Author: admin

Teachable Moment: What It Means to Simply Love

As I’ve mentioned before, my husband Bryan leads a ministry that serves chili to 100-200 local homeless people each Thursday night. At the end of the year, we took all three of our kids to serve for the first time (that’s two 4-year-olds and a 2-year-old). I had only been once before myself, so it was a new experience for me as well. We brought apples, bananas and tangerines and put them in a little wagon that the kids could pull around. What an impactful and emotion-filled night it was!

When we arrived, I have to admit I was a bit worried about what the kids would say or do. My concern was validated as soon as I opened the van door. Kenna immediately pointed to the people standing around and asked loudly, “Mommy, are THOSE the homeless people?”

I wished at that moment my car was outfitted with a giant hole to crawl into.

After we had a talk about holding questions until the ride home, we went to arrange food on tables with other volunteers. Bryan was away talking with some of his homeless friends when I suddenly heard his voice rise above the crowd.

“Someone call 911.”Continue reading

Is the Bible True? (Part I: The Problem With Saying the Bible is True)

Do you believe the Bible is true?

If you’re a reader of this blog, I’m guessing your answer is yes. Let me ask you another question. What do you mean by “true?” How would you define “true” to your kids? Are you prepared to explain what it means – and doesn’t mean – for the Bible to be true, and why you have faith that it’s true?

Saying the Bible is true may at first sound like a simple declaration that is at the heart of Christian belief. Indeed, I believe it’s a necessary declaration for all Christians! But I don’t believe it’s sufficient – especially as it relates to what we teach our kids and how we talk to unbelievers.

The issue of biblical truth (or lack thereof) is usually the dividing line between believers and unbelievers. Our ability to elaborate on the concept of biblical truth may make the difference in raising kids who believe in the Lord and kids who don’t.

Pretty key, right?

Can I invite you to engage with me on a small journey to explore more deeply what it means to say that the Bible is true? This is the first post in a series to dig into the question of what biblical truth means and how we should communicate that truth to our kids and the world.Continue reading

3 Ways to Mature in Faith This Year

Every Friday morning, we take our three kids to gymnastics class. Since school is normally in session at that time, the gym is wonderfully quiet with only the classes for toddlers and pre-schoolers. During the holidays, however, hoards of kids are sent to gymnastics camps that take over the gym and marginalize the little ones to dusty mats in the corner. Friday was one such day.

It was Bryan’s turn to be with Alexa in her parent-tot class, so I watched everything from the mezzanine. There were about 200 kids of all ages in the gym, participating in simultaneous classes corresponding to their abilities. I had a fascinating view of how kids mature in gymnastics over the years.

In one glance, I could see small kids learning to jump with two feet, elementary school kids learning to do cartwheels, middle school kids learning to do back handsprings, and high school kids learning to do fancy balance beam flips I had only seen in the Olympics.

This scene made me reflect on the varying maturity levels in the Christian community. While we all look like adults when sitting in church, our varying spiritual maturity levels are not unlike the visual I had of infants on trampolines interspersed with pre-Olympic athletes.

The apostle Paul even used the spiritual infant analogy in his first letter to the Corinthians, saying, “Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but worldly – mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it…” (1 Corinthians 3:1-2)

Christianity is not a passive belief system to get us into heaven. We are called to mature in faith throughout our lives.

2 Peter 1:3-8: “…Make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (emphasis mine)

Increasing measure – that’s the concept of spiritual maturity. We are not granted instantaneous Christ-like lives the minute we believe in Jesus as our Lord. We are responsible for growth.

That said, the concept of spiritual maturity sometimes seems ambiguous. Where do you start? What should you do? How will it make a difference? I can’t begin to do justice to these important questions in a simple blog post, but I was inspired by the scene at gymnastics to propose three simple ways to move toward a more inspired and mature spiritual life in 2013.

The Most Important New Year’s Resolution For a Christian Parent (Repost)

Last year at this time, I wrote a post called, “The Most Important New Year’s Resolution For a Christian Parent.” The information in the post was based on a published survey of 40,000 Americans and points us to a resolution that is more likely to impact our spiritual life and that of our children than any other.

With New Year’s Day around the corner, I wanted to highlight that post again.

If you missed it last year, you definitely need to check this out:

The Most Important New Year’s Resolution For a Christian Parent

Happy New Year everyone!

3 Simple Ways the Birth of Jesus Changed the World

“When we see Jesus as he is, we must turn away or else shamelessly adore him. That must be kept in mind for any authentic understanding of the power of Christian faith.”

This quote, from Dallas Willard’s book, “The Divine Conspiracy,” challenged me the moment I read it this week. There is no better time to remind ourselves of what it means to shamelessly adore Jesus than at Christmas. I’m convicted this week that shameless adoration becomes most possible when we truly grasp what our lives would be like if He had not yet been born.

5 minutes before His birth, the world was completely different.

It’s so easy to forget this, because all we know living in the second millennium AD is a post-Jesus world. But just a few minutes before the event we celebrate this week, the world looked very different.

How Jesus’ birth changed the world is a highly relevant and topical discussion to have with your kids this Christmas. Here’s a good (and simple!) analogy you can use to help them understand the deeper meaning of Jesus’ birth.Continue reading

How to Talk to Your Kids About Tragedy

This is a guest post from Debbie Fulthorp, an ordained minister with the Assemblies of God. She has traveled to 27 countries sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. Currently she does missions work with the Native American Fellowship and on the Gila River Reservation in Laveen, Arizona. She and her husband Brian have two children, ages three and five. You can learn more about their ministry at http://www.fulthorpministries.org.

After hearing about the unfathomable school shooting in Connecticut, I hugged my little boy tighter than ever.

“Mom, you’re hugging me too tight!” exclaimed my three-year-old. It made me wonder if I hug him enough. I worry I’m too harsh on him. Events like those of this week remind me that every moment we get with our children is a gift from the Lord.

Inevitably, he and my five-year-old daughter will hear the news of the shooting on the radio, from friends or from adults in passing. My husband and I decided it’s important to talk to them before they hear it from anyone else. Especially with young children, it’s a delicate matter.

How can we, as Christian parents, address tragedy with our children? Here is what has helped us.Continue reading

Should Christians Include Santa in Christmas?

I asked the following question on the Christian Mom Thoughts Facebook page recently and got over 80 passionate comments:

Do you (or did you) include Santa in your Christmas traditions? What do you think of it from a Christian perspective?

Personally, I have never taken issue with Santa as long as the emphasis is on Jesus. But there were great insights from commenters on the view that Santa should not be part of Christmas – comments that left me more deeply pondering the question.

As I considered it further, I realized it’s more than a question of Santa. It’s a question of how we, as Christian parents, make decisions every day about how to most faithfully raise our children.

What criteria can we use to make the right faith-based parenting decisions?

Let me take you on a little detour that will come back to a thought model for this question – one that can be applied to Santa and everything else in our parenting (a big promise indeed!).Continue reading

What is Your Barrier to Joy?

Yesterday morning, Bryan and I dropped the kids off for the children’s program at church and walked in a fatigue-induced silence across the lawn to the sanctuary.

Our worship leader’s rendition of “Joy to the World” suddenly blasted through the outdoor loud speakers. Bryan and I both started laughing, and we didn’t need to verbalize why. The contrast between our frazzled morning and the joyful exuberance of our worship center was comical.

Our twins turned four on Saturday and we had a family birthday party. Yesterday the house was still covered in all the trappings of a completed childhood celebration: half-deflated Mickey balloons, torn wrapping paper strewn about and new presents all over the floor. Getting three small children out the door with so many new things to explore is like herding cats. Needless to say, we were running very late. We were annoyed at the kids, they were annoyed at us, and we were annoyed at each other.

By the time we dutifully took our seats in worship 15 minutes late, I was ready for just about anything other than a sermon on joy. I had trouble staying focused until our pastor posed this question:

What is your barrier to joy?

I certainly felt I had a barrier to joy at that moment, so I was happy to address the question. After the time our pastor gave us for prayerful reflection, I came to this answer:Continue reading

A Meaningful Christmas Gift Idea: Wrap an Empty Present

Last week I offered the following Christmas present choice to my 4-year-old twins:

“Mommy and Daddy are planning to get you five presents for Christmas. But we want to give you a choice. You can choose to receive all five presents or you can choose to receive one less and we’ll let you pick a gift to give to someone in need.”

If they made the choice to give up a present so someone else could receive one, I planned to use the money that would have been spent on their gift for something they would pick from the World Vision Gift Catalog (e.g., 2 chickens for a family in need).

I held my breath waiting to see what they would do.

Kenna spoke up first: “Mommy, I want to only receive four presents and give the other one to someone who doesn’t have as much.”

My heart leapt for joy, and I gave her a big hug to tell her how proud I was that she would choose generosity as Jesus would want.

Then Nathan responded. “I want five presents.”

Total meaningful moment buzz kill.

Why We Pray in Restaurants

It wasn’t too long ago that I was mortified to pray in a restaurant (or any other public setting).

One day a couple of years ago, Bryan and I met a Christian friend for lunch. We went to my favorite restaurant, and when the food arrived, I could hardly wait to sink my teeth into my chicken enchiladas. As I gleefully placed the first morsel of enchilada goodness in my mouth, our friend asked if he could say grace.

Mortified.

Mortified that I looked like a fake Christian for not even pausing to consider saying grace. Mortified that I already had food in my mouth. (Do you stop chewing while someone is praying or chew and swallow as fast as possible?!) Mortified that everyone in the restaurant was going to watch us.

I can distinctly remember two other I-already-have-food-in-my-mouth-and-my-lunch-companion-wants-to-say-grace events, because I was equally embarrassed. Perhaps because I had experienced those moments, or perhaps because I rarely saw other people praying in restaurants, I was always a bit skeptical of public tableside grace.

If most Christians don’t do it, I reasoned, the ones who are doing it must be going out of their way to do so. They’re making a statement. They’re hoping someone will ask them about God. They’re hoping to look better than everyone else. Or so I thought.Continue reading