at the end of that message that bears repeating:
There is so much more that I could and want to say about this subject. So many more specific things that I just couldn’t fit in to one message. I live this and breathe this stuff each and every day. And I am very passionate about seeing our children and youth be transformed by Jesus, living wisely, and responsible stewards of God’s ongoing story in the world.
One thing that I will say as your children’s pastor and as the community children’s pastor: Our world doesn’t pull its own weight in teaching and modeling to our children and youth about the ways of God. In fact it is horrible at it. Our culture is more interested in how much money it can extract from our student’s hands (via your wallet); creating and sustaining an insatiable thirst for more and better entertainment (TV, video games, theme parks, etc.); and keeping them busy for all of the waking hours in a day (sports, after school programs, events, clubs, etc.).
I’m not criticizing any one thing over the other (although there are some things that are inherently bad that we need to protect our children from).
The point I want to make is this: Our students are immersed in the ways of the world exponentially more than they are immersed in the ways of God. Remember: more is caught than taught.
Think:
- how much does my family need to be watching TV?
- how much does my family need to be playing countless sports?
- how much does my family need to be kept busy all the time?
My encouragement as a children’s advocate in the Hayward community is be intentional with the time you spend with your family and make sure it is strategic. Make sure that something eternally important isn’t being missed in the pursuit of raising your children.
This isn’t a plea for more students to join our “church” things, although we are extremely intentional about how we immerse the students into the ways of God. Moreover, it is a plea to do something. Again, make sure something isn’t eternally missed in the fast pace of our lives.
I want my children to see their Dad on his knees often praying and seeking the LORD. I want the children in this community to follow my example, as I follow the example of Jesus Christ.
And you should want that, too.
They are all WATCHING YOU!!
I used these two powerful videos in the sermon “Watching You”:
The Kingdom Story
a come-from-behind-story of the King
Once upon a time, there was a King. Everything the King did was good. The people in his kingdom adored him and followed him as their King. The King found time to spend with each person in his kingdom. He loved everybody no matter what they were like. He had but one rule… This rule was put in place so that his people would have life. If they violated this rule, they would suffer the consequences—death. The choice was theirs.
One day, an enemy of the King snuck into the kingdom. He deceived the people of the kingdom by saying that they would not die if they disobeyed the one rule. They believed this cleverly disguised enemy of the King. The people broke the one rule. They chose death, not life.
How do you think the King felt when he found out that the people he loved disobeyed the one rule?
Probably sad.
Maybe angry.
Perhaps bummed.
He loved his people and did not want them to experience death. But the King was true to his word. The people violated the one rule and so they must suffer the consequences of their actions. They were banished from the King’s kingdom and died.
It may sound like the King was harsh on his people, but in fact he was quite gracious. He could have just abandoned the people who betrayed his love, left them to fend for themselves outside his beautiful and loving kingdom. But he didn’t “leave” them. He stuck by them. In fact, the King began working on a master plan to bring his banished people back into his loving and beautiful kingdom.
It looked like this: choose one person, who would make more chosen persons, who would in turn make even more chosen persons, and later on down the line would have lots of chosen persons; the King then promised himself to these “chosen persons”; the King said: ‘Chosen Persons! I am going to be with you. I will be your King and you will be my beloved chosen persons! I am going to use you to show all the persons of the entire world what my kingdom is like. And when you show all the persons of the world my kingdom, you will be actually bringing back the banished people to the beautiful and loving kingdom’.
However, the more the King tried to convince the chosen persons he chose to show the world his kingdom, the more the chosen persons messed up and chose death, not life. Over and over again, the King used messengers and special people he sent to tell his chosen persons of his wonderful kingdom and to warn them of the consequences of their continued bad living. And each and every time, the chosen persons chose not to listen to the King, but to the cleverly disguised enemy of the King. It got so bad that the King had no choice but to banish the chosen persons from the kingdom that was supposed to like the beautiful and loving kingdom. Double banishment!
How do you think the King felt when he had to banish his chosen persons?
Probably sad.
Maybe angry.
Perhaps bummed.
He loved his chosen persons and did not want them to experience death. But the King was true to this word. The chosen persons were not showing the people of the world what the real, beautiful and loving kingdom of the King was like.
It may sound like the King was harsh on his chosen persons, but in fact he was quite gracious. He could have abandoned the chosen persons who betrayed his love, left them to fend for themselves outside of his beautiful and loving kingdom. But he didn’t “leave” them. He stuck by them. In fact, the King had already been working on a master plan to bring back his banished chosen people into his loving and beautiful kingdom.
The King’s master plan was unlike anything that anyone expected. The King sent a very, very special messenger to tell his banished chosen persons about what the King really wanted and how the King really wanted his chosen persons to be. The King thought that his chosen persons would graciously accept and heed the message that this very, very special messenger brought. Sadly, the chosen persons did not. In fact, the chosen persons, along with the cleverly disguised enemy of the King, took this very, very special messenger and had him killed.
How do you think the King felt when his banished chosen persons killed his very, very special messenger?
Extremely sad.
Maybe a little angry.
Perhaps totally bummed.
He loved his very, very special messenger and did not want him to experience death. You see, this very, very special messenger was the King’s only son—the Prince. And the chosen persons took the life of the Prince of the King. The chosen persons gave to the Prince what they experienced in being outside of the beautiful and loving kingdom—death.
It would seem that the loving and gracious intentions of the King were continually thwarted by the people he loved so dearly. But things are not always as they seem. You see, the King had not been thwarted by the people he loved. He actually thwarted them. He turned them. He captured them from death… and created a highway to life in the original beautiful and loving kingdom. This highway was paved by the King’s very, very special messenger—the Prince. The Prince paved the way to the beautiful and loving kingdom because although he did really die… the Prince did not stay dead. In fact, the Prince came back to life. The Prince paved the way from death to life, undoing the banishment of the people of the king from the beautiful and loving kingdom.
How do you think the King felt when his only son came back to life?
Extremely happy.
Maybe a little dancing.
Perhaps totally joyfully throwing a party!
The King loved his son. And the King loved his people. A highway from death to life in the name of the King’s son, the Prince, was made for the people he loved to enter back into the beautiful and loving kingdom. All the people have to do is walk the highway of the King – the King’s Highway.
This story was an excerpt from a sermon I preached a number of years ago entitled Don’t Miss The Point of it All.
Discipline | What vs. Why
Sam Luce wrote a great post on the “why” of discipline versus the “what” of discipline. You can read the post here or below:
I don’t want to go down the road of what type of disciple you should do for your kids because every kid is different and every family is different. What I would like to talk about is the principles that every family no matter how old your kids are should practice. In my short 36 years on earth working with parents and then making similar mistakes with my own kids, one of the most common and most frequent mistakes parents make is asking “What did my kid do rather than Why did my kid do that.”
In every discipline situation we are forced to ask both of these questions. The question that is easier to ask is “What happened?” Asking what happened is appropriate but to really deal with the problem we have to ask “Why.” The classic story everyone has heard their pastor use as a sermon illustration (I’m not even sure it really happened) about the boy who was standing up on his chair in church. The father goes up to the boy and tells him to sit down the boy refuses the father says sit now or you will get a spanking, the boy relents glaring at his father the whole time. The boy sits down the father thanks him the boy responds by saying “I may be sitting on the outside, but I’m standing on the inside.” That is a classic example of “what” not “why.”
For all of us teaching our kids how to act is much easier than teaching them how to live. One of the things I am committed to as a pastor and a father is to teach my kids and the kids in our church how the power of the gospel changes us from the inside out. The gospel is about life transformation not behavior modification. As a parent having your kids do what you say is only the first step to leading them down a path to live the gospel. Whatever your rules are in your home it doesn’t matter, whatever your method of correction for wrong behavior it doesn’t matter. What matters is that you and your spouse commit to raising your kids asking Why did you break that lamp, why did you lie to me, rather than what did you just do.
When we correct our kids solely on what they have done we often send a message that what you did embarrassed me or made me angry. When you correct kids based on their attitude you give them tools to live a life focused not on acting or being a perfect person but you teach them that without God’s help we are hopeless, helpless and miserable. An example of this would be you call your son over he refuses to come you go to him grab his arm to talk to him he pulls away and knocks over your favorite lamp. You get angry discipline your son for knocking over the lamp. In doing that you send two signals. 1. Things matter more than he does 2. You want him to act a certain way. The result is not a repaired relationship of your son to you or your son to his Heavenly Father and most of all you rob your son of experience the grace of repentance and forgiveness. In exchange you teach him how to wear a mask and act like the very people who knew the law but could not recognize the Savior.
When you train kids to change their attitude with God’s help their behavior will change as a result of the consistent work of the grace of God in their life.
“Cast Your Cares” Seeds Family Worship Video
I came across this music video a couple of months ago and have been playing/listening to it in the background before and after ministry events. It’s a really catchy tune and I love that it is a verse! I haven’t looked in to what else they offer, but this would be a neat way to connect memorizing Scripture with worship time. It would also be great music to have in the home as well!
Seeds Family Worship website
source YouTube
Bible Verse Hand Motions Video
We have done this a lot the past couple of years with the Followers.
We’ve combined kinetic movements with Scripture and it really makes memorizing fun and engaging.
I’m curious if it sticks with the kids long-term, however; especially if you add new ones every week. Anyway, here are some tips to doing your own hand motions:
Tips for Bible Verse hand motions:
(Quoted from Ministry-to-Children)
- Keep it simple enough for preschoolers. Each symbol should correspond to a phrase. Sign language can be helpful but is often too complicate for most kids to retain long term.
- Make them fun. A little playfulness makes the whole exercise more enjoyable. In the example above the phrase “with all your soul” was supposed to be acted out with great enthusiasm. We even had children volunteer to see who had the most passion in their soul movements.
- Re-use the same movements. Many Bible memory verses for kids will include similar concepts. Consistent hand motions will help with recall. We typically will point to heaven when speaking of God but make a nail sign when the word is Jesus.
- Challenge the kids to invent their own. I try to include at least one motion for each verse where the kids get to pick their movement. In the example above the phrase “with all your might” could be rendered as a karate punch, muscle pose, or even dance move. I offered these options when kids first learned the verse.
- Get ideas from others. You can find some on YouTube (here and here and here) but often your Sunday School teachers are the best source for these motions. Assign verses to different classes or small groups, then have them teach the whole children’s ministry.
- Write them down or make a Facebook video for parents. These Bible memory hand movements are a great take home activity. Send a note with motion explanations so kids can teach them to their parents. You could also upload examples on video to you church Facebook page.
via Ministry-To-Children
source YouTube
Nursery Heroes! (video)
As a parent who is almost done with the messy diaper changes, I laughed because I can’t wait to not have to do this again. I find it amazing that there are willing volunteers in our church nursery who do this on a regular basis with babies! What a way to kindly serve in one of the least glamorous ways!
source YouTube
David, Nabal and Abigail
David encounters a “fool” (Nabal) and almost succumbs to a rash decision.
Thank goodness for Abigail!
source Vimeo
Packers in Superbowl XLV!
I love football season (both college and professional)! The TV is on all day on Saturdays and Sundays at my house and it’s great!
I’ve never really claimed allegiance to one team over another (other than OU). Until this last Sunday. I’ve lived in WI almost 8 years now and I’ve enjoyed the rivalry between MN Vikings, GB Packers. and CH Bears. I don’t usually care who wins or loses, I just really enjoy watching football games. Until this last Sunday.
I don’t know why it took me so long… maybe it was because of how emotionally invested my wife and I were in who won in yesterday’s Packers vs. Bears game. Kind of like an out of body experience, I noticed myself really caring! I wanted the Packers to win! When something bad was about to happen to the Packers (as in their lead slowly slipping away) I would cringe and get all tense! Crazy, eh? So I guess I can’t ride the fence anymore. I’ve got to say that I really do care how the Green Bay Packers do in their games. And I want them to win the Superbowl!
**Note**
I just want to offer my sincere condolences to my friends who are fans of the MN Vikings or the CH Bears… maybe next year, eh?