When I went to close the front door this evening, I was drawn outside by one of my favorite sounds — the evening song of a robin. It was a sweet, lulling tune, and the singer was stationed somewhere in our orchard. He sang his little tune and then would pause, while another robin answered him from a tree in our neighbor’s pasture. They sang back and forth as the […]
Read More →Category: Encouragement
When One Member Suffers . . .
“If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together” (1 Cor. 12:26). When one of our little ones stubs his toe, his whole body hurts along with that toe. If a child has a sliver in his foot, his entire body suffers. So it’s not hard to help our children understand how much we all hurt when we see our brothers and sisters in Christ hurting. […]
Read More →I Should Be Singing
My daughter had a “friend”. She called him Dean. He recently moved on, and she’s glad. Personally, I think Dean was a girl. He/she acted like a girl. She fretted. A lot. Every morning Dean(a) took up his/her post in the ailing chain-of-gold tree outside Bethany’s window, and started her daily ritual — usually before Bethany would like to be awake. Sitting anxiously in the tree, or pacing nervously back […]
Read More →More Than You Can Handle
Post by Daniel Forster Whoever said “God won’t give you more than you can handle”? When you’re taking care of little people, every day feels like more than you can handle. You’re making progress on something in the kitchen, only to find that in the last 10 minutes of silence, a misguided helper has dusted all of the family room furniture with flour. You worked hard to make a fun […]
Read More →We’re Members of His Family!
I thought of my granddaughters as we studied 1 John 3 last month. My daughter had posted this picture of her little one-and-a-half-year-old on Facebook early in the month. (I love the rainbow umbrella!) A walk to the park — the big park — had been promised earlier in the day. After going through all that it takes to get three little people into coats and boots and out the door, they […]
Read More →Thirty…Thirty One…Thirty Two Days in 1 John 3: What Next? Plus a Giveaway!
We’ve come to the end of our study of 1 John 3. Many of you will still be working on the lessons for a few more days in order to finish up. Then what do we do? What’s next? We don’t want to just study this chapter and walk away unchanged. What can we do to keep these new truths alive and active in our hearts? What can we do to keep using the […]
Read More →Showing Our Children How to Love God’s Word, PLUS a New 30 Day Study!
How can we inspire our children to love God and His Word? What can we do to raise children who will love God and live their lives in joyful obedience to Him — even after they leave our homes? Of course, our most effective tool is prayer. God is the one who does His work in the hearts of our children. But He will use us in the process, and one of […]
Read More →In Awe of His Grace
I welcomed another new little grandbaby into the world last week. She was born in a rustic A-frame house that my daddy built many years ago, and I cried as her other grandma and I stood in awe at her arrival. It was like life had come full circle, and I was overwhelmed by the reminder of God’s love and grace as we met this beautiful little girl. That A-frame […]
Read More →More Family Fun with Drama!
Don’t forget! The deadline for our Bible Drama Video Contest is less than two weeks away (March 5)! If you decide to do some story-acting with your children, even if you’re not going to enter the contest, (but hey, there’s great prizes!), take advantage of the different ways you can enjoy this family activity! Besides reading the story from the Bible and then acting it out, try out some of these ideas: Let […]
Read More →Nine Benefits of Trials
As a thirty-year-old dad of four little kids, I consider my trials insignificant when compared to the hardships of others I know. Some people deal with demanding leadership roles, persistent health issues, and life-threatening diseases on a daily basis. My trials are small things like getting up to help a sick child in the middle of the night, picking up toys and books off the floor, or those times when I […]
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