Ideas

Putting God First


Exodus 20:3
You shall have no other gods before Me.

Here’s a simple way to illustrate the meaning of this verse.  I used these cards with my children 30 years ago, so don’t laugh at the TV with rabbit ears 🙂  We made cards illustrating things we might be putting before God such as friends, money, and TV.

We also read from The Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes, the Bible story recorded in Exodus 32:1-6 about when God’s people turned away from God and started praying to a golden calf that they had made.  We talked about how this caused God much sorrow,  just as it makes Him sad when we put other things or people before Him in our lives.

Let your children help make your own cards with pictures of things that tend to take your family’s time and attention away from God.  Place the cards face down and mix them up.   Then take turns choosing a card to see who picks God first.

God will give you all the things you need and enjoy if you give Him first place in your life and live as He wants you to. (Matthew 6:33)

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Who is St. Patrick?

Did you or your children ever wonder why we celebrate St. Patrick’s Day?    I’m not sure what lies behind some of the traditions associated with the day, but the man that the holiday is named for has a story children need to hear.

Did you know Patrick isn’t Irish? He was born into a wealthy English family about 385 A.D. He died on March 17, 461.  When he was 16 years old, he was kidnapped by Irish pirates and taken to Ireland as a slave where he worked as a shepherd.  During this time he was lonely and afraid; this caused him to turn to God with his whole heart.  After about 6 years as a slave, Patrick escaped and began studying to be a priest.

However, he did not forget Ireland; he had a desire to go back one day and tell them about Jesus.  He did eventually return there as a missionary.  Isn’t that amazing that he would want to go back to the place where he had been enslaved and tell them of God’s love?  What an act of forgiveness! Eventually Patrick was called a saint by the Catholic Church because of his love and kindness to the people of Ireland.

It is believed that Patrick brought the shamrock plant to Ireland and used the three-leafed plant to illustrate the message of the Trinity. This would be a good time to teach about the Trinity.  Click here for help in sharing the concept with your children.  A good children’s book to illustrate the Trinity is 3 in 1: A Picture of God.

Go outside and look for clover and talk about the Trinity; be like St. Patrick teaching the Irish.

Click here for a shamrock craft.

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But everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way (1 Cor. 14:40)

God likes things organized.  Just read in Exodus 36-40 and see the details He gives for the furnishings in the Tabernacle and the arrangement of the furniture.  As always, He is our example.  If He wants His House organized, our homes should be organized. But I’m aware that with all you have to do, the house sometimes becomes low on your list of priorities. However, getting organized will save time in the long run, and having a clutter-free home will have a calming affect on your children.

Accomplishing this comes very easy for some people, but others find it more difficult.  We can claim some of God’s promises that apply here:
Philip. 4:13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
1 Thes. 5:24 He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it.
Ask God to help you ‘watch over carefully all that goes on throughout your household ‘(Proverbs 31:27)

Don’t beat yourself up if your gift is not organization –  but don’t be afraid to ask for help from those who do have that gift  –  it’s all part of ‘bearing one another’s burdens'(Galatians 6:2).  Some people really enjoy organizing and would be delighted to help. If that’s not you, you have different gifts that you can share. In fact, some people may tend to be so organized that they will need to learn from you how to sometimes  leave the broom and go build a memory!

Read 1 Corinthians 12 to see how the Body of Christ is to work.

The Christian Stay at Home Moms blog offers a book to help in organizing.

Involving Your Children in the Process

Deuteronomy 6 tells us to teach as we go.  You can make cleaning and organizing a teaching opportunity as you talk about how God was specific about organizing His house and we should do the same.

Give them age-appropriate jobs to do so they can feel a sense of accomplishment:
(Galatians 6:4 Let everyone be sure that he is doing his very best, for then he will have the personal satisfaction of work well done and won’t need to compare himself with someone else.) Lead them to memorize this scripture.

Be like Mary Poppins and ‘find the fun in every job to be done’.  Make a game out of cleaning – for example pretend that a bomb will go off if the job isn’t completed by a certain time;  or pretend that the president or Jesus is coming for a visit.  I like to lead children in a chant of (1 Cor. 3:9) – ‘we work together; we work together’ as we clean up.

Make a game of it:


And please don’t forget to ask for help if needed 🙂

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Keeping Christ in Christmas – Christmas Wish List

Whatever our age, we all see Christmas as the time for writing letters to “Santa”, enumerating the things we have been wanting all year. Over the years, Santa has gotten more letters requesting the Red Ryder BB gun and the Easy Bake Oven than any other toys.

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The Red Ryder BB Gun is a BB gun made by Daisy Outdoor Products and introduced in 1938, named for the comic strip cowboy character Red Ryder. The BB gun is still in production despite the fact that the comic strip was canceled in 1963. The Red Ryder BB Gun is a lever-action, spring piston air gun with a smoothbore barrel, adjustable iron sights, and a gravity feed magazine with a 650 BB capacity. The Red Ryder BB gun was featured in the popular 1980’s film A Christmas Story, where the main character is desperate to get one, but is constantly thwarted with the warning “You’ll shoot your eye out”. The movie’s fictional BB gun, described as the “Red Ryder carbine-action, two hundred shot Range Model air rifle BB gun with a compass in
the stock and a thing which tells time,” does not correspond to any actual production model.

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America’s first working toy oven, was turquoise and had a carrying handle and fake stove top. It was invented by designers at Kenner Products (now a division of Hasbro). In its first year, 1963, over 500,000 lucky kids talked their parents into spending $15.95. By its fifth birthday, the EASY-BAKE Oven was a household name. In 1965, Hasbro introduced the Kid Dinners for the oven which were mini TV-dinner-like trays partitioned into three sections to hold beef and macaroni, peas and carrots. In 1968, General Mills created very cool miniature boxed versions of its Betty Crocker products for the EASY-BAKE Oven. The oven is still in production almost 50 years later.

Now it is 2010 and the hot items are the Xbox, the iphone, and the ipad. No matter what the item, we all have something we desire.

So how do we transform this to make it a reminder of the birth of Jesus Christ?

When you make your wish lists, just remember that all these things will never bring you complete fulfillment. But there is One who is the Desire of all people, whether they know it or not, who will bring fulfillment. Haggai 2:7 (NKJV) ‘…and I will shake all nations, and they shall come to the Desire of All Nations, and I will fill this temple with glory,’ says the Lord of hosts. The Christ Child is the “Desire of All Nations”!

[Along with our Christmas wish list, our family also makes out a “Grown-Up Christmas List” which is composed of our personal spiritual desires for our lives for the coming year.  Each family member has a copy of everyone’s requests so we can pray for each other.  Each year at our birthday party for Jesus we take inventory of our lives to see the results of the prayers throughout the year.]

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Keeping Christ in Christmas – Christmas Cards

Christmas cards connect us to family and friends. Cards remind us that someone cares and, more importantly, has taken the time to remember us.

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Christmas cards originated in England over 150 years ago. In 1843 Sir Henry Cole, the founder of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, had so many Christmas greetings to send that handwriting them was impossible. Yet he wanted to make his friends aware of the need to help the destitute on that holiday. His answer was to commission John Calcott Horsley to paint a card showing the feeding and clothing of the poor. A center panel displayed a happy family embracing one another, sipping wine and enjoying the festivities, and the words “A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to You was printed on that first card. Although he had the best intentions, the card drew criticism for showing a child enjoying a sip of wine and Sir Henry was considered to be”fostering the moral corruption of children.” ” Legend says Sir Henry didn’t send any cards the following year, but the custom became popular anyway.

From this first-known Christmas card a flourishing card industry has evolved. That early card was hand-colored and lithographed on stiff cardboard, then delivered by hand, a far cry from today’s mass production and almost instant delivery of internet e-cards.

Still, the overriding purpose and custom of exchanging Christmas cards grows out of that very human need to connect.  Christmas is that special time of year that makes us feel that we are all a part of the same family and being part of the same family we owe each other some measure of good. Christmas cards are one way we convey this to others and make them feel special?


How do we transform this to make it a reminder of the birth of Jesus Christ?

As Christians, we are all part of Jesus’ family. The world should know us by our love. Jesus came to show us how to love one another, care for one another, and encourage one another, not just at Christmas but all year through.

John 17:11 (Msg) For I’m no longer going to be visible in the world; they’ll continue in the world while I return to you. Holy Father, guard them as they pursue this life that you conferred as a gift through me, So they can be one heart and mind as we are one heart and mind.

Have a family night of making Christmas cards to send to friends.  Let your children be creative using paper, markers, stickers, glitter, glue, pictures cut from old Christmas cards, etc.  Think of sending a card to someone who has had a tough year.

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