I’m excited to interview author Janice Thompson! She got her start in the industry writing screenplays and musical comedies for the stage. Janice has published over 150 books for the Christian market, crossing genre lines to write cozy mysteries, historicals, romances, nonfiction books, devotionals, children’s books and more. Janice is passionate about her faith and does all she can to share the joy of the Lord with others, which is why she particularly enjoys writing.
Parenting isn’t easy. Teaching our kids to show respect, be kind to their siblings, live a life of contentment, and demonstrate a heart to serve others can feel like an uphill battle. There are so many distractions warring for our children’s hearts, but it is our goal as parents to lead their hearts away from those distractions and straight to the Lord. Only Jesus, by His saving grace and Holy Spirit can make a true heart change happen with our children. With that being said, here are five practices to help lead your children’s hearts to Christ.
Some of my favorite Christian chapter books for kids (and for myself) are allegories. There is something special about a good allegorical story with a hidden message that not only draws the reader into the adventure, but also teaches Biblical truths in powerful ways. Jesus used parables (similar to allegories) as one of His primary ways of teaching, and look at the impact the stories have made on so many! I don’t think I would appreciate Jesus’ heart for “the lost” if it wasn’t for the story of The Lost Sheep, or God’s overwhelming forgiveness if it wasn’t for The Prodigal Son, or even our call to truly serve others without hearing the story of The Good Samaritan. These stories help us understand and connect on an emotional level with the heart of God. Similarly, there are also many great chapter books written as allegories to help our children understand God and His ways.
I love connecting parents with great resources, and recently I had the privilege of getting to know Beth Meverden who has a similar heart for encouraging parents on their journey to raise their kids to know and follow the Lord! You are going to love hearing from her and learning from her wisdom, experiences, and great resources!
Recently we had the opportunity to take a family vacation with some friends on a cruise to the Bahamas! We had such a wonderful time with our family and friends and enjoyed God’s beautiful creation all around us. There was only one thing missing… we wished we had a family vacation devotional to do with our kids over the trip to encourage us to keep our hearts more focused on the Lord and His ways!
“I had it first!” “He pushed me!” “I hate my brother!” “Why won’t she ever be nice to me?!” Don’t these comments make you want to pull your hair out as a parent? Do you ever think, “Why can’t my kids just get along?!”
As part of the preschool curriculum I am developing, A Heart Like Jesus, I am creating Character Calendars to encourage our children’s character development in fun and simple ways! Each month I will have a character calendar available for you on a specific virtue that includes ways to practice the character trait, a Bible verse to memorize, and Bible stories to read, and other fun games to encourage your kids!
I am excited to introduce you to Zachary Bell from Brave Books™, a children’s book series created to help parents promote conservative Christian values in the next generation through their creative stories and interactive discussion guides and games.
Have you ever wished you could eliminate those countless hours of screen time on long road trips? What if you could give your kids a constructive activity that the whole family enjoys? I know books are great, and we encourage our kids to read in the car as much as possible. It’s also important to use some car time to talk or play family games, but it’s nice to have other options as well. One of the activities we enjoy on road trips and when traveling around town is listening to audio dramas: stories that come to life through the character’s voices and sound affects without the visual input.
Recently the Lord connected me with Charmé Fletcher, founder of the blog, Covenant Heirs, and coauthor with her husband of Making a Spiritual Discipleship Plan. My husband and I enjoyed using her spiritual discipleship plan resource to come up with our own discipleship plan for our family. It is an amazing tool and really helped us develop a vision for our family, so we stay centered on what matters most in life. I asked her to guest blog for us to tell you more about this wonderful tool…
