(This is a lesson from Here a Little, There a Little, a compilation of Bible activities I created to use with my preschool children. It was designed to spend a week memorizing the verse and reinforcing it through Bible lessons and activities.)

Trust

Bible Verse: What time I am afraid I will trust in God.  Psalm 56:3

Bible Stories:

Psalm 56 Some mean men were fighting against David.  They wanted to hurt him.  David became afraid, but he remembered that when he was afraid he could trust God.  So David said, “What time I am afraid I will trust in God..”  Then David knew that it didn’t matter what men tried to do to him because God was protecting him.

Luke 2:8-14 Remember the shepherds watching the sheep the night Jesus was born?  The Bible said that they were afraid when they saw the angel that appeared to them.  The angel said, “Don’t be afraid for I bring you good news about Jesus.”  The shepherds learned what time they were afraid to trust in God.

2 Corinthians 11 – 12:10 Paul went through many problems.  He was in prison; he was beaten; he had a wreck in a boat 3 times; some men took all he had and hurt him.  Paul had times of being hungry, thirsty, and cold.  But through all that, even though he was afraid many times, he knew to trust God to make him strong in the midst of all these problems.  Paul learned what time he was afraid to trust in God.

Genesis 14 A bad king had taken Abraham’s nephew, Lot.  Abraham knew he must do something to help Lot.  The bad king had many, many men to help him, but Abraham had only a few to help him.   However, Abraham received a promise from God that He would take care of his enemies.  Abraham didn’t have to be afraid of all those men who were going to help the bad king,  he could trust God to take care of him and his family.

Daniel 6:7-23 The king gave an order that no one was to pray to anyone but him or they would be put in the lions den.  Daniel loved God very much and he knew that the Bible said to always pray to God and only God – no one else.  So Daniel continued to pray to God and the king threw him into the lions den.  Daniel knew that when he was afraid he could trust in God, so he trusted God right there in the lions den and do you know what happened?  Instead of the lions biting Daniel like the king thought they would, God shut the mouths of the lions so they couldn’t hurt Daniel!!!

Prayer: Thank you, God,  that we can trust in You at all times in every situation.

Activities:

Make a clock face out of a paper plate and a brad to hold the clock hands on.  Write the Bible verse on the clock and hang it in a prominent place like on the refrigerator door.

Pretend together with toys, dolls, stuffed animals and that one of them is afraid. Talk about trusting in God whenever he’s afraid.

Spend time all week talking to God about a problem the child or family has. (ex. going to potty, finances, afraid of the dark, etc)  Talk about trusting God to take care of the problem.  Talk about trusting God anytime, anywhere, and with any problem.

Act out Genesis 14 with army men using many to represent king’s army and only a few for David’s.

Act out Daniel 6:7-23 in the lions den.  You could use stuffed animals for lions or make lion masks out of paper plates and yarn for the manes.

Songs:

Put the verse to music for easy memorizing.  Compose your own tune or use a familiar one.  Here’s mine to the tune of  ’Mary Had a Little Lamb’: What Time I Am Afraid

You can find cd’s of scripture put to music.  Steve Green has some especially for children:
Hide ‘em in Your Heart Vol. 1 (This volume has Psalm 56:3 on it)
Hide ‘em in Your Heart Vol. 2
Steve Green: Hide ‘em in Your Heart: 13 Bible Memory Music Videos for Children of All Ages [VHS]

Books:

Find these stories in a children’s Bible.  If you don’t have one, check here or here for some good ones.  Below are two of my favorites:
The Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes
Read and Share Bible

Arch Books has a book about many, many Bible stories.  Begin building your library with these colorfully illustrated paperbacks
Daniel in the Lions Den: Daniel 6 for Children (Arch Books)

Psalm 34:17
The Lord hears his people when they call to him for help.
He rescues them from all their troubles.

Psalm 131:2
But I have stilled and quieted myself,
just as a small child is quiet with its mother.
Yes, like a small child is my soul within me.

Psalm 94:19
When I was upset and beside myself,
you calmed me down and cheered me up.

Col. 3:15-17
And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts.
For as members of one body you are all called to live in peace. And always be thankful.
Let the words of Christ, in all their richness, live in your hearts and make you wise.
Use his words to teach and counsel each other.
Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts.
And whatever you do or say, let it be as a representative of the Lord Jesus,
all the while giving thanks through him to God the Father.

Zeph. 3:17
The Lord your God in your midst,
The Mighty One, will save;
He will rejoice over you with gladness,
He will quiet you with His love,
He will rejoice over you with singing.”

Please read these verses, take them literal, pray them, apply them to every area of your life.  Lead your children to apply them.  There is NOTHING that you face that God can’t handle!!!!!!!  Prayer and the Word is the answer to any emotional, physical, or behavioral problem.

Please watch these disturbing videos with the above scriptures in mind.  Medicine does not trump God!  No matter what you are facing in your life or with your children, let God be the first one you call on, and trust Him wholeheartedly!  Then ‘use his words to teach and counsel each other’.

Watch the full episode. See more FRONTLINE.

In our Bible reading recently we discovered these verses:

Job 8:14 Everything they count on will collapse. They are leaning on a spiderweb.

Isaiah 36:6  . . . If you lean on Egypt, you will find it to be a stick that breaks beneath your weight and pierces your hand. The Pharaoh of Egypt is completely unreliable!

What are we leaning on?  What are we training our children to lean on?  When things around us fall apart, do we act like we are leaning on a spiderweb or perhaps on a stick that breaks and sticks us in the hand?  The way we respond under pressure will definitely reveal what we are leaning on.

The church I grew up in regularly sang “Leaning on the Everlasting Arms”  This song came to mind when I read the verses above and I have found myself singing it from time to time  as I’m rocking a baby.  Below is a link to a newer version of the song but with the same lyrics that give us the ageless truth of the only way to be “safe and secure from all alarms”.  Teach it to your children, along with some of the other old hymns.

Words and brief history

WD-40 has always been around our house and seems to be as valuable to a man as superglue is to a woman. But what does WD-40 stand for? I just found out from a post at Our Daily Journal that it literally stands for ‘Water Displacement 40th attempt’. “In 1953, chemist Norm Larsen was attempting to concoct a formula to prevent corrosion—a task which is accomplished by displacing water. Larsen’s unyielding tenacity and persistence paid off when he perfected the formula on his 40th try.”  I thought that was so awesome to see that the name of the product is a reminder to don’t give up.

I also found out from Our Daily Journal that chutzpah (khoot-spuh) is a Jewish/Hebrew word for headstrong persistence, unyielding tenacity, bold determination, and raw nerve. Right now my husband and I have several things concerning our children that we are imploring the Lord for with intense chutzpah. We will not give up until we see God answer. There are several examples of this in scripture and God was pleased with it.

In Genesis 32:24-29 Jacob wrestled with God and said, “I will not let You go unless You bless me!”  And God blessed him!

In Matthew 15:22-28 a woman comes to Jesus concerning her daughter’s possessed condition and she refused to leave Him alone until He healed her daughter.  Jesus commended her faith.

In Luke 11 Jesus was teaching his disciples to pray and told a story about being persistent in asking.

God is pleased when we trust Him so much we come to Him with chutzpah.  Keep petitioning God on behalf of your children!!!

Listen to this song and sing it with your children as you resolve to  Don’t Give Up (Royal Tapestry Records, 1985)

What do you do between the time your child rebels and the time he or she comes back to the Lord? In looking at the story of the prodigal son,  we have seen why the son left; and we have seen the father’s loving forgiveness when the son came back. But what do you do during the time of rebellion?

I went to a seminar years ago that dealt with this very issue. I’m sorry I don’t remember who led the seminar but one point stands out.

Truth   +   Space   +    Prayer   +    Unconditional Love  =  A Changed Life!

• Lay the proper foundation of the truth of God’s Word.
• Give them their space . . . let them take flight!
• Continue in warfare praying.
• Show them unconditional love when they return
• This will result in a changed life.

St. Augustine is held in great esteem in Christianity.  But he was not always saintly.  He fell into a rebellious lifestyle and fathered a child out of wedlock.  He was heavy into drinking.  His mother was a virtuous woman by the name of Monica. Sometimes she almost despaired; but she was greatly comforted by a Christian friend who said to her, “A son of so many prayers cannot be lost.” Some time after that he was converted and went on to be one of the founding fathers of the church.

Max Lucado has said, “God has too much invested in a wayward believer to leave them where they are!”

If you have a child who is adrift and wandering from the Lord, meditate and pray the following scriptures . . . there is power in praying the Word .

• 2 Tim. 3:14-15 (NKJV)  
But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
• Proverbs 24:15-16 (NKJV)  Do not lie in wait, O wicked man, against the dwelling of the righteous;
    Do not plunder his resting place; 
 For a righteous man may fall seven times and rise again, But the wicked shall fall by calamity.
• Proverbs 11:21 (NKJV)  Though they join forces, the wicked will not go unpunished;
    But the seed of the righteous will be delivered.
• Proverbs 12:7 (NKJV)  The wicked are overthrown and are no more,
    But the house of the righteous will stand.
• Isaiah 59:21 (NKJV)  “As for Me,” says the Lord, “this is My covenant with them: My Spirit who is upon you, and My words which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your descendants, nor from the mouth of your descendants’ descendants,” says the Lord, “from this time and forevermore.”
• Jeremiah 24:5-7 (NKJV)  “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: ‘Like these good figs, so will I acknowledge those who are carried away captive from Judah, whom I have sent out of this place for their own good, into the land of the Chaldeans. [6] For I will set My eyes on them for good, and I will bring them back to this land; I will build them and not pull them down, and I will plant them and not pluck them up. [7] Then I will give them a heart to know Me, that I am the Lord; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God, for they shall return to Me with their whole heart.
• Psalm 23:3 (NKJV)   He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.
• Ezekiel 11:18-20 (NKJV)  And they will go there, and they will take away all its detestable things and all its abominations from there. [19] Then I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within them, and take the stony heart out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh, [20] that they may walk in My statutes and keep My judgments and do them; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God.
• Jeremiah 31:16-17 (NKJV)  Thus says the Lord:”Refrain your voice from weeping, And your eyes from tears; For your work shall be rewarded, says the Lord,And they shall come back from the land of the enemy. There is hope in your future, says the Lord, That your children shall come back to their own border.

Prayer is the mightiest weapon in the universe.  Use it to reclaim your children.

Many homes know the heartache of watching a child make a major mistake.  Dr. Luke wrote in his gospel account:  Luke 15:11-13 (NKJV)   Then He said: “A certain man had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me.’ So he divided to them his livelihood. And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living.”

This looks at the sons but focuses on the father. The dad does everything right as he responds to his son.  We see a seven-fold response.

1. The dad let him go without rejecting him. He could have easily said, “Ok, take your inheritance but don’t ever come back here.  The dad allowed the son to make decisions that he knew would not be the best for the son…he respected his son enough to let him make his own decisions. Of course, age is a factor . . . you don’t let a 8 year old, or a 16 year old have this total freedom yet.  Real love grants this freedom to a child of age even if you know it is the wrong decision . . . and you don’t reject them.  Sometimes the best lessons learned are those that we learned through a wrong decision.
2. The dad never stopped caring. Luke 15:20b (NKJV)  . . . his father saw him and had compassion. Everyday that the son was gone, the dad would look and watch intently for his son to return.  Why? . . . he loved his son with all his heart!
3. The dad’s love ran deep.  Luke 15:20b-c (NKJV)  . . .  his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. The dad could have been disgusted with the son.  No . . . this dad loved his son no matter what he looked like, smelled like . . . no matter what wrong he had done!
4. The dad’s love was not conditional. Luke 15:20 (NKJV)  And he arose . . . and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him.  The dad did not say, “Are you repentant?”  He didn’t ask.  He didn’t wait to see a broken will in the son.  His love for his son was unconditional . . . ”I love you no matter what!”
5. The dad humbled himself in front of all.  Luke 15:20 (NKJV)  …he ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. In that day and age, it was a disgrace for an older man to run in public. He would have to pull up his outer garment and gird it . . . this was undignified.  This dad didn’t care about this. He humbled himself and ran to his son!
6. The dad gave the son undeserved generosity.  Luke 15:22-24 (NKJV)   But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. [23] And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; [24] for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.‘ And they began to be merry. This is nothing more than pure grace!  The tough question is, “discipline or grace?”  In this case, I believe that God had already disciplined the son…now God directs the father to show grace.  For most of us, we probably err on the side of discipline rather than grace.
7. The dad totally accepts the son. Luke 15:21 (NKJV)  And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ The dad does not lay down the new ground rules…that will come later…for now, the dad just needs to accept his son . . . as if the deed had never happened!

This is one of the most wonderful illustrations of responding to a child that goes astray.  The dad knew what complete forgiveness looked like:

• It was immediate.
• It was total.
• It was forgotten.  It was not, “I’ll forgive but I can’t forget!”
• It was costly.  If the son bore the price, it was justice. If the father, bore the price, it was forgiveness.  The dad just simply absorbed the son’s wrongs.
• It was restorative.  The former relationship was re-established.

This is the way my heavenly Father loved and forgave me . . . why should I do anything less?  Do you kknow what prodigal means?  It means ‘excessive or extravagant’.  So you have an excessive and extravagant son being given excessive and extravagant love and forgiveness by the dad!!!

But what do you do between the time of their departure from the teachings of Christ and their return?  This is when the heart aches.  So what do you do?  Tomorrow’s post will address this.

More and more we hear of Christian parents who are having children to stray from the teachings of Christ.  There are a lot of tears and a lot of heartache.  This is not the first time in history nor is it an isolated problem.  Some of God’s greatest servants have had children who rebelled.  Billy and Ruth Graham shed a lot of tears over Franklin (Check out Ruth’s book, Prodigals and Those Who Love Them: Words of Encouragement for Those Who Wait).  W.A. Criswell was heartbroken over his daughter.  Dr. Scarborough, who was one of the main founders of Southwestern Seminary, would walk the campus and weep over his children who had gone astray.  He was heard quoting the Old Testament passage, “Other vineyards have I tended, but my own I have neglected!”

What do you say?  Who do you blame?  What do you do?  God is the perfect parent and we are His children…and we rebel.  So, even perfect parents have problem children. Children have freewill also.  We can stand around and point fingers all day long to cast blame…what good does that do?  What is important now is the steps that are needed to reclaim the children for Christ.

The story of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32) is a great passage to help us understand what happened and how to respond as a parent.  I believe that the one principle that comes through the loudest is this:  Parents must demonstrate love and forgiveness to their children.

I can remember in the first church that my husband pastored, one of the deacons of the church had a daughter who was very rebellious and was dating a guy of whom the dad did not approve.  The guy and girl were sexually active and she ended up pregnant.  I can remember the night we heard the deacon say in anger to his daughter, “As far as I am concerned, I have no daughter!”  I will never forget the look on the face of the daughter.  A few weeks after this the girl gave birth to a still-born baby. She was devastated and wanted to see her dad…but her father could not be convinced to go to his hurting daughter.

Establish this rule:  Nothing will cause me to ever stop loving my children!

The father of the prodigal son experienced the same thing that we experience when one of our children rebels against the things that they were taught.  The father experienced rejection, humiliation, and guilt. When the son walked in and asked for his inheritance, he was saying, “I value my share of the inheritance more than you…so give it to me now!”  In essence, he was saying, “I wish you were dead so I could get the inheritance now.”  The son rejected the dad, his customs, and his values.

This had to be humiliating. The custom of the day was that your family would buy a plot of ground and keep it in the family for generations…you simply pass it to your children and they in turn pass it to theirs.  This son walked in and said, “I want it now!”  The father gave it to him, and the son then sold it for cash. Oh how humiliating and disappointing that must have been to this dad…especially to see someone move onto the land that had been in the family for years.

The father was stunned by all of this.  The questions began:

• Where did I go wrong?
• What did I do to make him hate me?
• Why doesn’t he want to be with me anymore?

The father’s mind went back and forth through all the mistakes that he has made as a dad.  These were actions or lack of actions or words that he wished he could correct . . . but it was too late. The more he thought about it, the more the guilt piled up.

But with all the rejection and humiliation and guilt, the story of the prodigal son is more about a loving and forgiving dad than anything!

Remember these two principles:

Parents must demonstrate love and forgiveness to their children.

Nothing will ever cause me to stop loving my children!

Next post will look at the father’s response to the son.

I have talked with several hurting parents recently who have watched their children walk away from the Biblical training they were given.  As parents we pray that our children will always walk with Him, however, sometimes they may turn away for a while.  The next few days I will post a series of articles to help hurting parents.

Here are some scriptures I was claiming when we were going through some struggles with one of our children who has since returned to the Lord!!!!!!!

Proverbs 20:7 (NKJV)
The righteous man walks in his integrity; His children are blessed after him.

Jeremiah 24:5-7 (NKJV)
“Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: ‘Like these good figs, so will I acknowledge those who are carried away captive from Judah, whom I have sent out of this place for their own good, into the land of the Chaldeans.  For I will set My eyes on them for good, and I will bring them back to this land;
I will build them and not pull them down, and I will plant them and not pluck them up.  Then I will give them a heart to know Me, that I am the Lord; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God, for they shall return to Me with their whole heart.

Jeremiah 31:16-17 (NKJV)
Thus says the Lord: “Refrain your voice from weeping, And your eyes from tears; For your work shall be rewarded, says the Lord, And they shall come back from the land of the enemy. There is hope in your future, says the Lord, That your children shall come back to their own border.

Proverbs 11:21 (NKJV)
Though they join forces, the wicked will not go unpunished; But the seed of the righteous will be delivered.

Proverbs 12:7 (NKJV)
The wicked are overthrown and are no more, But the house of the righteous will stand.

Proverbs 24:15 (NKJV)
Do not lie in wait, O wicked man, against the dwelling of the righteous; Do not plunder his resting place;

Jeremiah 4:1 (NKJV)
“If you will return, O Israel,” says the Lord, “Return to Me; And if you will put away your abominations out of My sight, Then you shall not be moved.

Isaiah 59:21 (GW)
“This is my promise to them,” says the Lord. “My Spirit, who is on you, and my words that I put in your mouth will not leave you. They will be with your children and your grandchildren permanently,” says the Lord.

- – Comforting Words from the Lord!!!! Our children will “come back from the land of the enemy” “to their own borders” with “their whole hearts”!!!

Our son Jon proposed to Mallory tonight!  She is an answer to 25 years of praying.  “We didn’t even know her name, but we were praying for her just the same, that the Lord would write His name upon her heart, because somewhere in the course of this life, our little boy would need a Godly wife.”  We are very thankful for God’s gift of Mallory to Jon and our family.

Please listen to this song.  We first heard it when our boys were very small.  It is a father singing about the little girl that will one day become his little boy’s wife.  Becca and I listened to it together when Josh proposed to her;  Mallory and I just finished listening to it together.

11-somewhere-in-the-world [mp3 download available at Somewhere In The World (LP Version)]

Pray for your children’s future mates.  God is faithful to hear and answer your prayers.  Thank you, Father!!!