Parents, How Are Our Spiritual Lives Affecting Our Children?

Are you aware that when we as parents fail to heed God’s Word, it affects our children?

Hosea 4:6 . . .  You have forgotten the teachings of your God, so I will forget your children.

This may not sound quite fair of our loving God, but God knows what is best for us and our children and He wants us to desire Him above all, if only for our children’s sakes.

Deuteronomy 5:29 “O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be will with them, and with their children for ever!”

Feel God’s agonizing to get people to obey His Word because He knows it is for their good and the good of their children.

Catherine Marshall in her book, Something More,  writes, “We are accustomed to the idea that we pass on to our children a physical inheritance – color of eyes, color of hair, even certain diseases: tendencies toward gout, diabetes, certain skin diseases. Handing down a material inheritance is such standard practice that the laws of every country make careful provisions governing wills, probate, death, and inheritance taxes.  It soon became apparent that just as we can inherit either a fortune or debts, so in the spiritual realm we can inherit either spiritual blessings or those liabilities (unabashedly called ‘sins’ in scripture) that hinder our development into mature persons.  These blessings do not come to us solely by heredity.  Obviously they are also passed on by example and by teaching – conscious or unconscious.”

Andrew Murray in How to Raise Your Children for Christ wrote: “Education consists not so much in what we do or say but most of all in what we are; and that not only when our children are of an age to see and judge but long before, even before their birth.”

Seeing how we so affect our children’s lives, we should take inventory of our spiritual lives:

1.  Have I accepted Christ as Savior of your life?

John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son,that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

2.  Am I confessing known sin daily?

Psalm 19:12:  “…cleanse thou me from secret faults.”

Psalm 51:10 Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a right spirit within me.

I John 1:9:  “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

3.  Do I value God’s Word in my life?

Job 23:12
I have not departed from the commandment of His lips; I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my necessary food.

4.  Am I spending time alone with God in prayer?

Mark 1:35:  “And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, He (Jesus) went out and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.” (If this were important in Jesus’ life, how much important is it for us?)

5.  Am I letting the peace of God rule in my heart when everything around me is not peaceful?

Colossians 3:15 And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.

Let’s take the time to read while we have been this opportunity to stay home.  I highly recommend the two books linked to above to help you see how important your relationship with God is in the life of your child.

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God’s Protection Plan

Fruits, Vegetables, Artichoke, Banana

“And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth,
and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed;
to you it shall be for meat [food].”
Genesis 1:29

This is the basic nutrition plan that God laid out for us in the very beginning.  The sooner we realize that God who made the body has a plan for taking care of the body, the healthier we will be.  And the sooner we start feeding our children according to God’s plan, the healthier they will be and the easier it will be to train them for a lifetime of eating healthy.

Food and lifestyle should be our first step in staying well. If you have been taking care of yourself, you should have a better immunity to help fight any virus you come in contact with. Just like proper fuel in your car keeps it from breaking down, fueling your body with proper nutrients will keep you from getting sick.   If you have been procrastinating eating better and exercising, now is the time to take this seriously for your health and the health of your family.

The first book I read on this subject was What the Bible Has to Say About Healthy Living.  I highly recommend it.

Here are some other good ones on nutrition:

The Maker’s Diet 

Miracle Food Cures from the Bible

10 Keys That Cure

Here’s an excellent link that has a list of foods for kids and adults that support the immune system.  Follow Dr. Axe for more information.

Here are two great children’s books to get kids interested in healthy eating:

Eat Healthy Feel Great

Junk Food Dude

Other posts on this site about nutrition:

Teach Children to Eat Healthy

Ideas for Healthy Eating

Have Trouble Getting Your Children to Eat Their Veggies?

New Children’s Book About Healthy Eating

Healthy Eating

 

“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” —Benjamin Franklin

“Let food be thy medicine” —Hippocrates, father of modern medicine

 

 

 

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Spring is Here – Time to Praise the Lord

Spring-Tulips-yellow-and-red

The flowers are springing up,
and the time of singing birds has come,
even the cooing of turtledoves.
Song 2:12 

 In Matthew 6:25-34 , Jesus must have been enjoying spring time as He taught His friends about how much God loves them.  He noticed the birds flying around and said,  “Look at the birds! They aren’t worried about having enough to eat because God feeds them.  In the same way, you shouldn’t worry about what you will eat.  God will feed you too!”  Then Jesus picked up some flowers that were blooming and said, “These flowers don’t have to worry about what they will wear because God has beautifully clothed them.  You don’t need to worry about clothes either for God will make sure you have something to wear.”

I hope your main activity with your children during this season can be outside enjoying nature together. Share with them that the Bible says in Psalm 145:10 that all God’s works shall praise Him.

As yall observe the beauty of God’s creation, join with the flowers, trees, and birds in praising God.  Here’s some songs to sing as you do.

This one is an old recording, but you can get the idea, or better yet, you can make up your own:

 Now the Flowers Are Growing

And another about God’s Beautiful World:

http://youtu.be/AbWgeJOMQ4U

Isaiah 55:12 says the mountains and hills will burst into song, and the trees of the field will clap their hands! So even if we don’t praise the Lord, creation still will.  Here’s a song about this that was recorded for me and my children by a friend, Patti Bennett:

 The Rocks and Hills Will Cry Out

These next two are from children’s musicals when my children were small.  Yeah, I know they are dated, but give them a listen:

http://youtu.be/W8wFjhWztcw

http://youtu.be/HLsh3lwKv5c

Happy Spring!!!

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Are You Leaning on a Spiderweb?

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. . .

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 during these concerning days.  Teach it to your children and sing it often as a personal testimony of Who you are leaning on.

Lyrics:
What a fellowship, what a joy divine,
Leaning on the everlasting arms!
What a blessedness, what a peace is mine,
Leaning on the everlasting arms!
O how sweet to walk in this pilgrim way,
Leaning on the everlasting arms!
O how bright the path grows from day to day,
Leaning on the everlasting arms!
What have I to dread, what have I to fear,
Leaning on the everlasting arms!
I have blessed peace with my Lord so near,
Leaning on the everlasting arms.
Refrain:
Leaning, leaning,
Safe and secure from all alarms;
Leaning, leaning,
Leaning on the everlasting arms.

History of the song: The songwriter based this song on the text of Deuteronomy 33:27, ‘The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms’

”The first stanza addresses the joy of God’s presence. The hymn writer suggests that even in times of death, peace can be found. The second stanza compares the Christian faith to a pleasant pilgrimage. With the use of the first-person singular pronoun “I” in the third stanza, this hymn can become a personal testimony. . .” https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/resources/history-of-hymns-leaning-on-the-everlasting-arms

 

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Why the long weekend?

presidents-abraham-lincoln-left-and-george-washington-knew-a-little-k7SFUX-clipart

As you enjoy your extended weekend, don’t forget to let your children know why it is happening.

Presidents’ Day is intended to honor George Washington and Abraham Lincoln whose birthdays are both in February.  Their birthdays were observed separately until 1971 when Congress decided the two would be combined into one national holiday celebrated on the third Monday of February.

This is a great time to teach your children about the godly character of these two men. God tells us to remember how He dealt with our ancestors: 1 Cor. 10:1 Remember our history, friends, and be warned. All our ancestors were led by the providential Cloud and taken miraculously through the Sea.

Tell them about the truthfulness of George Washington even as a young boy in the story of the cherry tree.  Here is a site that tells the story and has printable coloring pictures: 

George Washington, sometime before the age of 16, transcribed “Rules of Civility & Decent Behavior In Company and Conversation.” These are good rules to teach your children. This site depicts them in cartoons.

Read at this site and then share with excitement in your own words about how God divinely protected George Washington during the French and Indian War.  You can read the entire account of this in the book  The Bulletproof George Washington

Tell your children why Abraham Lincoln became known as ‘Honest Abe’.  Read about it here and get printable coloring sheets as well.

Read this article about the faith of Abraham Lincoln.  This is what he said before the Battle of Gettysburg” . . . oppressed by the gravity of our affairs, I went to my room one day and locked the door and got down on my knees before almighty God and prayed to Him mightily for victory at Gettysburg. I told Him that this war was His, and our cause His cause . . . Then and there I made a solemn vow to almighty God that if He would stand by our boys at Gettysburg, I would stand by Him. And after that, I don’t know how it was, and I cannot explain it, soon a sweet comfort crept into my soul. The feeling came that God had taken the whole business into His own hands, and that things would go right at Gettysburg . . .” from Abraham Lincoln: The Man & His Faith

We can use this day to pray for our current president and leaders as well.  They have been placed in their position by God: Daniel 2:21 He changes times and periods of history. He removes kings and establishes them. He gives wisdom to those who are wise and knowledge to those who have insight. Download this coloring sheet that gives suggestions of what to pray for our leaders.

Enjoy your long weekend and have fun teaching your children as you go!!!

 

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