Category Archives: Spiritual

The Baby Left Behind Part 3

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Nativity Craft

Day 3: In Bethlehem

*Read Luke 2:1-20

*Stable: was a place where animals were kept and fed. The stable in Bethlehem were usually caves instead of buildings. The stable where Jesus was born was probably one of these caves.

*Manger: was something like a box that the animals ate from.

*To Moms: “But Mary kept all these things like a secret treasure in her heart. She thought about them over and over.” I could write a book on this verse! I think it’s important to treasure up the good times we have with our children, the memories of holding them right when they were born, their first smile, their first step, etc…! I think it is also important to treasure up the beautiful moments in our everyday life, like a sunny day at the park, the sound of the waves crashing on a white sandy beach, the breeze blowing through our hair as we swing on a front porch with our best friend (hubby). These memories or treasures will and can sustain us in times when things aren’t going so well.

*Activity: Today both of the girls decided to draw a stable with everyone in it and around it. Then we made a very simple Nativity set 🙂

Nativity Set Craft/Ornament Directions:

*5 to 6 Popsicle Sticks (we used craft sticks…I didn’t have Popsicle sticks)

*Crayons, Markers, or Paint (your call)

*A Pipe Cleaner (optional)

*Glue (a hot glue gun works best)

Each child can make their own but we decided to break up the craft and just make one together. Each child picked who they wanted to color, then we glued it all together. You can also add a ribbon to the top of it, to make a cute ornament!

The Baby Left Behind Part 2

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Day 2: Our Journey Continues to Elizabeth’s Home

*Read Luke 1:39-45 Mary Visits Elizabeth

This part of the story gets me every time….When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby inside her jumped. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice she called out, “God has blessed you more than other women. And blessed is the child you will have!… As soon as I heard the sound of your voice, the baby inside me jumped for joy. You are a woman God has blessed. You have believed that what the Lord has said to you will be done!”

A Little about Zechariah and Elizabeth: Elizabeth came from Mary’s family. Elizabeth was married to a priest. His name was Zechariah. They were both very old. They did not have any children. An angel told them that they would have a baby boy. The angel said to name the baby John. When baby John grew up, he was known as John the Baptist.

*Read Luke 1:46-56 Mary’s Song

*What is Mary’s song? This is the song Mary sang when she saw Elizabeth. Mary praised God for choosing her to be the mother of Jesus. She knew Jesus would be the Savior. Mary was a great young woman. She had great faith in God. (Adventure Bible for Early Readers)

 

*After reading Mary’s song out loud, take some time to let your little ones create their own song about baby Jesus or Mary and Elizabeth’s story. My oldest one is the artist so she decided to draw a picture of Mary singing to Elizabeth. The picture below is of my worship singer Victoria, she is singing a beautiful song about Mary and baby Jesus.

Sing

 

The Baby Left Behind

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Shopping, baking, wrapping, singing, decorating, more shopping, and more wrapping, Christmas is here! But what is Christmas? Yes, if someone asks us we might say it’s about Jesus’ birth and about spending time with family, but do we really mean it? For that we can look at facebook to see what everyone is posting or tweeting. We will quickly learn the baby has been left behind! He has been replaced by a fat man in a red suit, by Christmas lists, sales ads, garland, cookies and Christmas lights galore. I personally have nothing against any of those things, especially the man in the red suit, he comes to our house every year, but let us not forget the BABY.

 

I have decided to take this first week of December, the 3rd through the 7th, to breakdown The Christmas Story to the kids. We will not be making wreaths or paper candy canes this first week…we are setting the first week of this month to focus on finding this precious baby boy who has been left behind. I hope you will join us on our journey.

Day 1: The Annunciation

*Read Luke 1:26-38 out loud to your children. (“For no word from God will ever fail.” Luke 1:37 Awesome Scripture!)

*You could have them close their eyes and picture what you are reading.

*Now have them draw what they imagined the angel Gabriel looked like when he was speaking to Mary. If your child is too young to draw, google a color sheet about the Annunciation, many will pop up. 

*Discussion Time: Mary is a great person to follow as an example. An angel gave her some very surprising news. She was to be the mother of God’s son. What would people think of her? Was Mary willing to be what God wanted her to be? Sometimes we’re afraid to do what we know God wants. People might laugh or be mad at us. Talk to a parent about how you would feel if that happened. Try to choose what God wants. Then you will be following Mary’s example. (Live-It: from the Adventure Bible for Early Readers)

The Annunciation

Just a Little Prayer…

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“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” Philippians 4:6

It’s that time of year again, crazy shopping, crazy sales, crazy people! Last week I took part in some of that. I wrote my list and checked it twice. The main mission for the errand run was to find a slim tree for our family room. Like always, I had my four little blessings with me, or on this day my four little elves. As we pulled into the parking lot I told them let’s say a prayer. We asked God to help us find just the right tree, not to small, not to big, one that was slim and was a good price. Some might laugh at the thought of praying for a tree or they might think it is ridiculous and selfish but I believe we should pray about everything.

Picture with me your child running to the kitchen, they have imagined a great master piece in their head that they must draw, so they ask for a white piece of paper. Yes, it’s a simple request for you but a request that means a lot to your child, so of course you would want to give them this paper. In the same way a parent cares about every aspect of their child’s life even more does our Heavenly Father cares even more for us.

When we invite our children to be a part of the simple daily prayers they will have the joy of experiencing God’s realness as He answers them and they will also see the heart of our Heavenly Father and his amazing love for us.

Setting the Tone

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Tense, peaceful, sad, joyful, whatever mood we display in our home sets the tone for our children and family.

The morning after the election I read about people being angry, upset, worried and just down right distraught. Although the election did not turn out the way we had hoped as a family our hope isn’t in our president, it’s in our Lord Jesus Christ so, Wednesday morning rather than waking up all depressed, I woke up with a song in my heart. I took out our school laptop and started playing a song by Hillsong, “All of my life, In every season, You are still God, I have a reason to sing, I have a reason to worship.” After the third time playing it, two of my girls, Alayna and Victoria, started walking around the house singing the words.

If we truly listen to and obey the scripture that states in Philippians 4:6-7, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” We can help set a sweet aroma throughout our house and there is nothing sweeter than hearing the voices of our children singing praises to our Heavenly Father.

Lord help me to rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, and to be constant in prayer, so that I may set a tone of love, joy, and peace in our home.

M & M Experiment

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Here’s a fun colorful experiment and the leftovers are tasty! Go through your stash of Halloween candy and find some plain M&M’s.

Take a screw top lid (we used the top off of our olive jar) add four M&Ms, one each of red, orange, green and blue, then add some water.

Make your prediction. What do you think will happen when the colors meet?

Observe.

When the colors meet, they will form a solid line (at least at first until the water is disturbed, someone eats an M&M or until enough time passes). This is because the sugar is dissolving off all of the M&Ms. Where the food dye meets, the concentration of sugar is the same and the sugar/food dye will stop moving outward.

Now you can chow down on all the M&M’s you didn’t water 🙂 Enjoy!

Children’s Spiritual Object Lesson:

Explain that the M&M’s represents us as Christians, the water represents storms (trials & the pressure of the world’s views). Place the M&M’s in the top, pour the water over the them, notice after two to three minutes the M&M’s fade and all the colors mix. Now ask the question, “Do you think you will have enough of Jesus in your heart to withstand life’s storms or the world’s pressures or will you melt/fade under that pressure and your beliefs be compromised by the world’s views?” 

My prayer for our family, is through trials and tribulations, through the rain and wind, we will be full of God’s strength, love and wisdom to stand firm on His word and not fade into this world, as the M&M did when it was immersed in the water. Instead, may we shine bright, like stars in the sky, for all the world to see.

Romans 12:2 “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

Philippians 2:14-15 “Do everything without grumbling or arguing,so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation. Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky.”

Servanthood

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“For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Mark 10:45

At what age should we teach our children about serving others? I think we can start teaching our children about servanthood as soon as they are able to talk and walk. We as the parents set the bar for our children. It is known that our actions speak louder than our words.

When we have family or guest over, my husband and I always ask them if they would like something to drink or eat. Now that the girls are of an age that I feel they are able to serve our guest without spilling it all over them, the torch has been passed on. sometimes I have to remind them but when they do remember they are all smiles.

Serving comes from the heart. When we serve, we are putting others before ourselves, we are saying with our actions your needs comes before our own.

Jesus set the bar high in servanthood. Where is our bar set for our children? Is our hearts and hands lining up?

My prayer is as I follow after Jesus’ example in servanthood, my children will follow after me and together we will be GOD HANDS, bringing glory to his kingdom.

Help Meet

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“And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an HELP MEET for him…And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam…and he took one of his ribs…And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man” (Genesis 2:18, 21-22)

Help meet, what does that even mean? Let’s start with the two words (help-meet), which is to say Eve was created to be a helper (noun) who was meet (adjective), suited to Adam’s needs. Now before all the strong powerful wives get crazy on me, take a deep breath. What I’m sharing is in the word of God, so if you feel your blood pressure rising, step away and take some time to ask God to open your heart to his perfect call on your life as a wife, then come back and read the rest.

Being a help meet doesn’t make us inferior to our husband’s, it means we are there to make him more productive and efficient at whatever he chooses to do.

Taking on the role as the help meet, requires a woman to be wise, smart, strong, selfless, attentive, available and able to help in many different tasks (by the way if you missed the description in the sentence above, a help meet is the opposite of a weak frail girl). Being that help meet to my husband has me doing different tasks inside our home and sometimes outside home, whatever it takes to help him. About three years a go, I took a step back and evaluated our family time. My husband was working between 45 and 50 hours a week and when he made it home he was still plugged (phone calls, emails, texts) in at times. The weekend would come and he would spend another two to three hours working outside away from the family. That’s when I realized if we wanted more time with daddy, I needed to step it up. Being a stay at home mom doesn’t guarantee us more free time but it does mean we can prioritize our time and tasks. I began mowing our lawn every other week giving my husband more time to relax and enjoy our family. Mowing the lawn might not be for every wife. Your husband might not want you to do the outside work but you won’t know until you ask.

When you are a help meet to your husband, you are a helper to Christ, for God commissioned man for a purpose and gave him a woman to assist in fulfilling that divine calling.  God has given us the instruction, it is up to us if we choose to obey and honor our husbands and then ultimately honoring God our Father, “A virtuous woman is a crown to her husband, but she that causeth shame is rottenness in his bones. ” (Proverbs 12:4) It is our job to learn how we can help our husbands in every way possible and as strong, wise, confident, and able women of God, the possibilities are endless.

Further Info on being a Help Meet: Created To Be His Help Meet by Debi Pearl (I like and dis-agree with some things in this book but you can read it for yourself and ask God to show you his perfect plan as a help meet.)

Haiti

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He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.

Mark 16:15

We just got done Skyping (I love technology) my brother and mom from Haiti! They are there ministering in Port-au-Prince.

 

This was a perfect opportunity to bring Haiti to life. We took time cutting out pictures that represented the country, like their flag, some of their agriculture and the map of Haiti itself. Then we took time praying for the people of Haiti.

Thank you God for giving my brother and mother this opportunity to invest in Haiti. May they be used by you greatly and may your hand of protection be on them as they are preaching your word.

 

 

God Broke the Mold

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“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful I know that full well.”

Psalm 139:13-14

Presenting Alayna Boy, now presenting Victoria Boy, and last but not least presenting Kayla Boy. Each princess dressed up in a lovely princess dress and walked down the stairs to the living room to show off their beautiful attire. They twirled and danced around, smiling from ear to ear, each one in their own way saying, look at me mama, look at me daddy, don’t I look beautiful?

Most women deal with some kind of self esteem issue at some time in their life. Why is that? Well, I think first of all we as women believe the lies in our heads that tell us we are too fat, too skinny, not tall enough, or too short.  Second, I think we put too much pressure on ourselves when we see all the junk (let’s call it what it is) Hollywood puts in magazines, on billboards and media. In 2 Corinthians 10:12, it says, “…When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise.”

Raising three little women and one little man, challenges me to encourage them everyday. I want them to know that society will always have a certain image out there for everyone to follow, but as for our house we will follow the image God sets before us. What a relief for them to know they are fearfully and wonderfully made, period! They are unique, they are special, God broke the mold after he made them. What a relief to know they don’t need to look like anyone else or try to be like anyone else, but part of them knowing this truth, requires us as their parents to tell them weekly or sometimes daily. While we brush their hair in the morning, look into their eyes and quote Psalm 139:13-14 over them. When they are helping us around the house, remind them of what Ephesians 2:10 says, “I am God’s  workmanship.” As they are growing into the teenage stage, make sure they know a boy or girl will never complete them, for we are complete in Christ, Colossians 2:9-10 and when times get tough, Philippians 4:13, is there to encourage them, they can do all things through Christ who strengthens them.

My prayer is to consistently speak encouragement and life into their heart, so that when society screams at them and the devil whispers lies, it will be like a ball bouncing off a wall, it will have no affect because they will be full of God’s words and promises.