Radiant

Last night was so much fun watching the movie, Charlotte's Web, in the field with all the kiddos!  They looked so cute in their cars!  This week's devotion will highlight the word Radiant that was in the web:

Radiant:  adj. sending out light; shining or glowing brightly.

Radiant has such a wonderful meaning doesn’t it?!  This is my prayer for the kids of Kid City – that they become radiant wherever they are.  That they send out the light of Jesus in everything they say and do.  That they apply what they have learned and share it to everyone they come in contact with.  That they become radiant beams of light for the Kingdom of God!  Sit down with you child/children this week and go over the word radiant and discuss its meaning.  Share with them:

Psalms 34:5 - Those who look to him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame.

This verse tells us that if we continually seek God and walk in His ways, we will be radiant!  I desperately want to be radiant and I want my children to be radiant as well.  At the movie last night we gave each family a little activity pack and at the very top was our main verse that gripped my heart when I saw this movie: 

 

Ephesians 4:29- Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.

Our words are so powerful.  They have the power to build others up or tear them down.  When we are building others up, we are radiant.  When we choose not to, our faces will be covered with shame.  Encourage your child/children to be radiant!  Encourage them to build others up!!  Crank up the volume on your computer and sing and shout praises with your children to this song………play it over and over again so that they sing it as they are in school as a constant reminder to use their words in ways that build everyone up!

Divine Dining and Drive In

November 2nd

Come Join us at 5:30 for

Chili Diner and then at 6:30

the Movie Charlotte's Web will be played.

 

The kids are going to have a drive in with Cardboard Boxes!!!

Bring a box decorated like a car, and the kids will line up their cars and enjoy the movie! 

 

It will be lots of fun and we will have some follow up lessons on our words that we use and how we can build each other up!! 

 

You won't want to miss it!!

Pack of Tissues

We are so glad that you were the special one to receive a pack of tissues while you were out and about in Indian Trail!  Those tissues were packed up by our sweet children of Sardis Baptist Church.  Their purpose?  To spread the love of Jesus.  They are learning what it means to help others - just like Jesus did.  You see, Jesus came to this earth to help those who don't know Him, to be raised to life.  He came to love, encourage, to teach, and to die for each one of us.  We would like to help you in anyway possible.  We are His hands and feet and we want to serve.  Please join us at Sardis Baptist Church for Help for your Journey!

Pride

Pride....how would you define it?  If you know how to define it, do you think
you could identify it?  Pride can be defined as a feeling that you are more
important or better than other people.  Ouch....I can identify with that and
especially in my own heart, pride has reared it's ugly head.  Where do we go for
guidance and direction? We turn to God's word....it is our weapon.  Get out the
child training bible and begin to look at it as your sword of the Spirit, your
weapon of offense! 

Proverbs 21:4 says "haughty eyes and a proud heart! the lamp of the wicked, are
sin!"

Proverbs 16:18 reads like this, "Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit
before a fall."

This is what King David wrote about The Lord in 1Chronicles 29:11 , "Yours, O
Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the
splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, O Lord, is the
kingdom; you are exalted as head over all.


When we know who The Lord is and what Jesus Christ did for our sin, we are ready
to repent and be set free from all things, especially pride. If the Holy Spirit
has convicted you and identified an area of pride in you today, pray something
like this...

I exalt you O Lord!  You are above all, over all and creator of all things. In
you alone can we boast. Thank you for the cross of your son, Jesus Christ. Thank
you for your forgiveness when I fail.  Forgive me of my pride, help me to
identify it in my heart and dig it out from the roots. I need your word. Thank
you Father... Amen

Stumbling Block or Stepping Stone

I was able to go on a wonderful camping vacation last week in the mountains.  It was breathtaking to see all of God's glorious creation in massive forms!  Huge mountains, spectacular waterfalls, enormous boulders were all reminders of the magnificent ways that God spoke everything into existence!  At our campsite, we found a creek that you could travel out to the middle of via a whole bunch of stones. 

At first it was so hard to walk across all those stones.  We all kept falling and slipping and just plain struggled to get across.  These rocks were definitely stumbling blocks for us.  After a while, we realized that there was a more effective way to get across them.  We figured out which type of rocks were slippery, how to test a rock to see if it was wiggly, and how to map out our path so that we would have adequate rocks to get across.  This totally painted a picture in my mind of how we view our paths in life.  We can either view things that happen or circumstances as either a stumbling block or a stepping stone.  When a situation arises, we can look at it as a major pain, a stumbling block, that ruins our day or week and can alter God's plan for us.  Or we can view them as stepping stones.  Things that are placed in front of us that God wants to use to teach us, move us, and direct us onto His path for us.  Jeremiah 29:11 says - For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."  God's plans include stepping stones.  He does not want to harm us and cause stumbling blocks in our life.  He wants us to be successful.  What are your stumbling blocks in your life?  I asked the 3rd - 5th graders in Awana what some stumbling blocks for them could be.  They told me they have fear, they have bad habits, they talk too much, etc.  We also talked about how they could be a stumbling block for someone else.  We then decided to commemorate the lesson by painting a reminder to turn our stumbling blocks into stepping stones. 

Pride

Think about the last time you disobeyed your parents or were not nice to a friend…..when you put your thoughts and feelings before others and didn’t really care about how the other person felt or if they might be hurt from your actions.  That is pride.  Did you know that God does not like pride.  When we think and act like we are better than others we start to think and act like we don’t need God.  I don’t know about you, but that is NOT how I want to live my life. 

 

The Tower of Babel was a tower that all the people of Babylonia started to build for themselves to reach to the heavens.  Genesis 11:4, “Then they said, come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.” 

 

They were so concerned with being famous and wanted everyone to know how great they were.  People were convinced that they would become great if this tower was built to the heavens.  Their pride had taken over and all they were thinking about was gratifying themselves, and that they would be known in all the world.  My question to you is, is this how you are living your life?  Are you only doing things to benefit yourself and make yourself look good?  Do you want to be a part of things purely to say that you were?  Are you putting your feelings and thoughts before others? 

 

If you have your child training bible, turn to the first tab for pride, 1 Samuel 16:7, “But the Lord said to Samuel, do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him.  The Lord does not look at the things people look at.  People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

 

Pride causes destruction, it does not allow us to be humble.  Humility is the opposite of pride and this is how we should live our life.  Each one of us might be good at some things, but you can be for sure that each one of us is special at something that you are not.  Realize that everyone in your presence, poor, rich, disabled, different races, etc are all Gods people and He loves us all the same and expects us to do the same for others.  And as children of God, we need not have a proud heart that produces sin, but live by God’s word, which says in Jeremiah 9:24 to know “ that I am Lord, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight, declares the Lord.”

Salt the Oats

I heard a phrase this week that really has stuck out to me:  Salt the Oats.  What does this mean?  Glad you asked.  How do we get our children to come hungry and thirsty for God's word?  Salt the Oats.  When you add salt to oats it makes you thirsty!  Thirsty for some more!  So how do you salt the oats when pertaining to God’s word?  In my family we started a Christmas devotion for a month, a couple of years ago.  Well, we quickly realized how much our children loved that special time each night and we decided to continue that throughout the year.  I was pleasantly surprised when this time quickly turned into my children’s favorite time of the day and they were eager for Bible Time to get started!  It is a special time of pajamas, snuggles, and picking apart scripture and applying it to our lives.  We share struggles, stories, and praises for the day.  The praises (we just added this component) has really helped behavior during the day.  The kids really want to be praised for serving one another or showing kindness, so they make a lot of attempts throughout the day to get the recognition and eventually that just turns into learned behavior!  Where do you start with Bible Time?  Your Child Training Bible is a great start.  Go through those tabs with your kids.  Share where you struggle.  Write key verses on index cards where everyone struggles and stick them by your beds.  The more you read them and reread them, the stickier they will become!  I also bought a Time Line and it walks you through the entire Bible (http://www.gospellight.com/product_details.aspx?id=11887).  The possibilities are endless and The Bible says God’s word will not return void (Isaiah 55:11-so is my word that goes out from my mouth:  It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.)  Make Bible Time fun and suspenseful.  Sometimes, don’t finish a story and leave them craving for the next night so they can hear what happens at the end!  Memorize scripture together as a family – why not start with Romans 12?!!  And don’t leave out the best part……prayer.  Pray together.  Pray for each other.  Take turns.  The more your kids pray, the more comfortable they will be to pray other places and in front of others.  Go ahead…………..Salt the Oats………………I dare you!!!!!