Power in the Name

Sunday night I called my mentor who taught me to teach children. Her name is Jo Bevington. Her love for Jesus and passion for leading little ones to Christ is infectious. Although she never had children of her own, there are many, many children who have come to believe in Jesus either directly by her, or by the many mothers she has taught to train their children for the Lord. She started working with children as a teenager and is now 85. So that is around 70 years of teaching children and teaching others to teach children. She got her doctorate in early childhood education when she was 58. She did her dissertation on building faith in the preschooler, birth through 3 years old!!!! I told her I would love to get a copy of that and she said she might try to send it to me.

She said she did research one semester on the effects of the name of Jesus on the infant!!!!! Wow!! I believe that every child should hear the Name of Jesus every day of his life beginning in the womb. I still tell my adult children “Jesus loves you”. There is power, purpose, and protection in that name of Jesus –

Philippians 2:10 … so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

Sing the Name to your babies; talk of Jesus daily with your children; lead them every day to call on His name in prayer; and let His powerful Name be the last thing they hear from you at night.

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What’s a mother to do?

I work for a local school system in the childcare. One of the mothers is having a tough time with her three-year-old son. Here is the letter I sent the mother. I hope it helps her and anyone else having a hard time dealing with a specific issue with your child.

    Dear —–,
    I so admire yall’s diligence with —-. Yall are doing a great job. I was praying about what to say or do to encourage you and I thought I would just share with you some things that have helped me through the years of raising my four children.

    First of all, I had to constantly claim 1 Thessalonians 5:24 “He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it.” God has called you to be —-’s mother and He will do it through you.

    Another thing that helped was whenever one of my children was struggling in a certain area, I would try to find a scripture to help him learn and to pray for him. Isaiah 55:11 says “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.”

    According to this scripture, there is power in the Word, so we should send it into our children and God will accomplish what He purposes with it. For example when one of my sons was struggling with anger we learned and prayed Proverbs 29:8 “A wise man turns away anger”. Or when they were struggling with showing kindness we learned and prayed
    Ephesians 4:32 “Be kind to one another”.

    Lastly, I once heard an old pastor named Oliver Price say that “God works in the life of children through the parents, and the parents works in the life of the children through prayer.” There have been so many times that all I could do was just admit I couldn’t handle a situation and give my child back to Him and just pray for him or her. Sometimes I think God is saying, “Just get out of the way and let me handle the situation.” After all, God loves our children more than we do and desires even more than we do that they turn out good!

    I just wanted you to know I was thinking of you. I have really grown to love —- and so enjoy the time I get to spend with him. Don’t worry about him; he is such an amazing little boy and I know he will grow to be a wonderful man of valor.

    Love,

    Sheilah

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Wonderment of a Child

All of these passages point to the childlike wonderment, but I couldn’t think of just a single verse.

I thought of this story because the children were so excited and filled with wonder to see Jesus, they started running around and shouting praises without any inhibitions.

    Matthew 21:15-16 (Living)

    But when the chief priests and other Jewish leaders saw these wonderful miracles and heard even the little children in the Temple shouting, “God bless the Son of David,” they were disturbed and indignant and asked him, “Do you hear what these children are saying?”
    [16] “Yes,” Jesus replied. “Didn’t you ever read the Scriptures? For they say, ‘Even little babies shall praise him!’ ”

This points out that it pleases God for children to experience things with more understanding than an adult.

    Matthew 11:25-26 (Living)
    And Jesus prayed this prayer: “O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, thank you for hiding the truth from those who think themselves so wise, and for revealing it to little children. [26] Yes, Father, for it pleased you to do it this way! . . .

These next two point out that God wants us to come to Him like a child. Maybe He wants us to experience all of life like a child!!!!

    Matthew 18:1-4 (Living)
    About that time the disciples came to Jesus to ask which of them would be greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven!
    [2] Jesus called a small child over to him and set the little fellow down among them, [3] and said, “Unless you turn to God from your sins and become as little children, you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven. [4] Therefore anyone who humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.

    Luke 18:16-17 (NLT)
    Then Jesus called for the children and said to the disciples, “Let the children come to me. Don’t stop them! For the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these. [17] I assure you, anyone who doesn’t have their kind of faith will never get into the Kingdom of God.”

Love you bunches!

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Different Versions and Paraphrases

Proverbs 22:6 (NKJV)
Train up a child in the way he should go,
And when he is old he will not depart from it.

Proverbs 22:6 (NLT)
Teach your children to choose the right path, and when they are older, they will remain upon it.

Proverbs 22:6 (Living)
Teach a child to choose the right path, and when he is older, he will remain upon it.

Proverbs 22:6 (MsgB)
Point your kids in the right direction—
when they’re old they won’t be lost.

Proverbs 22:6 (GW)
Train a child in the way he should go,
and even when he is old he will not turn away from it.

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