The importance of Christian parenting

Concerned by the recent riots in the United Kingdom, lawlessness seems rife and a lack of respect for society appears rampant amongst young people today.
I deleted a Facebook contact because I could not stand his vulgar language on his status. Shameful thing was he is a 16 year old relative of mine but every other word was a swear word and it made me cringe. I was even more saddened to hear that his father (who unfortunately is separated from the boy’s mother) has no control over this young man. I believe that you can see good parenting through children’s attitudes and behaviour.

I’m not the perfect parent but I pray daily that God will teach me how to be a good mother. Whilst on holiday with my family, my seven year old son has been leading us in prayer before we go out. We tell him daily how blessed he is to have gone on holiday as many are not as fortunate as him to have been given the same opportunities he has experienced in his young life. We remind him that God is our provider, that God gave his mum and dad their jobs, the food on his table, the clothes on his back, the money to buy his toys with. My two year old daughter has been copying his prayers and at meal times is the first one to remind the rest of the family to pray and give thanks for the food.

I’m so thankful to my mother who is an exemplary Christian teacher to my children. We were driving to Disney World and she led a family discussion about the ten commandments. She did it in a fun way for the kids to understand and my son raised questions which my husband and I were able to answer.

Teaching children about God is a lifestyle and should not be ‘cloak and dagger’. I am always reminded by the bible verse Proverbs 22:6 ‘Train a child in the way that they should go so that when they are old, they will not turn away from it’. There’s too much going on in the world today to not be concerned as to what happens with your child. I heard somewhere that if you don’t discipline a child by the time they are seven, it’s going to be struggle to instil discipline thereafter.

week 10 – Kids learning about God

I finally tackled John 3:16. I was oooing and ahrrring about it but finally got the courage to talk about it with my 6yo son, Sam.
John 3:16 is a core verse in Christianity. Without God giving His only Son Jesus, we would have no salvation or redemption and so it was or is a vital ingredient in forming Sam’s Christian faith. As the verse is quite long, we stayed learning it for almost 3 weeks.

The first week, he copied the verse into his notebook and stuck the memory card on the mirror. I then helped him recite it but found the most important aspect of reciting the verse was Sam being able to understand what it meant. I therefore spent time telling Sam why Jesus died for us. He had many questions like ‘Why did God allow Jesus to die?’ ‘Why do we have to believe in Jesus?’ and ‘what is eternal life?’ Once he understood the meaning of the verse, it became revelation to him (his light bulb moment as we like to put it) and he could recite it better. Today I wrote the verse on a piece of paper and cut it up into small groups which he then had to put together (a bit like a puzzle).

He had fun doing this! The one thing that I have learnt about my time sharing to Sam about God is appreciating the time we have together. Though my 1yo lingers in the background doing her own thing, Sam appreciates the attention that I give him during these short intervals and these moments of bonding I wouldn’t miss for the world.

Bringing faith to work

If you saw a man about to jump 100 feet to his death, would you stand by and let him jump or would you try to stop him?

I read somewhere yesterday that if we do not share to someone the things that they have done wrong then their blood would be on our hands yet if we shared to them and they did not listen then we would be blameless.

I could not have it upon me not to share about the love of God and be a bystander of seeing someone go to hell. Hell is real to me and the bible tells us that everyone who does not accept the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Saviour will not be a part of Heaven. There are only two places to go to after death and that is Heaven or hell. Hell does not become me or anyone else.

How do I approach it at work? As always I would ask permission. If the person is willing to hear then I would share about God and His love. If not then I have done what was required of me and pray that someone might have been able to achieve what I could not. The boundary between professionalism and who we really are out of work is a fine line but I consider my pulpit my work place. Not everyone is called to be a pastor or a pulpit minister but everyone has an opportunity to minister in their workplace where ever that might be. Could you be sharing to someone whose days are soon numbered?

Holy Spirit got me out of trouble

The meeting was definitely heated. I could see that the family were not happy and rightly so. I could hear my spirit within me talking in tongues yet I was just thinking ‘How on earth am I gonna get out of this one?’

My job has many different dimensions from dealing and managing staff to dealing with customers and making sure that everything ticks along whilst keeping harmony and balance within the work place.
I’ve learnt to totally rely on the Holy Spirit and each morning devote myself in prayer to ensure that every decision, action and thought that I make through the day is not only wise but favourable.

The woman opposite me was angry, tearful, hurt and honestly I could see her pain. I thank God that he gave me choice words. Words of comfort, words of encouragement, words of hope, words of wisdom and by Gods grace he granted me favour with her. I manage to alleviate her concerns and anxieties. There is no way on earth that I could have come up with what I did by myself and I just want to give God the glory for bringing me out of a very tricky situation.

Prayer is worth it. I know it and I’ve seen it work in every area of my life. Depend on God today to bring you out of any tricky situation you may find yourself in.

Halloween -Should my kids celebrate it?

My 6-year-old son has been noticing the  Halloween decorations that are vastly displayed in stores.  Whilst we as a family do not celebrate Halloween, it was important for me to educate my son on Halloween and the reasons why we do not celebrate it.

I dug the following information from this website which comes from a very anti-satanism perspective

Where did it begin?

It began over 2000 yrs ago with people known as the Celtics. They lived in what is today England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. This was also the beginning of the Celtic new year, a time to give thanks to the sun-god for the harvest.

What is it all about?

Halloween, All saints day, All hallows eve or All souls day is a festival. It was held to honor the Samhain the so-called “lord of death”. It was a Druidical belief that on the eve of this festival Samhain, lord of death, called together the wicked spirits that within the past 12 months had been condemned to inhabit the bodies of animals.

It was a pagan belief that on one night of the year the souls of the dead return to their original homes, there to be entertained with food. If food and shelter were not provided, these evil spirits would cast spells and cause havoc toward those failing to fulfill their requests.

Sacrifices were offered on this night to the dead spirits because it was thought they visited their earthly dwellings and former friends.

There was a prevailing belief among all nations that at death the souls of the good men were taken possession of by good spirits and carried to paradise; but the souls of the wicked men were left to wonder in the space between the earth and the moon, or consigned to the unseen world. These wandering spirits were in the habit of haunting the living…But there were means by which ghosts might be exorcised.

To exorcise these ghosts, that is to free yourself from their evil sway, you would have to set out food and provide shelter for them during the night. If they were satisfied with your offerings, they would leave you in peace. If not, they were believed to cast an evil spell on you.

In modern day Satanism and Witchcraft covens, this is the day when Satan himself comes to “fellowship” with his followers. Many changes have occurred over the centuries, but one thing ha stayed the same, the practice of giving an “offering” has stayed the same. Oh we do it under the name of fun but what is the real meaning? Is it still the same as in the old days? The answer is YES.

What does the Bible say?

Young children are innocent in their thinking and as parents we have a responsibility to teach them what is right and wrong.  The Word of God tells us

1 Thessalonians 5:22 Abstain from all appearance of evil

Deuteronomy 18:10 There shall not be found among you any one that makes his                                                         son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that uses                                                                 divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a                                                               witch.

If you are a practising Christian, you should not take part in this un-holy day and teaching your children about Halloween and the origins of it will make them wiser .

Week 4- Teaching my child about God

For a minute I thought I was beginning to loose the momentum of sharing and teaching Sam about the Christian faith but it’s important as parents that we stick to some kind of routine with children so they know what to expect from us. I had been taking Sam to tennis lessons which he really enjoyed and for one reason or another I missed a lesson and then another and then one more. Sam then got used to not going and then decided he didnt want to go anymore.
Due to this experience I am persuaded to keep the momentum with teaching Sam about God.
This week Sam is learning about the value of prayer. Matt 21:22 ‘if you believe, you will get anything in prayer’.

I proposed that when Sam has learnt 10 memory verses, I will give him a token of money so he can save up to buy something that he wants. This ways he is also learning about the value of money and what it means to save up for something that he really wants rather than for me or his dad to buy it for him.

Sam was also very intrigued about the story of Lot and his wife running from Sodom and Gomorrah and the consequences of not listening and obeying Gods word.

Week 3- Ministering to Kids

I was in two minds of the memory verse that I wanted to teach Sam this week. My first choice was John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him will not perish but will have eternal life”. The second was Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning God created the Heavens and the earth”.

I chose the latter as I thought the first choice, no matter how much I thought he needed to know it was too much for his little mind.

He absolutely loved learning Genesis 1:1 and did word colouring and drew me a beautiful picture of God’s creation.

We also reached a lovely milestone as Sam has become very good with reading. I helped him find his 3 memory verses in the Bible. Sam has learnt at school how the contents of a book work. He went to the contents of the Bible and searched for each of the memory verses Luke 2:11, Col 3:20 and Genesis 1:1 and was able to see how they integrated into the Bible. He was absolutely fascinated searching for the books, the big numbers and then the little numbers after.

Every evening, Sam has been praying since a very young age and if his little sister is still up (she’ll be two in March) she will agree by saying something that sounds like ‘Amen’.

Remember children follow what their parents do. A praying parent will reap prayerful children.

Week 2 – Ministering to kids

I have to say a huge sorry to my readers who have been keeping up with this diary for not writing sooner. I got told off today for not keeping it up 😦

Last week my 6 year old- Sam, and I focused on Col.3:20 which says “ Children obey your parents in all things for this pleases the Lord”. I typed the memory verse out which he then cut into a card and blue taked it to the bathroom mirror. He loved doing this task and everytime he brushed his teeth, he would read and recite the verse.

For practicality, when Sam didn’t listen to what I asked him to do, I would ask him “what is the memory verse this week?”. I would look at him and I could see his mind starting to work and he would tell me.

I would then ask him if by not listening to me, was he pleasing the Lord to which he would reply ‘No’ followed by a very sombre ‘sorry’.

I find relating learning to everyday life reinforces the teaching and what’s even more thrilling is seeing how real Jesus is to my little one.

Week 1- Day 3 Ministering to kids

Well its day 3 of the 1st week and my 6 year old has mastered Luke 2:11. Each day since Monday after school homework he has been enthusiastic to learn more about Jesus and remind me that we are going to do it together. It’s a beautiful feeling for him to ask me than for me to put pressure on him to learn about God.

Still focusing on Luke 2:11, yesterday the verse’s words were all muddled up so he had fun guessing what the words were whilst looking at the verse to make sure that it was correct. Today I sat with him at the computer while he put the verse’s picture puzzle together.

To ensure learning took place I asked him two questions

1. What was the name of the city where the Saviour was born?

2. Who was born in the city of David?

He got both answers right and was able to recite the verse.

For bed time story this evening, I read to him the ‘crossing of the Red Sea’ from ‘The Biggest Bible Storybook’ to which he had many, many questions. He ended with a prayer saying ‘Thank you God for opening the Red Sea’.

I am so blessed.

Week 1 – Ministering to my kids

Yesterday evening whilst in prayer, I was a little emotional as I really miss going to prayer meetings and bible studies.  I find it difficult to go as I work full-time, pick up the kids, feed them, do homework and then bedtime is 8:30pm hence very little time do much else.  It was also through prayer that The Lord reminded me that I am able to minister to my children. I stumbled upon a beautiful website, www.DiscipleLikeJesus and was challenged to take the time to minister to my own children and teach them about God, Jesus, His word and His love.

Every week, I will be sharing how I am ministering to them and pray that you will also find this useful.

I warn you…ministering to kids takes time and effort but its justified. At least you can stand in front of God and say that you took up the responsibility of teaching your kids about God’s glorious kingdom.

Week 1

Today I visited akidsheart.com to look for a memory verse my six year old could learn.  I took Luke 2:11 and wrote the verse for him in a book and also printed for my son the memory verse which was jumbled up and he had to put the words back in order. He had fun cutting up the words, reading the verse and then putting the words in order of the verse.

At bed time, I will be reading him a story from The Biggest Bible Storybook.  He can choose which story he would like me to read from and then we will end the story with a prayer about the day.  Thanking God for all the things that have happened and for all the people who are around him