Helping Children Listen in Church: Part I

Although we do not attend a family integrated church we do believe it is beneficial for all of our children to remain in worship with us. Accordingly, we seek out products/ideas to get our children to listen closely to pastor. Our church does give out a wonderful handout but we prefer our kiddos to complete it after church because they get so focused on answering the questions and doing the activities that they do not listen to Pastor. So here are some products that we are using/planning to use to enable our children to fully engage in the sermon.

• Mama's corner Listening pages for pre-readers from Mama'a Corner for our 2ish -4ish year old
• Listening pages for readers from Raising Arrows  (once they can read they can start this one for us this is a 5ish year old)
• Church Notebook from Soli Deo Gloria Listening pages for proficient reader/writer

I hope this helps you to train your littles to sit and listen attentively to your Pastor. Most importantly, always remember raising kids is hard work no matter how you look at it but the Lord has told us no to grow weary  for you WILL reap a harvest if you don't give up (rough quote of Gal 6:9)! So be encouraged.

Blessings

Hanging laundry is like going to church

In the country my life seems to move slower then when we lived in town. gone are the days of 'running' to the store or going out to dinner on a whim. Our natural transition has been to slow down and wonder why the leaves are still on the trees. I look forward to hanging laundry and visiting with Pearsy in the mornings. I just love the smell of line laundry.

Hanging laundry is different from drying it. Hanging laundry isn't a race, its slow methodical there is no timer on the laundry line you can only hang so much, wash so much each day. It's slow in the winter and faster then the dryer in the summer (this is Texas!). When you hang it you reminisce about the items you own. The quilt with the red squares was made by a young couple in our Church Home Group for Parks 7 years ago! There are two white crocheted blankets on the line one from Jessica Bolding's Mom she made it for Pearson and the other was from Pastors Wife (aka Kendra) I do not know if she made it but we sure do enjoy it. An ultra cute burp rag from the Bevers and there are a couple of sheets given to us by the our friends the Curless', they are always so ready to share. These folks and many others make the fabric of our church that is interwoven through our lives.

 We always thank God for all of you and continually mention you in our prayers. ³ We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Thes. 1:2-3

May the Lord bless you this day as you find things for which to be thankful!

Children of New Life

This week at church Elder Alan was preaching from Malachi 2....

At the end of his service a little guy named Jax went to the front to pray on the steps. He was soon joined by his little brother, another little guy, and two of my own girls.

5 "My covenant was with him, a covenant of life and peace, and I gave them to him; this called for reverence and he revered me and stood in awe of my name. 6 True instruction was in his mouth and nothing false was found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and turned many from sin.
7 "For the lips of a priest ought to preserve knowledge, and from his mouth men should seek instruction—because he is the messenger of the LORD Almighty.

At the end of the service we call for family & individual prayer. A few weeks before we discussed guide, graze & guard in terms of living our lives as Shepard's of the flocks of people in which we are around. Last week we as a church body committed to help parents raise their children in the fear admonition of the Lord. This week little Jax was guiding other little ones through his example to prayer.

Sometimes as a Mama, I think my Pearsy is too little to understand. But of these 5 children that all went unashamedly to the alter 3 of them should have been in the nursery, 3 should be too little to get understand. In fact, in many churches all of them would have either been in a nursery(0-5) or a children's worship type situation until about 6th grade (5-13) when they would first see their family and the body in corporate worship.

It was such an encouragement to me to see someone so young guiding other little ones through his example, the example that he has seen watching his own Daddy worship. Additionally, that the other children will see in their parents worship. I am so grateful for a church that encourages whole families to worship together. To see little hands raised, little knees bowed, little eyes searching, little Bibles open and small voices with big questions.

"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." Isiah 51:11

I have to remember always that God's word does not return void even in the littlest of ears and that ... the "commandments that [God gave us] today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. Deuteronomy 6:6-9

Remember always that we are nothing: So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. 1 Corinthians 3:7 It's amazing to me that he can use those little ears even when my Mama ears are sometimes hard of hearing. :)

All of this really makes me wonder what did Samuel & Timothy's parent's did to raise them in such a way to produce such a Godly seed for the Lord to grow? I just hope this is an encouragement to those who read it to and are persevering in raising Godly seed.

RH

New Life Baptist Church

Our Church Living Hope Baptist Church has a mission to start new healthy churches. This year they planted two churches in the Bryan College Station Area. LHBC Bryan and New Life Baptist Church in College Station. Our family has joined them in this work and we are joining New Life Baptist Church.

I had mentioned to many of you that I thought we would be a Family Integrated Church (Isaiah 55:9), but we are not. The main difference in our structure is that we have a nursery for 0-3. We appear to be a church more closely aligned to 9 Marks . As our Elders are men full of the Holy Spirit I'm sure sure this is where NLBC should be (Hebrews 13:16-18) and where the Lord has happily placed our family!

We are a VERY VERY family friendly church, that utilizes expositional preaching, christian accountability and that is really focusing on the husband role as leader. Here is a much more detailed explanation of what we believe and our church covenant. We are not a programs driven church so families should have time to grow in God as a family and to disciple others through their families.

• We meet Sunday night at 5:00 pm
• We have a fellowship meal after service
• At Living Hope Baptist Church in College Station
• Men (12-eternity) meet the first Saturday of each month
• We will have Small Groups forming in the Fall

Our teaching Elder is Allen Duty and he presents challenging sermons each week. So, if you are looking for the accountability of a Bible Centered Church that is going to challenge your family to walk in the word this is the place! We'd love to have you visit!

This is a great church! As we say at Rooster Hill "It's the Real Deal Hollifield"!

Preparing children for worship .....

We attend a new church in our community called New Life Baptist. It was started by our previous church (started as in sent out to reach more disciples it was not a contentious split but instead a joyous occasion!) and our children sit in church with us. This is not a family integrated church, as we have a nursery for 0-3, but we keep our kids in church with us. Our church uses expositional preaching which means we read through verses and the elder discusses them.




Anyway, here is how we are preparing our kids for church on Saturday(we meet on Saturday because we are using our starting churches facilities) :

1. We will cover 1 Peter 5:5-?. In the future when we start a new book or chapter we will just cover the entire chapter then go back and cover smaller bites as we do not receive a list of verses to be covered each week.
2. We read through and discussed the passage verse by verse that will be covered on Saturday. We will read it to them a couple more times before church on Saturday. The two oldest will be required to read it at least once for themselves.
3. Vocabulary words: submissive, humility, grace, anxiety, faith, steadfast - we look these up in the dictionary and I read the definition to them. I will probably start having them write down the actual or a simplified version of the definition for some of the new vocabulary words we discuss. We also looked at other verses in John & James to find examples & definitions to get them accustomed to understanding scripture with scripture.


4. Usage: metaphor ...in regards to the lion as a picture of the devil. roaring lion coloring sheet

Additional Bible pages to color:

http://childrenschapel.org/biblestories/color/1peter57.html

I probably should have been doing this over the last couple of years. But I recently I've been thinking about how much more impactful the sermons have been on my life since I have read through all of the scriptures. What a blessing it has been to be familiar with the passages the pastor is reading and how it has been transformational in my walk and understanding. Well, my kids are too young to read through the whole Bible on their own (though one has started) my prayer is that this preparation will open their hearts to understanding!

Well, my kiddos take notes during the sermon so I am really looking forward to seeing what they write down, we'll see how this goes.

BTW , there was 0 prep time involved in this activity other then looking for coloring sheets. As we read the passage I picked out the vocabulary they did not know and if a verse popped into my head (God was knocking) we explored it.

I'm thinking about making a "Preparation to Worship page" for the kiddos to complete each week prior to service. If I do I'll post it. I'm still looking for ideas as to how to prepare the kiddos. BTW, is not our official Bible study this year we are going through the old testament using a simple & wonderful curriculum outline that I found online.

Many blessings as you shepard the little hearts in your home to worship this weekend!

Ringling Brother's Barnum & Bailey

Ladies & Gentleman.....

In April we went to Ringling Brothers, Barnum & Bailey Circus with ...

about 40-50 folks from our church all sat together organized by the Heather. We do not usually go to Heather's events because we either find out too late to participate or they are boy orientated she has 4 boys! Accordingly, we were the only all girl family in attendance at the circus event and we had a blast! These folks are all from our 3 church family (My church recently expanded and created two more churches to the Glory of God).

We also got to hang with our Julie & middle P sat with her for a while and was amazed by the Circus acrobats. Middle P also cried during one of the acrobatic acts because she was worried about the safety of the performer.

The one negative of the circus is the attire of some of the women is lacking. On top of that they are on the trapeze not fully clothed twisting and turning. If I had boys I do not think I would go to this circus and we will discuss future trips to the circus. Positives were the kids were amazed and now anytime they read or talk about a circus they will know what it is. This is especially important for Peyton as her Autism limits imaginative thought. They have seen some of the amazing things that God has allowed the human body to do.
The financial impact....
Our library has a program that kids get free tickets if they read or read 5 books. So we were some reading fools prior to the circus. We purchased 2 adult tickets for $15 each. We bought some snacks and one clown hat to share and we spent $20 for drinks & popcorn, ($10 for the hat attached to 3 color cotton candy which we also had them split)! We spent a total of $50 for the evening and the kids are still talking about it! We also learned some more ways to save on circus tickets on the way out we learned that they have buy 1 get 1 free tickets at HEB & Banks for the circus. So if we go next year we are looking at $15 for tickets & $10 for snacks. A total circus expense of $25!

Clowning Around!

RH

Berry Picking at Barneys

While we were having dinner with friends Barney stopped by and told us to come berry picking and get as much as we could. So we went berry picking at Barney's (this man is a faithful servant) we go to church with him and he has a blackberry patch, 2 fish pond (catfish & trout I think) and basically a great spread (that's Texan for place). We had such a great time and were greatly blessed by his offer. My one suggestion to anyone who has never picked berries before ...wear gloves! We never have blackberries because they are so expensive but my kids love fruit. So when we went to Barney's we picked 33# of blackberries. We have enjoyed blackberry muffins, cobbler, and I am thinking of cold black berry soup. We will be eating his delicious blackberries for at least 1 if not the next 2 years. The Lord provides so abundantly for us I am embarrassed to think how concerned I've been about food prices. I'm worried and God's is just showing up and showing out as he provided several hundred dollars worth of berries.

I will bless her with abundant provisions; her poor will I satisfy with food.

Psalm 132:15

Best HOPE Group Ever!!! CORRECTIONS in red!!

Ben(formerly known as Pearsy's Ben)...awesome young man of God announced that he has decided to pursue marriage to Ashley awesome young women of God. Keep them in their prayers as they allow God to determine when they will be married and as they seek to honor their parents prior to their marriage! Ben is still asking parents permission!

The man said, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called 'woman, ' for she was taken out of man." For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. Genesis 2:23-24

Hopefully we'll have Congratulations in order soon!