“Mom, will there be baseball in heaven?”

“Mom, why doesn’t God stop bad storms like tornados?”

“Mom, why do I have to forgive him? He hit me first!”

These are just some of the questions I hear on a daily basis from my kids. As a parent, I want my kids to ask the tough questions about God, life, and why things happen. Too often though, it’s easier to expect Sunday school teachers, children’s programs, and other church activities to teach our children about God and his story of redemption.

Yet this is not the expectation God has for us as parents…to read the rest of this post, visit Kirk Cameron’s website, my writing home today.

One morning recently, I awoke feeling a bit low and disappointed about circumstances in my life. The night before I had prayed earnestly for God to give me gospel joy in spite of life’s disappointments. And answer that prayer, he did.

This summer during our morning devotions we’ve been studying the promises of God and that morning we studied God’s promise to not withhold any good thing.

“For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly.” Psalm 84:11

Reading the chapter with my kids was the answer to prayer that I needed. For it reminded me of this truth, “Since God gave the very best already, His most precious Son, He will give His children everything that is good for them. He will not withhold even one little thing. If there is something God does not give to a believer in Jesus, it is because that things is not good for him or is not right for him at that time.” (from God’s Promises by Sally Michael)

As I talked with the kids about God’s promises and his faithfulness….to read the rest of this post, visit Hive Resources, my writing home today.

Teaching our children Scripture can sometimes be challenging because of words and concepts they don’t yet understand. My friend, Melissa of Hive Resources, is joining me today to share an example of how she helped her preschool class understand a specific passage of Scripture. And she’s included a printable!

How to teach your kids to be intentional for Christ

When I lead the preschoolers at my church, one of my favorite activities is to break apart big words into practical ideas.

In 1 Thess. 1:1-10, Paul is speaking to the church at Thessalonica, praising them for intentionally sharing God’s love with those around them. But ‘intentional’ is a big word for little kids.

⁷ And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. ⁸ The Lord’s message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia—your faith in God has become known everywhere. Therefore we do not need to say anything about it, ⁹ for they themselves report what kind of reception you gave us. They tell how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, ¹⁰ and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath.

After we read 1 Thess. 1:7-10, I asked the kids if they knew what the word ‘intentional’ meant. Not surprisingly, they didn’t.

So, I used this definition: intentional means doing something on purpose. We talked about some of the things we do on purpose - brushing our teeth, sneaking a cookie from the pantry, or putting all our blocks in a row. Those things don’t happen on accident; you do all those things on purpose!

The people in the Thessalonican church were intentional, too! How? They looked for people to share God’s love with.

When we turned back to our passage to see how the believers in Thessalonica were intentional in sharing God’s love, we came up with two examples:

Be intentional by telling others about Jesus.

Because many preschoolers are chatterboxes, they can usually grasp this truth. They love to talk about things they love – TV shows, toys, what they ate for breakfast, and people like Grandparents or friends. We talk about what we love. If we love Jesus, we’ll want to talk about him to others.

Note: If the above passage seems to long for your age group, use 1 Thess. 2:8 as an alternate verse -“Because we loved you so much, we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well.”

Be intentional by living like we’ve met Jesus.

For preschoolers, talking about Jesus is the easy part. Teaching children to “live like we’ve met Jesus” is a little harder. When a concept is a more abstract, I love to pull examples immediately out of the text. In vs. 6-10, Paul commends (say ‘good job!’ or ‘way to go!’) the church for the following things:

• Following the Lord (doing what he says)
• Having joy in difficult times (when bad things happen trusting that it’s going to be okay)
• Believing that Jesus is the Son of God (just like he said!)
• Trusting in Jesus more than anything or anyone else (he’s the boss!)
• Letting Jesus change their hearts and minds (letting him help us listen and obey)

The church did such a great job living like Jesus that word began to spread about them. God wants us to “live like we’ve met Jesus” because when others see how we live they will get to know Jesus too!

Hey, teacher! Here are some hands-on ideas for helping your kids grasp the idea of being intentional.

Make special eyeglasses

In order to “live like we’ve met Jesus” and tell others about him, we have to be on the lookout for people to talk to! To help kids intentionally “look” for others to share Christ with, we made our own eyeglasses complete with colored cellophane from this cute template. And while there are many shapes to choose from, I think the heart-shaped glasses drive home the idea that we’re looking for people to share God’s love with.

We printed ours out on cardstock to make them sturdy. To decorate, we colored our glasses with markers, but you could really add some bling with stickers, glitter, or adhesive rhinestones. Because some of our preschoolers haven’t mastered the scissors yet, I precut them.

Spread the good news

If you have extra time, have the children put on their completed glasses and practice greeting one another. I’ve discovered preschoolers particularly enjoy role playing – either acting out a Bible story or specific scenarios. So, ask one child to pretend he is a guest to the class, and let the students take turns meeting and greeting him/her in Christ’s name.

If your class is shy, an idea I found online suggested the teacher wear a sticker and ask the students to keep an eye out for it. Whenever they spot the sticker, they must come up to the teacher and greet him/her.

Missions memory game

Click here for the printable version

For students who aren’t excited by story time or crafts, feel free to use this printable of a memory match game based on this passage. Each icon represents a practical way we can be intentional to show God’s love to others.

Print on heavy cardstock or put stickers on the backside to ensure the game pieces aren’t see-through. Laminate if you want the pieces to last.

As each student takes a turn matching the icons, talk about the meaning of each symbol and how it shows God’s love. After all the pieces have been selected, line them up in rows and challenge the students to pick one idea for serving someone they know in the coming week.

Do you struggle with teaching your child some of Scripture’s abstract concepts? What have you found that works?

A friend recently asked me for curriculum suggestions for her son. He starts kindergarten this fall at their local school and she wants to teach him things at home this summer that he won’t learn at school. If you don’t already know, asking a homeschooler about curriculum excites them the same way a grandparent is excited when you ask them to show you pictures of their grandchildren. Needless to say, she came over and I bombarded her with all my favorite teaching resources:)

While all school districts are different, I have to admit, I thought my son would not be exposed to evolutionary theory until he was older. As it turns out, he learned it in elementary school. In kindergarten he came home asking why his teacher was reading stories to them about “mother nature.” In first grade, he had to draw pictures of the Big Bang. The science books he read all referred to evolution as a given fact. (Our homeschool story is a bit unique. We began homeschooling him in first grade but he continues to attend the school one day a week for an enrichment class).

This past fall, we took the kids to DC to the Smithsonian. I was excited to take them to the museums I remember going to every year as a child growing up outside of DC. I was also excited to show them exhibits on topics we had learned in school. We were disappointed to see at the museum of natural history that each and every exhibit and each and every plaque referenced evolution in one way or another.

The impact of one’s world view affects all of life. I always point out to my children how one’s belief about God, whether he exists, and whether he has any say over their life affects everything they do and say. We see it in the tv shows we watch, the books we read from the library, the websites my kids visit. My children love to read books on science and watch science shows on tv. As I help them filter what they learn through a biblical worldview, it’s amazing how deep and far reaching one’s world view spreads. It’s not simply a matter of whether someone believes God created the world or not. These beliefs also effect ethics, morality, human worth and dignity, goals, and way of life. It effects whether a baby in the womb is considered worthy of living. It also effects whether people live to pursue their own desires and pleasures at the expense of others-because after all, if there is no after life or no Creator to be held accountable to, what does it matter how we live?

Why do I bring all this up? Not everyone can homeschool or afford a Christian education. And I realize that not every family has a desire to homeschool. But regardless of the type of schooling a family chooses, I believe it is important that children receive a firm Biblical foundation at home. Mornings before school, evenings, weekends, and summertime are all wonderful times to spend teaching children the foundations of the Christian faith.

And the best place to start is back in the beginning…

When my friend came over to see and talk about resources that teach children about God as Creator, I shared with her these resources below:

Exploring Creation With Astronomy (Young Explorer Series) (Young Explorer (Apologia Educational Ministries)) Apologia is a great homeschool science curriculum that is creation centered. Each text book focuses on what God created during each day of creation. We did the ocean creatures of the fifth day last year and loved it!

Awesome Science: Explore the Grand Canyon This is one in a series of videos made by a homeschooler named Noah Justice. In this video, he discusses how the Grand Canyon developed as a result of Noah’s flood. Each video in the series is from a creation perspective. My son has loved them.

Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed Another great creation movie, this one is more for older children.

Genesis for Kids: Science Experiments That Show God’s Power in Creation! This book contains simple activities and experiments that coordinate with the seven days of creation. Best for younger elementary grades.

Dinosaurs of Eden: Tracing the Mystery Through History The Answers in Genesis group has a number of resources for children, this is just one of them. In this book, children learn about how God created dinosaurs on the fifth day, with all the other land animals.

Jonathan Park: The Adventure Begins (Jonathan Park Radio Drama) This is part of a series of radio dramas that teach creation through fun fictitious stories.

Case for a Creator for Kids, Updated and Expanded (Case for… Series for Kids) My son loved the book The Case for Christ for Kids so I got him this book as well. Written by the same author, this book also includes well researched information that helps answer questions about how everything began and the case for God as creator.

(image of my boys, courtesy Lisa Tarplee Photography)

I woke up one morning last week to the sound of my kids fighting. One son was in the bedroom crying and the other was in the living room, also crying. As I sorted out what had happened, I learned that one of my sons had destroyed something his brother had created out of legos and his brother responded by hitting him.

For those who visit here regularly, you’ll remember that my kids and I are going through a conflict curriculum this summer. If you’ve ever prayed for changes in your own heart or for others, you know that prayer for change opens the door for opportunities to learn and practice that change. For us, that means we’ve had many opportunities to practice conflict resolution, including my waking up to the sound of my kids fighting.

My son whose lego creation had been damaged had a difficult time moving on from the conflict. We talked about what was going on in his heart and about his hurtful response to his brother.

“You know how upset you were when your brother broke what you had created?” I asked.

He nodded his head.

“When you hit your brother, you hurt something that God created. Your brother is created in the image of God and when you hurt him, you acted against God who made him. What do you think God thought of how you treated his creation?”

“Not good” he responded.

We then talked about the fact that because God had forgiven him for each and every sin through the sacrificial death of Christ on the cross, he needed to forgive his brother for damaging his legos.

Here are a few of the things we’ve focused on so far through our curriculum, The Young Peacemaker (Book Set):

1. Choices have consequences and our choices belong to us. We can’t blame anyone else for our own decisions or for the consequences that occur as a result.

2. The poor choices we make in our interactions with others come from our heart. Selfishness, pride, and fear of others are just a few of the heart issues we’ve discussed. One of things I try to still in my children is that our feelings come from within us, from our own heart. No one can make us angry, no one can cause us to feel one way or another. Too often we blame others for our feelings and this helps feel justified in our sinful responses to others.

3. We can choose to follow our way or the wise way. When our desires compel us to want to choose our own way, we need to repent and ask God for help to follow the way of wisdom.

4. We are also learning the importance of apology and forgiveness. Because God has forgiven us for all our sins, we need to forgive others. The gospel and Jesus’ work on the cross for us frees us to extend the grace we’ve received to others.

Not only have we had plenty of opportunities to practice what we’ve learned through my boy’s conflicts, but we have also applied it to situations in other places. One source for examples of conflict are television shows. When we see conflicts between characters on tv, we then discuss it and relate it to what we’ve learned. I also recently heard one of my kids talk to a friend about how to handle conflict when that friend blamed someone else for their actions. The opportunities for learning are everywhere.

While I’d rather not wake up to the sound of fighting, learning how to resolve conflict is an important skill for my kids to learn. More importantly, focusing on the heart issues behind their conflicts is crucial to their growth in faith.

Have you used this curriculum or some other resource in training your children? I’d love to hear about it!