Using Stories to Teach Our Children

Have you read any good stories lately?  Good stories make wholesome impressions on the mind.  They help shape our thinking.  The best of books even impress and satisfy the soul.  I don’t think I’ll ever forget reading Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens.  The final words of the book made a lasting impression on my mind; the character of Sydney Carton says this:  “It is a far, far better thing I do than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to, than I have ever known.”

But the reason for this post is to recommend another excellent book for parents to read to their children.

Kids Will Be Kids

Nobody likes an over-achiever.

Football teams that run up the score against an inferior opponent get under our skin. The guy with no life who’s always getting the boss’s coffee rubs us the wrong way. And who can forget Betsy Sue, the teacher’s pet who helped grade papers at recess?

Sometimes our aversion to the over-achiever informs the way we parent our own kids. And rightly so. Raising kids to perform perfectly can lead to frustration on the one hand and pride and self-righteousness on the other. Kids shouldn’t have to have perfect hair, perfect clothes, perfect grades, or a perfect batting average 100% of the time.

So how should we arrive at appropriate expectations for our kids?

He Shall Wipe Away All Tears

Special thanks to Jack Kauffman for this guest post.

And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes…Revelation 21:4

Are you one who weeps easily?  Who sheds a tear at the least provocation?  Our granddaughter, Alana, just two months old is a “screamer”.  She wrinkles her little face into a contortion and then bellows at the top of her lungs, and she doesn’t stop until either her anger is released or her energy dissipates-and all this for no apparent reason. Yet despite all of her apparent anguish, a tear never slips from her tightly squinted eyes.  I hadn’t noticed this until my wife, Ann, pointed it out to me and reminded me that an infant’s tear ducts do not develop and are not functional until he or she reaches a certain age.

While we can’t put a finger on the cause of Alana’s sorrow at this tender age (her diaper’s dry, she gets plenty to eat and seems to have all of her needs taken care of.) there will eventually be plenty in this little one’s life over which to shed perhaps a bucket of tears, for we are “born to trouble as the sparks fly upward,” as Job reminds us. Sorrow is a dog at our heals throughout our earthly life.

Some tears are, of course, welcome.  We may weep when we hear an old, familiar hymn, when the Word of God strikes our heart in a certain way over a familiar passage or when we are blessed by the kindness of another person.  Most of the time, however, our tears are equated with trouble and grief.  We can take heart, though.  The Lord promises two times in the book of Revelation that He will “wipe every tear from their (our) eyes” when everything is made perfect; when The Kingdom is established (Revelation7:17 and 21:4).

I have often used this verse to comfort the bereaved in a card of sympathy over the death of a loved one or during some other hard situation. It should be, however, a reminder to all of us who call upon His name of the future that awaits the follower of the Man from Galilee; a future when, like Alana, we will have no tears.  But it will be far better, for the sorrow that causes those tears will be done away with for all eternity.

Advancing World-Missions with Your Children

“Give of your sons to bear the message glorious, give of your wealth to speed them on the way.” I hardly can sing those lines without being choked up with the thought, “That maybe, just maybe, God would use our children to give the glorious message of Jesus Christ to our world.” What a privilege that within our home, God would allow us to rear children that He could use on this globe. While our family has many years to go before our children “come of age” I thought I’d share just a few ideas on how we try to emphasize world missions on a daily basis with our kids.

That Old Gospel Tract

Thanks to Ken Boyd, a deacon at Bethel Baptist Church, for this guest post.

Most people eat lunch 12 o’clock in the middle of the day. If you can remember a half hour before lunch is 11:30 and place Proverbs before 11:30 you get Proverbs 11:30, “He who winneth souls is wise.” God wants us to be soul-winners and to share the Gospel with others.

Some years ago when I was doing some contracting work at a large cough drop plant in Hatboro, PA, I had given a man named Joe a gospel tract. We passed each other a few times inside the plant, but I couldn’t really talk but to say “hi” because we were both on the clock. I wouldn’t see Joe that often because of the hundreds of people working there.

Book Review: Fool Moon Rising

Kristi and T. Lively Fluharty. Fool Moon Rising. Wheaton, Il: Crossway, 2009. 32 pages.

Nowadays, it’s not hard to find books kids love. It’s just hard to find books kids ought to love. With Fool Moon Rising, you’ll get both. Your children (toddlers and up) will be glued to the bold pictures and drawn in by the rhythmic rhymes on each page.

They’ll also be challenged to humbly recognize God’s greatness and His great plan for them as reflectors of His brilliant glory. We all need this message. In fact, I tried to get Pastor Campbell to let me read the book to the congregation next Sunday morning, but we couldn’t find enough carpet squares for everyone.

That was a joke.

In all seriousness, Fool Moon Rising makes a great devotional tool that kids will want to pick up again and again. It also makes a great gift. You can pick it up wherever books are sold–especially at the Bethel Baptist Church Bookstore.

Commission or Omission

I just finished listening to Pastor’s message from this past Sunday titled, Characteristics of a Soul-Winner’s Heart and my heart was stirred to write this short post.

Matthew 28.19-20 gives the local church our marching orders, “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:  Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” Notice the three all-encompassing words:

Tools for Personal Devotions: The Bible

“So, how’s the devos goin’?”

That’s a question my college buddies and I used to ask each other at our more spiritual moments. We had decided at different points to keep each other accountable in the area of personal devotions, a matter that gets pushed aside amid the seemingly overwhelming pressures of college life.

The fact is that none of us was particularly adept at spending time with God. Not that I’m an expert now. Life is busy. Things–important things–get in the way of our crucial quiet times. . . Hello? . . . I’m not the only one, am I?

In a world that’s as fast-paced and loud as the one in which we live, we need all the help we can get to stay fresh and faithful in our times with the Lord. That’s why I decided to do a series of posts on some all-important tools for personal worship/devotions/quiet time/whatever people are calling it these days.

Bethel Baptist Remembers 9/11

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I’d Like to Buy a Vowel, Please.

“I’d like to buy a vowel, please.” Famous words, but sometimes a vowel can make all the difference in the world. By simply changing a vowel, it goes from being a task to being an opportunity. Let me explain.

I would often say to myself as a teenager and sometimes my parents, especially on Sunday mornings, “I got to get up because today is church.” My parents taught me to change one simple letter within that word. “Joel, it’s not that you got to go to church. It’s that you get to go to church today.”