Note to parent or teacher: Here’s a 20- to 30-minute class plan on thankfulness and overcoming whining and grumbling. (note that this plan is geared to children ages 2 to 6.) Watch “Way to Wake Up.” Discuss how it’s not fun to be around someone who whines or grumbles. Compare grumbling and whining to a smelly sock, or anything very unpleasant that your child dislikes being around. Highlight what kind of attitude people do like to be around. Watch “Look on the Bright Side.” Talk about how it can be easy to focus on the things that go wrong, but that happiness comes when you choose to focus on the good instead. Read and/or memorize the rhyme on “Poster: Think on the Good.” A coloring page for this poster is available here. Read “Bright Pebbles: So Much to Be Glad For.” Do the action activity on the last page of this article. Memorize 1 Thessalonians 5:18 (TLB): “Always be thankful!” Read “Poem: My Happy Sunbeam.” The coloring book for this poem is available here. Play the song “Sunny Sunbeam” while the children get up and dance to it (and/or enjoy it throughout the day while doing other activities). Watch “Video: The Power of a Smile.” Optional activity: Take a piece of cardboard or stiff paper, and cut it into a large circular shape to represent a sun. In the center of the circle, write “How to Get to the Bright Side”—and list ideas of things your child can do when he or she is feeling down. String a hole at the top of the circle, and hang it in a place where this craft can be easily seen. Lesson plan courtesy of My Wonder Studio. Image by Grant Cochrane, www.freedigitalphotos.net
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1. Have set times of family devotions. Put some effort into planning this time so that it’s varied and fun and something to look forward to. (Editor's note: You can find some great, free Christian devotionals for kids of all ages at FreeKidStories and My Wonder Studio.) 2. Use the time that you study God’s Word together as an opportunity to pass on to your children your enthusiasm for learning and discovering new spiritual treasures. 3. Work together to adopt spiritual principles and habits. Use lots of positive reinforcement and make it fun, by deciding together on specific goals and rewards for achievements. 4. Pray together often—before meals, for safety on outings, for the day, and before bed. These prayers can be short and simple, and just a regular part of your everyday life. 5. Share your prayer requests with one another. Set up a “prayer board,” which lists needs and requests, and check them off as they are answered. You can also add verses that can be claimed in prayer. 6. Work on a Bible verse memory project together. Put up a chart listing everyone’s names and the memorization goal. Decide on a prize when the goal is completed. 7. Watch a meaningful movie or documentary together, and talk about it. Share your thoughts and perspectives and highlight any significant spiritual principles reflected in it. 8. Celebrate holidays in a way that acknowledges the true intent behind the special date or glorifies God in some way. (This can be done even with non-Christian celebrations.) 9. Foster a culture of sharing and giving to God and to others. Set aside your tithe as a family, and/or set aside extra gifts for special times of year. Decide together on whom you will give to, or come up with a project that will benefit those in need. 10. Hear from the Lord as a family for important decisions, or on matters that affect everyone. Discuss the situation and then ask the Lord for His guidance, and take a few minutes of silence to hear from Him. 11. Be an example to your children of godly values in action. Remember that they are observing your words and deeds, and will learn more from your daily example and actions than from all the admonitions you could give them. Text courtesy of The Family International. Used with permission.
— By Jorge Solá My three year old son Manuel was playing an educational game on the computer when his six-year old sister Alondra demanded that he let her have a turn. Manuel’s response was typical. “I was here first!” I don’t know where Manuel picked that up, but it got me thinking. It’s a generally accepted principle of human society that those who “get there first” have more rights than those who get there after them. The first one to find a pearl in the sea, or strike gold or oil may claim it as his own. The first one to make a scientific discovery or invention may patent his find and claim any profits that may result. The first one to sit at a restaurant table has more right to it than the fellow who arrives later. The first one to settle in on a particular spot on the beach becomes the owner of that spot for the day. In my children’s case, if one of them has been playing for half an hour at the computer, I tell him or her that it’s time to let the other one have a turn. Most other parents probably do something similar. But if we applied that principle to every aspect of society, there would be absolute chaos. Can you imagine a landowner saying, “I’ve had this plot of land for quite a while, so it’s time to let someone else enjoy it”? Or can you imagine a man who has a good job giving it to someone else who is out of work and short of money? Those examples are rather extreme, but what about little acts of selflessness? How often do you see people who have a seat on the bus or subway offering it to able-bodied others who have just boarded, simply because they look like they’d appreciate a chance to rest their weary feet? Are little sacrifices like that too much to expect?—Or do we fail to make them simply because we don’t see anyone else making them and no one really expects us to do so either? It’s a matter of selfishness, when you get right down to it, and selfishness is part of our sinful human nature. But with God’s help we can break out of that mold, overcome our selfish first reactions, swim against the tide, and do the loving thing. If we give to him who asks of us, and if we don’t turn away from those in need, we will surely find that as we give, we will receive. Those are certainly revolutionary concepts in this day and age. If we would practice this kind of love, and teach our children to do the same, so many problems would disappear. The world would be a different place. Courtesy of Motivated magazine. Used with permission.
Note to parent or teacher: Here’s a 20- to 30-minute lesson plan on courage when faced with doing right. It highlights the following lesson objective: Recognize the need for courage in facing and confronting difficult situations; see that courage is a decision to move past fear and to persevere in doing right.
The general target age for this lesson plan is 8 through 12. You can, however, adapt, simplify, or expound on this lesson plan to better suit your child’s comprehension level. * Read “A World with No Courage.” Discuss the importance of courage in your life and in the world around you. What professions can you think of that require courage? What actions in your child’s or your life require courage and the decision to be brave in spite of fear? Read “March Hero of the Month: Gideon” (along with the full story about Gideon in Judges 6 and 7), and “Heroes from History: William Wilberforce.” Talk about how these men were ordinary people, but both of them decided that they couldn’t stand by and do nothing while evil prevailed. While there might not be such an obvious display of evil in your child’s life, God’s commandments to love Him and others are the standard by which we live—and it sometimes requires courage to live by such a standard. List deeds of love that require courage. Read “Hot Dog.” The missionary who decided to do what God showed him to do acted with courage. He might have felt shy, or hesitant, but he had faith to follow God’s voice. Highlight that courage isn’t just about doing things that seem scary in order to act “courageous”; it’s about doing what God shows you to do. Read “Two Soldiers Conquer Thousands.” When we do what God shows us to do, He gives us faith and courage and providence for His will to be accomplished. Memorize “For I am the Lord, your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you.” (Isaiah 41:13 NIV) Supplemental Material: Dealing with Dragons Moral Values for Children: Courage Florence Nightingale (Animated children’s video) Joan of Arc (Animated children’s video) Adapted from lesson plan by My Wonder Studio. Joseph Reader
Even entertainment can convey subtle messages. Dr. David Walsh, author of Selling Out America’s Children: How America Puts Profits before Values and What Parents Can Do, has identified six key values that dominate the mass media: 1. Happiness is found in having things. 2. Get all you can for yourself. 3. Get it all as quickly as you can. 4. Win at all costs. 5. Violence is entertaining. 6. Always seek pleasure and avoid boredom. The media’s emphasis on materialism and entertainment shouldn’t be surprising, of course. As much as 90 percent of our media content is ultimately owned by a handful of giant transnational corporations, including Time Warner, News Corp., Disney, Viacom, Vivendi, Bertlesmann, and Sony. Veteran media critic George Gerbner notes that, for the first time in human history, most of the stories about people, life, and values are told not by parents, schools, churches, and others in the community who have something to tell, but by a group of distant conglomerates that have little to tell and everything to sell. As a result, our 21st-century media is mainly supplied by a small number of large corporations whose primary concern is not our society’s health or our children’s well-being, but to maximize profits. In an interview with Zenit, a Catholic news service, screenwriter Clare Sera was asked how we are influenced by Hollywood without even realizing it. She replied: In every way. Every movie, each TV show leaves its influence — but we have great power over how we allow that to influence our hearts. Ms. Sera goes on to explain how important it is to discuss the underlying messages of a movie after you’ve watched it, especially with your children. Movies are good opportunities to bring up topics you might not think about around the dinner table. It’s a great way to open conversations with your kids about why you think such and such a movie has a bleak message, or a great message, and ask them what they think. And not just in movies. Parents have an opportunity at every turn to explain, “This is what Christ calls us to,” and “This is how the culture differs from Christ’s call.” And to show the difference between what looks pretty and what is truly beautiful—between immediate gratification and depth of soul. Between Britney Spears and Mother Teresa. In the end, the best protection against media bias and its effects is to be on guard about what we expose ourselves to, and limit its intake. Turning on the TV, or uncritically absorbing mass publications every day—these activities allow access to our minds by anyone who has an agenda, anyone with the resources to influence you via popular media. Your mind is worth guarding, and it’s worth your while to limit access to it. As the old saying goes, if you keep your mind too open, people will throw a lot of rubbish into it. Do you have a baby, or is a baby about to enter your life? Do you want to be better prepared for parenthood? Are you looking for practical advice to help you raise a bright and happy baby? Do you want to establish a deep and lasting bond with your child?
Keys to Baby opens the door to that world of wonder and mystery that Baby lives in. Discover the amazing person your baby is and can become through love, understanding and guidance. By Stephen Mansfield Her name was Elizabeth Anne Everest. Few today will remember her. In fact, few would have known of her even during her lifetime, which ended in near obscurity in 1895. She was, after all, only a nanny—one of thousands in Victorian England, who quietly spent their days caring for the children of other people. Strolling in a park with her baby’s carriage or braving the London streets with a little boy clinging tightly to her side, there would have been nothing to distinguish her to passersby; she was just another British nanny with another nobleman’s son in her charge. Or so it would seem. But Elizabeth Anne Everest was not just another nanny. She was a Christian, and for her being a nanny was not just a job, it was a ministry. She worked hard to build godliness and biblical truth into the young lives in her care. Thus it was that she came to have an impact on the course of modern history. For on a blustery English day in February of 1875, Elizabeth Everest came to be the nanny, and soon the primary spiritual influence, of one rosy-cheeked baby boy by the name of Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill, future Prime Minister of England and major leader of the western world. There was little hint in his early years, however, of the greatness that young Winston would one day command, and Mrs. Everest soon understood the immensity of her task. In time, the boy’s mother would warn visitors, in the style of typical British understatement, that he was a difficult child to manage. She was right. He kicked, he screamed, he hit, and he bullied. The word monster was often used of him, and the trouble was that he was bright, too. Knowing of Mrs. Everest’s Christian faith, young Winston once tried to escape a mathematics lesson by threatening to "bow down and worship graven images." It worked, too for a while. But Elizabeth Everest was an exceptional woman. She knew how to enforce the boundaries she set, and from the beginning Winston held a grudging respect for this woman who seemed to know the secret that his irritating behavior only served to hide a desperate longing of his heart. This was the truth she tenderly guarded, for she knew that her Lord had not entrusted young Winston to her solely for the discipline she would enforce, but more for the vacuum she would fill in the life of this lonely little boy. Few knew how painful his loneliness really was. It would be nice indeed to report that the Churchills shared a warmly intimate home life and that Winston was smothered with parental affection, but nothing could be further from the truth. Quite to the neglect of their son, Randolph and Jennie Churchill gave themselves completely to their social ambitions. True, Victorian parents in general maintained an astonishing distance from their children, receiving them only at prearranged times and under the watchful eye of servants, but the Churchills were remote even by these standards. Of his mother, Winston later wrote, "I loved her, but at a distance." His father thought Winston was retarded, rarely talked to him, and regularly vented his mounting rage on the child. More than one historian has concluded that Lord Randolph simply loathed his son. Thus it was that Elizabeth Everest (Winston came to call her Woom) became not only his nanny but his dearest companion, sharing with understanding and tender loyalty the secrets of his widening world. Of their special relationship, Violet Asquith later wrote that in Winston’s solitary childhood and unhappy school days Mrs. Everest was his comforter, his strength and stay, his one source of unfailing human understanding. She was the fireside at which he dried his tears and warmed his heart. She was the nightlight by his bed. She was security. She was also his shepherd, for it was here, in the safety of their shared devotion, that Winston first experienced genuine Christianity. On bended knee beside this gentle woman of God he first learned that surging of the heart called prayer. From her lips he first heard the Scriptures read with loving devotion, and was so moved he eagerly memorized his favorite passages. On long walks together they sang the great hymns of the church, spoke breathlessly of the heroes of the faith, and imagined aloud what Jesus might look like or how Heaven would be. As they sat together on a park bench or on a blanket of cool, green grass, Winston was often transfixed while Woom explained the world to him in simple but distinctly Christian terms. And it is not hard to imagine that when their day was done, many an evening found this devoted intercessor praying over her sleeping charge, asking her Heavenly Father to fulfill the calling she sensed so powerfully on his life. It would seem her prayers were answered, for though in early adulthood Churchill immersed himself in the anti-Christian rationalism that swept his age, he eventually recovered his faith during an escape from a prisoner of war camp during South Africa’s Boer War. So deeply had he received the imprint of Mrs. Everest’s dynamic faith that in this time of crisis the prayers he had learned at her knee returned almost involuntarily to his lips, as did the Scripture passages he had memorized to the familiar lilt of her voice. From that time forward, his faith defined him, as it did his sense of mission. He came to see himself in much the same terms as those he once used to dedicate his grandson. Holding the child aloft he tearfully proclaimed him, "Christ’s new faithful soldier and servant." While other leaders of his age vacillated and sought the compromises of cowards, Churchill defined the challenges of his civilization in the stark Christian terms that moved men to greatness. Yet behind the arsenal of his words, behind the artillery of his vision, was the simple teaching of a devoted nanny who served her God by investing in the destiny of a troubled boy. So it was that when the man some called the Greatest Man of the Age lay dying in 1965 at the age of ninety, there was but one picture that stood at his bedside. It was the picture of his beloved nanny, gone to be with her Lord some seventy years before. She had understood him, she had prayed him to his best, and she had fueled the faith that fed the destiny of nations in the hiddenness of her calling. By Anna Perlini It was a particularly hot, muggy summer day, and Jeffrey and I had already been traveling for a few hours when we plopped down in a stuffy bus station waiting room in northern Italy. “Did I really have to come?” he muttered. How had I gotten this idea? Dragging a 14-year-old away from his friends to visit his grandparents—not exactly a teenager’s idea of fun! We had another hour before we needed to catch the bus that would take us the rest of the way, and I didn’t know which was worse—the stale air in the waiting room or the thick air between us. “Would you like some ice cream?” I asked. That usually did the trick, or at least it used to. Not this time. “No!” came his sharp reply. “I don’t need it.” My little boy was growing up. My patience was starting to run out. “Well, I’m going to get some for myself.” I grabbed my purse and headed for the station café, asking Jesus to restore good communication between Jeffrey and me. When I returned, Jeffrey was talking with a boy a year or two older. “Emmanuel is Romanian,” Jeffrey explained as he introduced us, “but he speaks Italian well. He’s living in a trailer nearby with his mom and two younger sisters, and doing odd jobs to help support his family.” Emmanuel was bright, well-mannered, and said he was willing to do just about any kind of work. He and Jeffrey continued the animated conversation that my return had interrupted. When Jeffrey told Emmanuel that he had gone to a summer camp in Timișoara, Romania, Emmanuel lit up. “That’s where I come from!” he said. I could tell it really made Emmanuel’s day to find a boy about his age whom he could talk to and relax with. Also, Jeffrey seemed very interested in this boy’s life and in meeting someone about his own age who was fending for his mom and sisters. When it was time to catch our bus, Jeffrey prayed for Emmanuel and his family and then gave Emmanuel one of the gospel tracts we had with us, along with some money for his family. “Mom,” Jeffrey whispered as we took our seats, “that was a hundred times better than ice cream!” Sometimes when we are upset or discouraged, all it takes to make us forget our frustration and feel better is a little giving of ourselves. Anna Perlini is a cofounder of Per un Mondo Migliore (www.perunmondomigliore.org), a humanitarian organization active in the former Yugoslavia since 1995. Article originally published in Activated magazine.
Curtis Peter Van Gorder
Christmas is such a magical time. A special aura seems to light the world. It is a day when Christ’s birth is acknowledged all over the world. However clouded in materialism Christmas may seem, it still brings God’s gift of love—Jesus—into more homes, hearts, and minds than any other holiday or event. I asked friends and coworkers of various nationalities and backgrounds to help me make a collage of sorts by offering their impressions of Christmases past. Here’s a sampling of what we came up with. I remember… …Christmas Eve was the one night each year that we kids went to bed early, so “tomorrow would come sooner.” …sitting beside the Christmas tree when I was a little girl, eating too many chocolates while listening to the grownups tell stories. …visiting my granddad for the first time when I was 11. We had lived in a faraway country my whole life. We prayed with him on that visit to receive Jesus. When he passed away not long afterwards, I was glad to have had the opportunity to share the best Christmas gift of all with him. …receiving more gifts and toys than we could ever afford. My parents were full-time volunteers, so at Christmas they usually had very little to spend on gifts for us kids. But their spirit of giving throughout the year inspired those they had helped to lavish us with gifts. I learned early in life that when we do all we can to help others, God surprises and rewards us in special ways. …shopping for a long time to buy a present for my mother with the little money that I had. I finally found a prism glass necklace that she treasured. When I visited her 40 years later, she still had it with her most expensive jewelry. …caroling in the neighborhood door to door with my friends and how it touched the hearts of the people we sang to. …scribbling Christmas cards to my friends and loved ones and receiving the same. I still bring those cards out every year and display them as a way of remembering old friends. …my parents reading me a different part of the Christmas story from the family Bible every day during the week leading up to Christmas. …listening to Celine Dion sing some great Christmas songs from her heart. …performing for others at Christmas. Every Christmas is special because we have something to give others. It always inspires me to see the audience’s reaction. Each year and for every audience, it seems to somehow be just what they need. …playing a different part each year in the Christmas play—the lowly donkey, the sympathetic innkeeper, an awesome angel, an awestruck shepherd, a majestic wise man, a proud father Joseph. …gathering in our kitchen each day from December 1st to December 24th to open another door on our Advent calendar. …the smell and taste of turkey with gravy. …my parents making sure that each Christmas was meaningful. We sang carols and read verses from the Bible by candlelight. We also exchanged presents and had fun together, but the focus was on worship. …feeling envious of other kids who got more toys than I did—but looking back now, I can’t even remember what those toys were. What I do remember fondly are the times that our family spent together at Christmas, appreciating each other and celebrating Jesus’ birth. …sitting by the fire, drinking hot chocolate, and singing Christmas songs as a family. …opening our home to visitors and sharing the joy of Christmas with them. …a feeling of satisfaction after all the hard work of Christmas was done. Time to rest up, count my blessings, and thank God for all the love we shared. May you have a joyous Christmas this year with your loved ones as you build memories together! Children are to respect and obey their parents.
Pray for God’s guidance and help in raising your children.
Treat children gently and in love.
Patience, mercy, and reasoning are the most effective.
Parents are responsible to both teach and set a good example for their children.
Parents are responsible to correct their children when necessary.
Godly parenting will guide children all through life.
Based on an article from Activated magazine. Image courtesy of photostock/freedigitalimages.net |
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