Jesus of Nazareth . . . was a prophet,
powerful in word and deed before God and all the people.
Luke 24:19

I have brought the Gentiles to God
by my message and by the way I lived before them.
Romans 15:18

Jesus was powerful in His words and His deeds.

In Romans Paul acknowledges his success in leading others to Christ came from not only his words, but the life he lived.

Never forget that our own attitudes and actions influence our children more deeply than our words.

Children Learn What They Live
by Dorothy Law Nolte, Ph.D.

If children live with criticism, they learn to condemn.
If children live with hostility, they learn to fight.
If children live with fear, they learn to be apprehensive.
If children live with pity, they learn to feel sorry for themselves.
If children live with ridicule, they learn to feel shy.
If children live with jealousy, they learn to feel envy.
If children live with shame, they learn to feel guilty.
If children live with encouragement, they learn confidence.
If children live with tolerance, they learn patience.
If children live with praise, they learn appreciation.
If children live with acceptance, they learn to love.
If children live with approval, they learn to like themselves.
If children live with recognition, they learn it is good to have a goal.
If children live with sharing, they learn generosity.
If children live with honesty, they learn truthfulness.
If children live with fairness, they learn justice.
If children live with kindness and consideration, they learn respect.
If children live with security, they learn to have faith in themselves and in those about them.
If children live with friendliness, they learn the world is a nice place in which to live.

This poem hung on my wall when my children were young as a reminder that someone was always watching my deeds, even if they were not listening to my words.

(Check out the book, Children Learn What They Live.   In it the author expounds on each of the qualities mentioned in her 1954 poem.)

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In a previous post I mentioned a suggestion from Dr. Jo Bevington – “What joy it is to me to make me a pocket verse everyday and by the end of the day I have memorized it…..So I think what fun it would be for families of preschoolers to make their child a “pocket verse” every day.  Since young children are concrete learners, the words of the Bible might become valuable to them if they carried around a little Bible thought each day.”

I tried this with our 3 year old Grant over the Christmas holidays.  We put a Bible verse in his pocket, had him bring it out during the day, and we read it to him.  By the end of the day he had memorized the short verse (and so had we).  Just as Jo predicted, the pocket verse was so valuable to him that he pulled it out the next day to show to those that visited.

Pocket verses – they are not just for children

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“Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.” (William Arthur Ward)  Share this quote with your children and teach them that since everything comes from God, we need to express thanks to Him for everything.  We should also express thanks to those God leads to give to us.

Gratefulness

Bible Verse: James 1:17  Every good present and every perfect gift comes from above, from the Father who made the sun, moon, and stars.

Bible Stories:

1. Psalm 127:3 The Bible says that children are a gift from the Lord.  Every good gift comes from God. God gave Mom & Dad a very special gift (age of your child) ago.  We are so thankful God gave us the special, special gift.  Do you know what that gift was? – It was (child’s name)!

2. Psalm 68:19 Praise God who daily loads us with benefits The Bible says God daily loads us up with blessings.  Blessings are anything God gives us just because He loves us.  Can you name something God gives us every day? (Jesus, food, sleep, sunshine, happy times, smiles, hugs, water, love, friends, air to breath, etc)

3. Genesis 1 In the beginning of the world God made everything.  He made the animals, trees, blue sky, water, stars, sun, clouds, birds, plants, etc.  After He made His beautiful world, He made Adam and Eve.  He gave all He had made to them to enjoy.  God also gives all He has made to us to enjoy.  Thank you God, for your good gift of your beautiful world.

4. Philippians 4:10-19 Paul had need of something.  He was locked up in jail for preaching about Jesus.  The people in the church in the city called Philippi decided to send some gifts to Paul.  They loved him and wanted to help him.  Paul knew that it was God who had helped them to give the gift.   Paul knew that every good gift comes from God.

5. Philippians 1:1-5 Paul wrote a thank you letter to his friends in Philippi while he was in prison.  He told them that he thanked God for them every time he thought of them.  His friends cared about him and Paul was grateful for their friendship.  He knew they were a gift from God to him.  We need to thank God for our friends and those who help us.  We need to tell others we are thankful for them.

Prayer: Thank you God for all the gifts you have given us.  Help us to always be thankful to you and to others.

Activities:

1. Look at baby pictures  and express your gratefulness to God for giving you your children.

2. Cut out pictures of things that God gives us.  Put them in a a ‘thankful box’ and pull them out regularly and thank God for them

3. Play out in God’s beautiful world and sing one of these thankful songs.

4. Find or draw a picture of Paul in jail and talk about what gifts God might have led his friends to send him.  Do you know of someone that has a need that God could be leading your family to give to like the Philippians gave to Paul?

5. Train your children even now to always be quick to thank those who give to them.  This should also be those who give of their time to them. Help them write a thank you, complete with art work, to someone God has used to bless them (grandparent, pastor, s/s teacher, waitress, sales clerk, doctor, mailman, etc).

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But some things that go on at this time go beyond fun and can cause fear in children.  Thus, this is a great opportunity to use the fear to teach scriptures about the power of Jesus. You could start by saying that there are bad spirits in the world, but we don’t have to be afraid of them if we believe in Jesus because of 1 John 4:4 “But you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won your fight with these false prophets, because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world.“

Emphasize this is why it is important to stay close to God because He is greater than the bad spirits.  In fact, they are afraid of Him and the Bible says that at the name of Jesus they have to run away (Philip. 2:10 “so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,”) He said we can use His name to tell the bad spirits to go away (Mark 3:15 “and he gave them authority to cast out demons.”) Talk to them about the power of using the name ‘Lord Jesus Christ’.

God has given us good spirits called angels to watch over us  (Psalm 91:11-12 “For he orders his angels to protect you wherever you go. They will hold you with their hands to keep you from striking your foot on a stone.”) All of Psalm 91 is about God’s protection – good psalm to memorize.

Choose at least one scripture to memorize with them that they can quote when they feel fearful.  Two that I always use with children are:
Joshua 1:9 “I command you—be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
Psalm 56:3  “What time I am afraid, I will trust in God.”

Tell them the story of when Jesus used scripture to battle the devil (Luke 4) Emphasize that there is power in the Word (Isaiah 55:11 “so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”)

Tell them that God doesn’t want us to be afraid (2 Tim. 1:7 “For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.”)

A good book to teach children to use this holiday to celebrate God’s victory over evil spirits is Halloween: Is It for Real? by Harold Myra

Please check out http://www.ministry-to-children.com for great insights and ideas to help use Halloween to emphasize trusting Jesus.

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Now the man Elkanah and all his house went up to offer to the Lord the yearly sacrifice and his vow. But Hannah did not go up, for she said to her husband, “Not until the child is weaned; then I will take him, that he may appear before the Lord and remain there forever.” And Elkanah her husband said to her, “Do what seems best to you; wait until you have weaned him. Only let the Lord establish His word.” So the woman stayed and nursed her son until she had weaned him.

Hannah knew the answer to the question.  In those days children were not weaned for 3 to 5 years. Wean means to ‘fully deal with’.  Hannah wouldn’t leave Samuel during those years, even to go to the temple, as she was aware of the time it would take to ‘fully deal’ with Samuel if she wanted him to ‘appear before the Lord and remain there forever’.

The preschool years are foundational:

• 2/3 of everything a child will ever learn, he learns before 1^st grade
• 85% of his personality and attitude toward life is formed in the first 5 years
• He begins even from the womb to be sensitive to spirit, mood, & attitudes
• Self-will must be broken by 2; it is very difficult to break later
• Needs to learn to trust by 18 months or it will be hard for him to trust as adult
• 12 attitudes he needs to develop during this stage of his life:
  Attentiveness
  obedience
  contentment
  neatness
  reverence
  forgiveness
  gratefulness
  faith
  truthfulness
  security
  meekness
  cautiousness

Wow – that is a lot to deal with!  But Elkanah gave the way to cover it all. He said to let the Lord establish His Word. Hannah was to spend the preschool years seeing that God’s Word was established in Samuel. Such is our example to follow.

Always remember that there is nothing you encounter as a parent that can not be positively affected by prayer and God’s Word – and especially praying God’s Word.

Examples:

In the breaking of the self-will pray and help your children begin to memorize these verses (‘I will’ scriptures will help their will to become His will):
Psalm 119:15  I will study your commandments,
Psalm 101:2  I will behave wisely in a perfect way.
Psalm 101:2  I will walk within my house with a perfect heart.
Psalm 119:16  I will delight in your principles and not forget your word.
Psalm 101:3  I will set nothing wicked before my eyes;
Psalm 56:3  What time I am afraid, I will trust in God.

When teaching your children to trust remember:
Romans 10:17  Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God 
Help him find his security in God through His Word.

When your child is struggling with sharing, let him see you share and as you do, say that God says in the Bible:
1 Tim 6:18 Be ready to share

Don’t wait to start training your little one in the way he should go.  I encourage you to stay in the Word and look for ways to teach the Word as you go no matter what the age of your child:
Deuteronomy 6:6-9  And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands I am giving you today. Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are away on a journey, when you are lying down and when you are getting up again.  Tie them to your hands as a reminder, and wear them on your forehead.  Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

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What we eat affects our future children.

We are well aware that we affect our children through our DNA  in their physical characteristics such as color of hair and eyes, but did you know that the way we eat before our children are conceived will affect their health?  Dr. John Christopher in his book, Herbal Home Health Care states “The time we start preparing for an anti-disease susceptibility is many months before conception. If, however, that is too late and the child is here and sick at this time, we will have to work on the present cause, but this effort could be eliminated if we had started a few generations back.”

For more on this check out this article that points out what we do to our bodies can somehow leave an imprint on our genetic material and be passed along to the next generation.

How we live our lives affects our future children.

It’s interesting that what has been discovered in the scientific realm of how choices made nutritionally affect future generations is also what God has said in His Word concerning how we relate to Him.  Deuteronomy 5:9 You shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me,

Catherine Marshall speaks about this in her book, Something More. She writes, ” 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.”

Chuck Swindoll in his book, You and Your Child refers to this as “grandad’s bent” and points out that the bents in our lives toward particular sins must be broken for the good of the children that will come after us. 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!

Since the nutritional and spiritual choices made will directly affect the children that are yet conceived, then each choice should be carefully thought through, if not for your own good, but for the good of your future children.  Live life as a ‘God-planted, God-tended root which will result in some holy (pure, virtuous) fruit.’

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Labor Day is a day set aside to pay tribute to working men and women. It has been celebrated as a national holiday in the since 1894. You can read the history of this holiday here.

Labor day is a good time to memorize this verse and talk about having a mind to work.  Read the story of Nehemiah in your Bible and tell it in your own words – 0r – find it in a children’s Bible and read it to your children.  The walls of Jerusalem had been destroyed and Nehemiah led the people to rebuild them.  They had a mind to work.

• Build a wall together out of pillows and share the story.
• Talk about having a mind to work.  Think of ways your children can ‘work’.  Find suggestions here.
• Memorize Nehemiah 4:6 “…the people had a mind to work.”
• Thank God for the work that Dad does and the work that Mom does.
• Lead your children to be thankful to those they encounter doing their work.

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Security

(Structuring my life around what is eternal and cannot be destroyed or taken away)
God can never be taken away from you!!

Bible Verse: Joshua 1:9 I command you be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

Bible Stories:

Joshua 1 God told Joshua he was to lead his people into the land that God had promised them.  He told Joshua to be strong and not to be afraid.  He said to go where He told him to but not to be afraid because He would go with him everywhere He told him to go.  Joshua obeyed God and God kept His promise to Joshua to be with Him.

Daniel 3:12-26 The King Nebuchadnezzar told everyone to worship a statue rather than the one true God.  Three men named Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego loved God and said they would only worship and pray to Him.  The king put them in a fiery furnace to kill them.  But God was there; He didn’t let them burn.  The king looked in the furnace and saw 4 men instead of 3 men in the furnace.  It was Jesus in there with them!  God is with you wherever you go!! (see picture above)

Exodus 3:1-12 One day Moses was watching his sheep and he saw a bush burning.  When he went over to the bush, he heard God talking to him.  God told Moses He wanted him to go help people because they were being treated badly.  Moses was afraid to go, but God told him not to be concerned about going to talk to the mean king because He said, “Certainly, I will be with you.”

Jeremiah 1:1-10 God told Jeremiah that He had chosen him to be one of his preachers.  Jeremiah said, “But God, I can’t speak for I am a child”  But God told him, “Don’t be afraid for I will give you the words to say and I will be with you to help you out of any problem”

Matthew 1:23   Psalm 46:1 God loves us so much that He wants to help us in times of trouble.  He wants to be with us all the time.  He sent us Jesus to live with us here.  Jesus has another name.  He is called Emmanuel.  Do you know what Emmanuel means?  It means ‘God with us’!  I’m so glad that God is with us wherever we go!!!

Prayer: Help us remember that You are always with us to keep us safe.

Activities for younger preschooler:

Talk about God being with him while in the bedroom, living room, etc. as you go from room to room

Make up a song with the verse to the tune of  “Mary Had a Little Lamb”  Here’s an example – God is With You Wherever You Go

Share the verse in a dark room

Share the verse outside in the sunshine or during a rain storm

Share verse in the car as you are traveling somewhere

Activities for older preschoolers:

Go outside at night and talk about God being with you in the day time and in the night time

Illustrate the Bible story from Daniel about the Fiery Furnace – make a fire out of red, orange, and yellow construction paper.  Cut out 4 men.  Put 3 in as you tell the story, then add the 4^th at the end.

Go outside in the morning and talk about how God will always be with us just as the sun will always come up every morning.  Draw a picture of the sun.

Paste pictures of different places he goes – write Bible verse on paper. (See picture on a related post). Everything you do this
week be sure to include the thought of the presence of God – as playing say, “God, I’m glad you are here with us.”  As going to the grocery store say, “God, thank you that you are going with us to the store.”

Find pictures of children in other lands to color and talk about God is with them just as He is with
us here  – Look at globe or maps and share verse

Songs:

Three Good Men by Bill Gaither  This is from the album Especially for Children of All Ages.
I have only found it in vinyl - Especially for Children…of all ages

God is With You Wherever You Go

Books:

Find these stories in a children’s Bible.  If you don’t have one, check here or here for some good ones.
Arch Books has a book about many, many Bible stories.  Begin building your library with these colorfully illustrated paperbacks:

Journey to the Promised Land: Exodus 15:23-Joshua 4:24 for children (PassAlong Arch books)

The Fiery Furnace

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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.

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God desires your children to get along more than you do – He calls it a good and pleasant thing!!!! But dealing with the sibling rivalry, among preschoolers especially, is anything but pleasant; it is an exhausting 24/7 job to deal with each disagreement or aggressive behavior.

Sibling rivalry must be dealt with patiently, persistently, and perceptively:

Patience is accepting a difficult situation from God without giving Him a deadline to remove it.  Be patient as God works in the life of your children. “We also pray that you will be strengthened with his glorious power so that you will have all the patience and endurance you need. May you be filled with joy,” Col. 1:11

Persistence means purposing to accomplish God’s goals in God’s time regardless of the opposition. Don’t give up; you will see the fruit of your labor!! “So don’t get tired of doing what is good. Don’t get discouraged and give up, for we will reap a harvest of blessing at the appropriate time.” Galatians 6:9

Perception is discerning or seeing through a surface problem to root causes and then dealing with those causes rather than always punishing the surface problem.  “The Lord doesn’t make decisions the way you do! People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at a person’s thoughts and intentions.” 1 Samuel 16:7

Why is your child refusing to share?  Why is he acting out?   Why does he push his sibling? We want others to understand when we have a bad attitude.  Try to understand why your child is having issues.  Ask God to show you the root causes and how to deal with them. He will never fail you when you ask Him to lead you. 

He will feed his flock like a shepherd.
He will carry the lambs in his arms, holding them close to his heart.
He will gently lead the mother sheep with their young.
Isaiah 40:11

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