Friday Media...

Everyone knows how to "memorize" things. I can prove this because all of us can immediately pop off a whole slew of music lyrics right now. There's something about music that helps us memorize things forever. In fact, there are music lyrics from 20 years ago that are still in my head to this day.

So, one of the easy ways to combine memory and Scripture is to put Scripture to music. Luckily the folks at Seeds Family Worship who have done this for us. If you like it and think your kids will like it, there are lots of CD's available at their website.









Pretty catchy...I'm singing a couple of them right now!

"Santa" or "No-Santa"? That is the question...

I have a new son...this will be his first Christmas. Now, he is much too young to even acknowledge or even grasp the idea of Santa Clause, but the other day, I couldn't help but think about something. How am I going to handle the issue of Santa Clause?

My first thought was..."there doesn't seem to be any harm in a mysterious, gift-giver at Christmas"?

Immediately, my mind went another direction... "if I have to have a conversation one day with my son about how Santa Clause doesn't exist, will he immediately turn to me, call me on my deception, and ask me if Jesus is real, too."


One of the questions that Christians have had to answer for themselves is whether or not they choose to celebrate Christmas with the idea of Santa Clause. There's a wide range of opinion on the matter.

There's the "everything goes/it's all good/accept it all" crowd. Santa Clause is absolutely fine all the time...in fact, if you asked our kids, they would probably think we talk about Santa more than Jesus crowd.

Or, there's the the crowd that likes to point out that if you rearrange the letters in "S-A-N-T-A" you can spell "S-A-T-A-N." All joking aside, there are very genuine believers in Jesus who choose to keep Santa completely out of their families' celebration of Christmas. There are two very different sides to this coin.


Regardless of what side of the fence you lean toward, I would ask you to consider and give careful thought about how you choose to use the idea of Santa in your home, with your children, and in your celebration of Christmas (the celebration of the "Word becoming Flesh" - John 1). Here are 5 different people giving five different viewpoints about how Christians should handle the issue of Santa Clause.

Down with Santa - Thabiti Anyabwile
What We Tell Our Kids about Santa - Mark Driscoll
Thinking About Santa - Noel Piper
Santa, Strategically - Jennifer Wilkin
Santa Christ? - Sinclair Ferguson


As you can read, there is plenty of discussion about proper ways to include or not to include the idea of Santa in a Christian celebration of Christmas.

• Your thoughts?
• How have you handled this in your home?
• Have any of your thoughts been tweeked/changed after reading some of these articles?
• Do you think there is a potential danger in blindly accepting the very commercial idea of Santa?
• If you have incorporated Santa into your Christmas celebration, did you think critically about that choice or was it more of "that's what we did in my family growing up" thing and so we didn't give it much thought?

Merry Christmas...hope you forgive me if I sent you into an internal debate that you're not sure you had time for...

God is BIG!!!

I'm pretty sure you're aware of this, but God is BIG! Kids are acutely aware of how big God is. They are well acquainted with this idea of "wonder." As we move into adulthood, the "bigness" of God starts to become "less big." By "less big," I don't mean that somehow God is smaller. It's not His problem...but our problem.

I saw something the other day that helped me understand just how big things are that we think are. It's a completely different example an idea than God, but this helped me understand just how "BIG" some things are.

What does one TRILLION dollars look like?

Now, if that's what a "trillion" dollars looks like, can you imagine the size of the God of the universe who created everything (including the trillion dollars)? Want further proof, just google how many stars/galaxies exist.

How big is our God? [rhetorical question, no need to answer unless you really want]

Friday Media...

Last week's "Friday Media" was geared around the memorization of Scripture. Well, I figured that we would continue the theme. Everyone knows how to "memorize" things. I can prove this because all of us can immediately pop off a whole slew of music lyrics right now. There's something about music that helps us memorize things forever. In fact, there are music lyrics from 20 years ago that are still in my head to this day.

So, one of the easy ways to combine memory and Scripture is to put Scripture to music. Luckily the folks at Seeds Family Worship who have done this for us. If you like it and think your kids will like it, there are lots of CD's available at their website.









Pretty catchy...I'm singing a couple of them right now!

A Distracted Generation

I don't know if I agree with everything written in this NY Times article, but I think they bring up an interesting point. Is the prevalence of technological distractions and an new "thing" on every virtual corner affecting the brains of a younger generation? We do know that they are growing up very differently than you and I did, but how does technology play into this?

Growing Up Digital, Wired for Distraction

What do you think? With all this talk of ADD and the other issues of the newest generation, does our ability to have the "world" at our fingertips (in a phone/computer), lead to kids being unable to live a life free of distraction?

Thoughts?

If It's Not Awkward, It Might Not Be Working

Read a great post the other day about how parenting is often very "awkward." There are those tense moments in a grocery store, right after an offense is committed, or during an average run-of-the-mill Saturday that parenting can be very "awkward."

And yet, it's those "awkward" moments in parenting where your real stripes are earned. It's in those moments that you have a chance to fight for something better for your kids, rather than settling for status quo.

The Awkward Moments of Parenting

Read up...I'd love to hear about some of your own "awkward" moments in parenting!

It's got to be in YOU first...

One of my favorite author/pastors is John Piper. When he was asked about how to teach children about God and have them memorizing Scripture, his answer was simple (below). He reminded us once again, that you can't expect something to be in them, if it's not IN you. Passion for God and the Scriptures in his words will "spill over," but only if it's real in your own life.

How can parents help their kids memorize the Bible?

What an awesome reminder!

Throwback Thursday #6

For some who haven't been around here that long, this website is a few years old, and there are wonderful things that I'd like to put in front some of our "newbies" and remind some of the rest of you about. So, we're revisiting some early posts each week on Thursdays!

Original post below:

Family Rituals

The other day, I remembered one of the traditions my family had. After every Sunday night church service, my dad would take my sister and I to Taco Bell. We loved it. My dad loved it because he took us "out to eat" and the whole family could eat for around $12. Even in his frugality, my father was doing something very important...establishing family rituals. For my sister and I, we looked forward to it all week, and I'm sure he did as well. It was one of those things we did as a family. There were many more "rituals" in our family and each of them bring some fond memories.

I was reading an article on the Psychology Today website, and it was talking about the importance of family rituals.. The premise of the article was that these family rituals are simple, yet powerful gifts to your children. They listed a few characteristics that make family rituals so powerful.

Here are the characteristics it lists as:

• They are low-key that everyone likes to participate
• They allow time to talk and socialize, but they don't require deep conversation
• They need to be done regularly and predictably
• They need to balance regularity and flexibility.

Link to Article - Simple Gifts

Best Toys Ever!

I had some pretty awesome toys growing up in the 80's. G.I. Joe, Nintendo, Hot wheels, and many others. But, there's one thing I knew how to do...and that was go outside and completely invent a game with almost no "raw" materials.

It's in that vein, that I present to you the top 5 toys of all time...

The 5 Best Toys of All Time

I absolutely love his list, and think we should introduce more and more kids to this list...rather than huge piles of video games and the like.

Have a great weekend!

Throwback Thursday #4

For some who haven't been around here that long, this website is a few years old, and there are wonderful things that I'd like to put in front some of our "newbies" and remind some of the rest of you about. So, we're revisiting some early posts each week on Thursdays!


Original post below:


Video Games and Impatience...

I was part of the first generation that really knew and experienced (on a large scale at least) the proliferation of video games. I remember getting my first Nintendo when I was 7 years old, and I loved to play Mario Bros.

As my video game system aged I never got a new one. When SEGA came out...didn't get one. When Super Nintendo came out...I had to go over to a friends house to play. When Nintendo 64 hit the market...I sure didn't get one. All I had was my Nintendo. By this time it was old and outdated. I still liked to play some of the games, but often it woudl take a long time for me to get it to work. I would have to blow into the cartridge (you know you all did it to). It would often take multiple tries, and I would often get impatient.

Today's child is met with a differnt world of video games, but the link between video games and impatience in children may still be there. I ran across an interesting set of articles the other day which talked about how video games and impatiece amoung children.

Learning From Video Games: Impatience

I Want It Now: The Fierce Urgency of Videogaming

Please don't hear me saying your child should never play video games, but if you do have them in your home, it might be wise to know what you're up against.

It's a new year...

What are you going to do to intentionally spiritually shepherd your children this year? What's something new that you're going to try. God has given you this year and this time to invest in the children he made you responsible for.

If you're close to the average parent, God will give you approximately 3000 hours with your child this year. Some of those will be spent through extra-curricular activities and in other non-direct parent/child time. But any way you split it, you have a whole bunch of time with your kids this year.

How are you planning on using it?

Not Me! (a little Monday humor)

My dad always told me that if he ever caught that "Not-Me" guy, he had a number of spankings coming his way. You see, my sister and I had a way of, when something was broken, misplaced, etc, the answer to my father's question, "who did this?" was always "NOT ME!!!"

One day, my Dad discovered that the creator of the famous cartoon "Family Circus" dealt with the same issue. Enjoy!



This one always makes me laugh!

You're in a war...

Because you live in the United States, and because you live in the suburbs (if you live within 15 miles or so of Firewheel Church), your kids will battle consumerism, selfishness, and materialism all their lives.

What's even scarier is that it's Christmas time right now, and the danger is for kids to begin to think that this time of year is all about them. I'm not saying throw out the presents and don't do Christmas this year, but I am asking you to consider how you can "war against" this mindset in your home and your families.

One of the easiest ways to battle materialism and selfishness is to begin to develop children with a generous heart and promote generosity in your family. Do you have a plan for that. Here's a quick little message to give you some inspiration.

What have you done to teach your children the importance of giving?

"Thankfulness" Activities

One of the dangers facing kids this day is the danger of "entitlement." I see it everywhere. Maybe you see it in your family...your kids...even yourself. One of the real blessings of Thanksgiving week, is that it's a chance to stop, pause, and give thanks for all that the Lord has blessed us with. I would encourage you to be very intentional about creating a spirit of thankfulness/gratitude throughout this week.

I found this link the other day, and it had 12 really cool ideas about how to make "thankfulness" something fun during the upcoming holidays. After you click on the link, the "Thankfulness" activities are scrolling across the top. Check it Out!

Thankful Kids - Thankful Families

Enjoy!

Separation Anxiety

One of the things children's ministry leaders have had to deal with on a consistent basis is what most people would call "separation anxiety." Almost weekly, there is a kid who is hesitant or outright defiant when faced with the realization that mommy and/or daddy is getting ready to leave them in the children's wing during our ministry time.

Did you know that if you have young kids, there are a number of ways you can help make this a "less" common occurrence?

"General Guidelines for Easing Separation Anxiety:

1. Develop a “good bye” ritual. Rituals can bring reassurance to your child and can be as simple as a kiss bye or a wave.
2. Leave without fanfare. Tell your child you are leaving and that you will be back soon, then go—don’t stall, just go!
3. Practice leaving your child. Leave your child with someone for a brief period at first to help him/her experience your leaving and returning.
4. Keep familiar “things” when possible and make new surroundings familiar to your child. When your child is away from home or a familiar surrounding, allow them to have a “lovey” or favorite blanket for comfort. Visit the unfamiliar location so your child can see where they may be going to be left with a caregiver.
5. Try not to give in. Always reassure your child that you will return and he/she will be just fine and will have fun—setting limits will help the adjustment to separation."

Source - LINK

Excited about the Bible?

Have you ever wondered how to get your kids excited about God's word? Here's a great list that might help. Although geared toward children's ministry volunteers, I think almost all of them apply to parents.

10 Ways to Get Kids Excited About Bible

I would agree wholeheartedly with #1. Unless you're excited about God's Word, the chances your children are excited about God's Word are significantly impacted!

Connecting with your kids...

Every parent wants to do it. Some are better at it than others. Here's a link to 10 helpful ideas of how you can connect more with your kids. I think a couple of these could easily turn into memorable moments. Enjoy!

10 Ideas for Connecting With Your Kids

Hide it!

One of the very first verses of the Bible that I memorized as a kid was Psalm 119:11.

"I have hidden your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you."

At Firewheel, especially in the children's ministry, we are convinced that kids should begin to learn how to hide God's word in their heart. There are all kinds of benefits to that, and I could probably write multiple pages about the benefits of scripture memory. Instead of doing that, I figured I'd share a couple of links that talk about "easy" verses for kids to memorize.

10 Easy Bible Memory Verses

30 Easy Bible Memory Verses


How can you incorporate these at home? I really hope you'll consider that question.

Video Games and Impatience...

I was part of the first generation that really knew and experienced (on a large scale at least) the proliferation of video games. I remember getting my first Nintendo when I was 7 years old, and I loved to play Mario Bros.

As my video game system aged I never got a new one. When SEGA came out...didn't get one. When Super Nintendo came out...I had to go over to a friends house to play. When Nintendo 64 hit the market...I sure didn't get one. All I had was my Nintendo. By this time it was old and outdated. I still liked to play some of the games, but often it woudl take a long time for me to get it to work. I would have to blow into the cartridge (you know you all did it to). It would often take multiple tries, and I would often get impatient.

Today's child is met with a differnt world of video games, but the link between video games and impatience in children may still be there. I ran across an interesting set of articles the other day which talked about how video games and impatiece amoung children.

Learning From Video Games: Impatience

I Want It Now: The Fierce Urgency of Videogaming

Please don't hear me saying your child should never play video games, but if you do have them in your home, it might be wise to know what you're up against.

37.7 Seconds

Are you wondering what that number is? That number is actually the average time "a middle class father spends in conversation and interaction with their children."**

Now, when I read that, I was deeply troubled. Surely, that's not the case. I REALLY hope that's not the case for the men of Firewheel. The demands on men are everywhere, but our first calling is to love/serve our wives, and to love our chidlren.

Guys, we can do better than than 37.7 seconds...we HAVE to do better than that!!!

Read the article at the link below men...get challenged!

**How much time should Dad spend with children?