While it’s fun to buy chocolates and other Valentine’s gifts that show our kids we love them, we can also buy gifts that remind them how much their Heavenly Father loves them! With this in mind, here are my favorite Valentine’s gifts for kids to lead them closer to the Lord!
My kids and I have enjoyed listening to Discovery Mountain, a dramatized audio program that leads children closer to Jesus and God’s Word through its entertaining and impactful stories. We wanted to get a closer look at this amazing ministry, so I contacted Discovery Mountain to ask them some questions. I am very pleased to introduce you to Jean Boonstra, founder of Discovery Mountain. Thank you, Jean, for talking with us about your amazing audio program for families!
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.
One way to encourage our children to have a personal relationship with the Lord is to encourage devotional readings coupled with reading their Bibles. Devotionals are impactful because they teach Biblical truths and help children apply God’s Word to their lives through stories, analogies, and discussion questions. Devotionals can also encourage children in their prayer life. There are many different kinds of devotionals we can use to encourage our children in their walk with the Lord, so sometimes it can be difficult to know where to start.
Knowing when and how to choose the perfect Bible for your child can be a bit overwhelming. You may not know what options are out there, or perhaps you have searched the internet and found way too many Bibles to choose from. You may also worry that your child will not be interested in reading the Bible, it may be too difficult for him or her to understand, or the translation may not be exactly accurate. These are all valid concerns, which is why I am sharing some tips to help you choose the right Bible for your child.
As moms who love Jesus, we want nothing more than to raise our kids to know, love, and follow Jesus too. But how do we best impart this devotion to our kids when we are flawed and sinful by nature? The answer, I believe, is to let Jesus transform us to become more and more like Him in the way we act and how we disciple our kids. We need a mommy make-over…not a make-over of our outer appearance but a makeover of our hearts…Let’s take a closer look at how Jesus discipled His followers to learn how we can be Mamas who disciple our kids to follow Him too.
“Listen then to what the parable of the sower means: When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in their heart.” Matthew 13:18-19 (NIV) This week we will take a closer look at the meaning of the eaten seed.
One day when we were taking a neighbor boy home from school, my kids and I were talking about verses they were memorizing for homework. The preteen boy riding with us couldn’t understand why he needed to memorize Bible verses at school; after all he could just look them up on the Bible app on his phone, right? I knew this boy was a thinker, so I tried to explain to him why memorizing scripture is so important, and I hope it made him think. Many youth and adults feel the same way today.
Recently my good friend Lindsay shared with me about her experience sending her first child off to college this year. I was so amazed and encouraged to learn about the intentional ways she has prepared her daughter to be spiritually grounded to leave home. I was also impressed with the process she went through to help her daughter determine which school was the best fit for her. Because our conversation was so insightful, I asked her to share with us about her experience sending her daughter off to college for the first time, and how she prepared her daughter spiritually to do so.
3 Ways to Protect Our Children From Evil
“If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.” Matthew 5:29 (ESV)
1. Jesus taught His followers to stay away from evil.