Thursday, January 30, 2014

Helping Our Children Grow in Their Faith- UPDATED

I love how our LORD works!

I love how he uses 
YOU and me 
to help others, to nudge a thought into their heads or to redirect them.

This week two bloggy friends have done that for me.

They did it just by emailing me simple questions.
Questions that I should have been able to easily answer but instead I found myself stumbling for the right words to say.
(you can cut me a little slack due to the stomach flu but I don't deserve any more than that…)

I am bringing their questions to you because I think we can each grow and learn by sharing our answers.
I want to learn and grow by reading your answers!

 Their question made me think and rethink what am I doing to teach the children about Jesus.
We have been in survival mode for quite awhile and although things are going well we still have many "everyday" things we are working on.

I pray all the time but I don't always share my prayers with the children nor have I shared my prayers or results with the children ( we did share before we went into survival mode).

Sometime I think of it as my secret weapon but the glories of GOD are not meant to be kept secret.
Their questions were a good reminder to me to share my faith and love for the LORD with the children and with others.
We were falling into habits that we don't want to have and it's time to crawl out of the hole!



(Katie started cleaning the house as everyone was getting sick! Good try Kate! In the end she got it too…)



We had tickets to a play and weren't sure if we were going to be able to make it.
The bucket was present "just in case"!



I read the book to all the children to prepare them for the play- hoping we could get there!
After all I had purchased 14 tickets!


Now- back to the original topic!
YES
we go to church every weekend(except when we are sick).
We do bible stories M-F with our homeschool.
UPDATE- We use Abeka Curriculum- some do the video series and some do not.
We pray before our story time.
And the children hear me mumble throughout the day "thank you Jesus".

BUT something is missing and it's time to get "it" back.

"It" is sharing the love of the Lord with our kids, with others and with anyone who sees us.

"It"  is to radiate HIS love 
and 
to teach our children to desire and allow the Holy Spirit to shine through them!

"It" is to welcome Jesus into our hearts.

Here are their questions. Please answer them in the comments!

D asked-
I was wondering if you could recommend any children's books you may have used to tell the story of Jesus or other bible stories.   The language barrier is so hard.

C asked-
 Did you convert your kiddos right when you brought them home?  How long after?  Did you give them a choice?  Did they seem to have deep rooted religious beliefs when they came to you?

One thing I have found is that God's children are eager to learn about him.
It is our job to spiritually feed them.
Also their tender herts are attracted to HIM because HE is all that is good and right.
Most of the time I am the problem when I get too busy to share with them or I keep it all inside and just forget to share.
I also find that I often need to connect the dots for them and make it simple.
I notice in our home school curriculum they ask a biblical question and always follow up with the correct answer. Sometime the answer is for the child to memorize and not one they would think of by themselves.
With our range of english language learners I believe that if they don't understand the answer now they will in time!

I think it is important to attribute all things in a positive way- events and results to our Lord. 
When looking for the good, it becomes evident!

The children see the tenderness of the Lord shine through and they will desire it for themselves!

Excited to see your responses!




Everyone seemed to be doing well, so off we went!



The play was WONDERFUL!
It was "The Mitten".

By the next day we had more fallen soldiers including me and then a day later, Katie!

This is how the stomach bug spreads- sorry to be part of the problem…
Thank goodness everyone is 100% now!

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