It Can’t All Be Fun and Games

I have pretty normal kids they love to play, wrestle, run, swim, ride bikes, play at the park, watch television, play video games, and read (so long as it is a book of their choosing). However, like most normal kids they have things that they just don’t want to do practice piano, school work, or chores (they have a particular aversion to cleaning), and like most kids when asked to do these kinds of activities they inevitably whine, complain, or grumble. Like any good mom my response sounds somethings like this, “Sorry kid it can’t all be fun and games.” So being a good mom, like I am (she said sarcastically), I was pretty surprised to discover that one source of my difficult week last week was my desire to just have some fun with my kids, and not deal with the distasteful activity of disciplining them.

Last week I cancelled pool trips and several other fun activities, because I didn’t think my children’s behavior warranted such reward. As a result they didn’t get to run off all that little boy energy that all three seem to have in spades, which only brought more discouraging misbehavior and more distasteful discipline. By the weeks end I wasn’t completely defeated, but I was pretty discouraged. I just wanted to have fun with my boys, but instead had to spend a great deal of time discussing appropriate behavior and honoring God with our choices and words. To make matters worse instead of having a God honoring attitude about the whole things, all I could think in “poor me, these boys are ruining all the fun.” When I should have been saying to myself, “It can’t all be fun and games!”

As a mom I have a job to do, and that means disciplining my children appropriately. No matter how often they fall into sin and disobedience I need to patiently and lovingly correct their behavior and pointing them to the cross where forgiveness of sin is found. However, that doesn’t mean that they should lose out on every fun activity I have planned, especially when that activity will help get out all the energy, which seem to be at least a part of the problem. While extra energy can never take all the blame for sin, it certainly doesn’t help the situation any. What I concluded is that I have to show my kids grace sometimes, and do things that are good for them because it is my choice to them not because they deserve it. My kids may not deserve a trip to the pool three times a week, but I know that we will have fun, they will burn energy, it’s good for them to play hard, and they will soak up a little vitamin D the old fashion way. Don’t get me wrong they still have to be disciplined, but just because they don’t deserve something doesn’t mean I can’t give it to them anyway and still be a good mom (said far more seriously than earlier). In fact it offers an opportunity to teach them what grace and mercy are all about. We can tell them that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone, and they will have no clue what we are talking about; however, if we can show them  what grace and mercy are by keeping from them what they actually deserve (showing them mercy) then giving them something that they know they don’t deserve (showing them grace). Just like sometimes instead of a trip to the pool they deserve time out, all of us deserve eternal punishment, but God in His goodness showed us mercy and grace by saving us through the work of Christ on the cross.

Summer is a fun time to spend with your children, there is a lot to do, but it offers so much togetherness that it is easy to take for granted these precious moments with our little creatures. It’s also easy to get tired of feeling like the entertainment director on a cruse ship full of unthankful passengers. In those moments of fatigue remember that it can’t all be fun and games. We grow most through the tough stuff, that’s as true for you as a parent as it is for them as children. Work diligently to discipline your kids in a God honoring way, but don’t forget to give them some grace (they really need it)!!

It is my sincere prayer that this encourages you as you labor to raise your children to love the Lord!

Let Your Light Shine

We continued to work our way through book of Acts this week, teaching the kids about how Paul continued to share the gospel with the Romans while he was imprisoned. The overriding theme of this week’s lesson continues to be our need to trust in God, His wisdom, and power to accomplish his plans. We discussed what it meant to be a light in the world, like Paul was a light to the Romans. When people do not know the truth of who God is or who they really are (sinners) they are in the dark, they do whatever they think is right, because they don’t have a source of wisdom to tell them otherwise. Paul was trying to bring light, truth, to the Romans so that God and His word would light their way. Without God’s word we are left to fumble around and reason for ourselves why things are the way they are, but God’s word, His truth, gives light to the eyes and life to the heart!

This was the lesson, we did a recap of last weeks lesson at the beginning of class to refresh their memories before adding on to Paul’s story:

Felix’s time as governor was over and he was replaced by Festus, and when Festus took office the Jews persuaded him to hear Paul’s case. Festus listened, but just like Felix he couldn’t understand why the Jews wanted Paul put to death. Festus gave Paul two options to go and face trial by the Jews or to make an appeal to Caesar. Paul knew that death was certain if he went before the Jews, but he also knew that Caesar was know to kill followers of Christ. While it seemed he had no good option, he decided to go before Caesar, knowing that he had not broken any Roman laws and that it would give him the opportunity to share the gospel with the most powerful man in Rome.

 Before Paul was sent to Rome King Agrippa came to visit; Festus thought the king might enjoy hearing Paul’s case so he called for Paul and let Paul give his defense before King Agrippa. King Agrippa knew a lot about the Jews, and he listened to Paul carefully; however, when Paul finished King Agrippa told him he thought he had gone mad. Paul assured him that he had not, and that his words were true. King Agrippa did not believe Paul, but he did have a chance to listen. Paul told the men that he would pray that they would come to believe.

 After listening to Paul, Agrippa told Festus that he saw no reason for Paul to remain imprisoned except that he wanted to make his appeal to Caesar. It would not be long before Paul was taken to make his appeal.

 The Apostle Paul knew what it meant to be a light in a dark world; the Romans lived in darkness, they did not have the Bible, God’s Holy Word to show them the way, and so they did whatever seemed right to them. They could have mistreated Paul or put him to death with very little consequence, but instead of being scared Paul was brave and shared the gospel with them. Paul wanted them to know God, and let Him guide their lives. Do you remember how angry the gospel made the Jews? They are not the only ones who got angry when they heard about repentance and faith, a lot of other people get upset when they find out that on their own that they are not good enough to go to heaven. Paul fearlessly proclaimed that on our own we deserve punishment, but if we repent (turn from sin) and trust in Jesus (trust in his good works, not our own) than we can spend eternity in heaven with God. We must be like Paul and shine like lights in a dark world, sharing the gospel with others, as an act of love, trusting God to accomplish His goal, because God is in charge of everything!

Sharing the gospel is not the only way that we can shine as light sin the world. The principle introduced in todays lesson also applies to our behavior as well. Just as our kids are more influenced by our action than our words, unbelievers are influenced by our actions more than our words. If our words and actions do not align than the message that is remembered is the one we acted out. Our children need to be taught that the world will look at us, and determine by our behavior whether the words we say are true. We need to serve God in our words and actions if we want others to come to know the love and mercy of our savior!

There are lots of fun things you can do at home to continue the conversation about Paul and what it means to be a light in the world. Kids love playing with flashlights, take you kids in a dark room and ask them to tell you what things look like (this may be a good bedtime game). Then shine the light on the things that they thought they saw, and let them see how much different the light makes those things look. I can remember thinking there was an alligator in my room when I was a kid, because one of my toys looked so different in the dark. This offers an opportunity to talk about how different things seem when we walk closely with God, he lights our path and we can see what right and wrong more clearly. Then you can transition to talk about Paul and how he wanted everyone to come and walk in the light of God’s word. Think of other activities and share them in the comment section, I would love to hear other ideas (I am not really all that creative)!

Please remember that though it is hard these principles start at home. Is there a disparity between what you teach your kids and how you treat them? When you mess up are you quick to excuse your behavior to them or do you openly repent, confess your sin and seek forgiveness? I have to admit that I fail often in my endeavor to love my children as God has loved me. However, my failure offers an amazing life giving opportunity to talk with my kids about the true character of God, and the chance to model to them what repentance really looks like. If we want our children to be lights in this world for the Lord, we have to be lights in our home to them!

I pray that this is helpful to you as you seek to disciple your kids at home!

This is War!

I started my week as the poster child for horrible parenting! I woke up Monday morning to the sound of a loud thud above my head, which I figured was the sound of my 8 year old falling out of bed and like any concerned mom I simply I checked the clock 6:10 (which meant I had 5 more minutes before I planned on getting our of bed) and hoped he would go back to sleep (clearly what I intended to do). Before my alarm when off, I heard a sound which was far more difficult to ignore, the sound of a crying baby. This was not a welcomed sound, one it was too early and two I needed to work on bible study, which was not going to happen with a sweet 20 month old awake! 

So, I went and scooped my sweet baby out of his bed on my way to the coffee pot. You would think the sound of delight he made as I picked him up would have mellowed my frustration, but you would be wrong. As I reached the kitchen, I was already tying to give myself a pep talk. “You can do this, Liz. It’s all going to work out, don’t be mad your plans didn’t work out (I really though the kids would sleep until 7:15ish giving me an hour to wake up and study).” I tried really hard to fight the funk, knowing that it was going to be a long day! Alas, I failed! The funk continued, I was just irritated for no good reason other than feeling the pressure to get some work done, and knowing that it was going to really hard with the kids up so early. I just didn’t want to fight though to accomplish my goal, I wanted God to make it easy, and well he wasn’t. I am not saying it was his fault, simply that he could have arranged it so that my plans worked out, but in his wisdom he did not. Sadly this was not my mindset, and as a result my mood continued to slide.

My children while certainly not on their best behavior were not being terrible, but you wouldn’t have know it by response to their run of the mill childhood misbehavior. Three little boys in one house, no matter the size, is going to be a little chaotic. However, our normal chaos was just a little more than I was willing to endure, and so I lost it on no less than three occasions I yelled in anger. At least two of my crazy freak outs sounded something like , “I HAVE HAD ENOUGH!!!” if you can imagine a 31 year old woman yelling that all rattly voiced at three small kids you can begin to see that I was just not handling the pressure of my day well at all!!

The carnage continued through nap-time, or should I say the time intended to be nap-time, because nap-time didn’t happen. I’m not sure if you have ever had that day when things were just not going as planned and then your 3 year old and 20 month old decided that nap-time was not on the days agenda, but it is kind of that point where the tears start to flow for me at least. This was my chance to do that bible study thing that I needed to do (after all I needed to teach a lesson in oh two days, time was not on my side). I patted backs, snuggled, threatened, and finally cried; every attempt to get those kids to bed was failing! Finally, I just gave up! I really wanted to quit my life at that moment, I felt like a crazy woman, leading me to ask God what is going on? Why aren’t you helping me? Don’t you want me to have a teaching prepared for my bible study? This was my break through moment, I just kept thinking about how I wanted to quit fighting, but I knew that wasn’t really an option. I walked to the kitchen to get a little bite to eat, I thought maybe the crazed feeling was partially the fact that I had yet to eat and it was 2:30. While standing in my pantry praying, and searching for food I really met with God. I stood there and cried, it probably looked like I was hiding in the pantry, but I wasn’t just a good place to cry. I reminded myself of the things that I knew were true: I am a sinner saved purely by the grace of God, He sees me as though I lived the life Jesus lived, he did not save me because I am a good bible teacher, a good wife, a good mom, a hard worker, or at this moment even a rational human being; He saved me because he finds glory in cleaning up people who are broken and making them strong and able to serve Him even when things are not going their way. He save me so that I could serve Him and fight the fight of faith!

I realized that I spent a good part of my day fighting the wrong thing, I was suppose to fight my flesh, the self-serving desires of my heart, and resist Satan and his schemes. I was too busy fighting my kids and failing to honor God to realize that my fight was with a different enemy. I won’t go so far as to say that Satan was making my kids misbehave, but he certainly reveled in my failure to discipline them properly. My goal was wrong, I wanted them to behave and let me have a peaceful day. I should have been more concerned with honoring God in how I handled their disobedience regardless of whether they changed their corse of behavior or not. I am so thankful that moment and God lovingly showing me my sin, I was able to go and lovingly discipline my three year old and explain that he had to stay in bed even if he didn’t sleep. I had a chat with the 20 month old, telling him is was bed time (he is a very smart baby and understood exactly what I meant). I called my 8 year old down and repented of my crazy sinful yelling and anger. I was able to explain my sinful heart to my son and seek his forgiveness. It also offered an opportunity to remind Jacob that God is not like mom, He never sins, He is always loving, patient, and kind even to those who sin against him continually offering a way for reconciliation (not the word I used with my 8 year old, he may be smart but not quite that smart) through the cross. God will not always be so patient, but His wrath unlike mine always is righteous! My time with God was just what I needed, he let me see the ruling motive of my heart and helped me to turn from it. He is always so gracious, and gentle as he leads us back to him when we have wondered away.

I know I am not the only mom (or parent) who has had that kind of day, and while you may just think I am a nut who should be locked up (you may be right) I hope that this is encouraging to you. We have to remember as Christians we are at war, not with our kids, but with our own sinful flesh and the influence of satan. If we are to honor God in our lives we must fight at every moment, even when the only eyes that see are the small eyes of our sweet children. They are influenced far more by our actions than our words!   

“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” Ephesians 6:10-17 NASB

Paul Imprisoned

We continued to work our way through book of Acts this week, teaching the kids about Paul’s arrest in the temple and how God worked through Paul to minister to many despite the fact that he was imprisoned. This lesson covered Acts 21-24 it was greatly abridged to highlight the key points of the narrative.

The lesson was slightly longer than usual but still under 5 Min:

Lesson: After many years of travel Paul decided it was time to return to Jerusalem, he returned to many cities on his way, checking on the believers and the churches that were being built in those cities. As he went his fellow believers in Christ begged him not to go to Jerusalem, because they knew that the Jews who try to kill him if he went. However, Paul being led by the Spirit would not change his mind, he knew that the cause of Christ was of more value than His own life and that he had to trust God to accomplish His plan.

 When Paul finally arrived in Jerusalem he met with the elders of the church, he told them all that the Lord had been doing through his ministry, and they all rejoiced. After a few days Paul had gone to the temple to worship, and some of the Jews from Asia saw him they began to stir up the crowd against him. The Jews in the crowed wanted to kill Paul, but the Roman officials heard all the commotion and came and arrested Paul. The officials tried to understand why the Jews wanted to kill Paul, they were willing to help settle the matter, but they could not find any fault with Paul. Instead of turning Paul over to the Jews the officials decided to let the governor determine the case. Paul was sent to Caesarea so that the governor could hear the charges of the Jews and listen to Paul’s defense. The Jews were plotting to attack the transport and kill Paul, but the Romans found out about the plan and moved Paul during the night to keep him safe.

 Felix the governor heard the charges against Paul, but he too found no reason to put him to death or turn him over to the Jews. Felix liked to listen to Paul, and listened to him often. Felix allowed Paul to have an apartment, and receive visitors, all while he was being held in Roman custody. Felix kept Paul in his custody for two years, during which Paul had the opportunity to share the gospel with many times.

 What happened to Paul doesn’t seem fair to us, he didn’t sin against God or break any laws, but he was arrested and kept in custody for more than two years. However, God was not surprised by what happened to Paul, in fact it was part of His plan all along. You see Paul was safe as long as he was in the custody of the Romans, because the Jews could not get to him to kill him. Even though the Romans were not know to be kind to Christians, Paul found favor with the Roman men who had the power to kill him. Had Paul been a free man he would not have been able to share the gospel with powerful men like Felix. Paul trusted God in very scary situations, he obeyed God regardless of the danger, and God was glorified as a result. If we want to make a difference to the kingdom of God we must follow Paul’s example and trust and obey God, because He will always do what it takes to accomplish His plans!

I encourage you to share the account from scripture with older kids, even if you then have to use this lesson to help them understand what all happened. There are several accounts in these chapter which could have been covered individually, but because of the age span of the kids in our program the over arching story of Paul’s journey to Jerusalem and the circumstances around his imprisonment seemed most fitting.

As I studied the text in preparation to write the lesson I found myself asking “What is the point of all this?” I do not want the lessons we teach to simply be stories, they need to teach the kids something about God and something about themselves. While it is by no means an original theme, trusting God and walking in obedience to Him stood out as most important less our kids could glean from the account. Paul’s life was not easy, he had to fight his flesh every day to obey God as he did, but he would not have had the strength to fight if he had not been able to rest in the fact that God was at work in every situation he encountered.

My relationship with my children helps me to understand my relationship with God so much better. There are time I ask my son to do something, but he doesn’t want to, he doesn’t see the benefit and so he will often argue with me trying to convince me that he should not have to do what I have asked of him. He doesn’t trust that I have his best interest at heart or that I am wiser and have a better grasp of the big picture. How often are you and I the same way with God? He asks us to obey, he has given us his word to guide our action, but we see what he asks and we rationalize why we shouldn’t have to do certain things. We reveal that we do not trust Him or think He is wiser able to see the big picture, which is hidden from our view. Further unlike me as a mom, God actually works the situation out to His end, an end that will always work out to my good and His glory (Ro 8:28-29). When I look at Paul who blindly trusted God, and walked in obedience without a through knowledge of what lay ahead of him, I am encouraged to do the same. God gives us His word to reveal his character, He used imprisonment to keep Paul alive, he gave Paul favor with the Roman officials who could have easily turned Him over to the Jews to kill, and He used Paul’s obedience to show us that He is worthy of our trust. In life our kids will face circumstances that do not look favorable, obeying in those circumstances may seem as though it will only make the situation worse, but our kids need to know that they can walk in obedience trusting that no matter what happens that God is working out a bigger plan and that he never asks us to do anything without giving us the grace to face what lies ahead!

I hope this is helpful and encouraging as you seek to disciple your children! Please let me know your thoughts, and how you have been able to use this material at home! I pray that it is a blessing as you minister in your home!

Thank You for Your Word

We continued to work our way through book of Acts this week, teaching the kids about Paul’s sermon on Mars Hill from Acts 17:16-34. It was challenging lesson to draw out application appropriate for 3-6 year olds; what is clear from this passage is that all men know that there is a God, and that we know that there are consequences for failing to worship Him properly. The men of ancient Greece made up all kinds of gods to worship, because they had no means of understanding God apart from creation. They could look around at all that God created, and see that their was a god; however, God had not seen fit to reveal himself to them before this point in history. Paul came and brought them the good news of Jesus, explaining who the one true God is, and that he wanted them to repent of their sinful false worship. While many listened to Paul eagerly, few repented and were saved. We used this lesson to stress the importance of God revealed word, the Bible, because it tell us the things that the men in Athens did not know. Bibles are common to us, we often take for granted what a privilege it is to live in a time when we have all of God’s revealed word at our disposal. We want our children to understand how special the Bible is, and grasp how important it is to our lives as Christians. 

The following is the lesson we used, it takes less than three minute to go through:

Definitions:

Idols- false gods made up by man, they have no power to save us, and they keep us from worshiping the one true God.

 Creation– when we say creation we are talking about all that God created: the earth, other planets, stars, animals, plants, and people.

 Lesson: After leaving Philippi Paul continued on his mission along with Silas and was eventually joined by Timothy. They continued to share the message of Jesus to anyone who would listen, but they faced problems because of the angry Jews the wanted them to stop talking about Jesus. At one point Paul had to runaway the town they were working in, Timothy and Silas were able to stay behind, and they planed on meeting back up with Paul as soon as they could.  

Paul ended up in Athens where he waited for Silas and Timothy. During his time there he found himself upset by all of the idols that he saw placed through out the city. Idols are made up gods, they have no power to save us from our sin, and they keep us from worshiping the true God. The people of Athens worshiped many gods, but because their gods were mean they didn’t want to make any god angry that they were not worshiping so they built an alter to an unknown God.

 As Paul reasoned with the people in the market place knew he had to take a different approach to teaching these people about Christ, and he used the alter of the unknown god to introduce the One True God. Paul was very kind as he addressed the people, but told them he could tell them who the unknown god was and why He was the only God they should worship. Paul told them that the unknown god was the creator of the heavens and the earth. That he was so powerful that he didn’t need man to serve him, because he was the one that made all men through one man. Paul told them that God was patient with their lack of knowledge, but God wanted them to repent (turn from their sin) because God would not let them worship their idols forever. While the people enjoyed listening to Paul’s message, because they liked hearing new things, only a few believed.

 We rejoice that at least some were saved, those who continued in their sinful idol worship sadden us. The men in Greece did not have a Bible to teach them about God, instead all they had was the creation to tell them that there was a god. Remember creation is everything God made: the earth, the stars, the other planets, the animals, the plants, and people. Creation may point us to a God and creator, it does not tell everything we need to know about God and His plan to save men from their sin. We should be very thankful that we have Bibles, so that we can know God, His character, and His plan to save men from their sin.

We used snack time to continue teaching about the importance of special revelation. We gave them chocolate chip cookies, and asked where they thought the cookies came from? Could the cookies make themselves? We can tell that someone made the cookies because cookies can’t make themselves. However, we cannot know much else about the baker other then that they exist and that they like to make cookies. The same is true of creation or general revelation, we can discover things about our creator like the fact that He exists and that He made things in a orderly manner, but we cannot know His character in depth or His plan for salvation. 

Teaching our children that the Bible is our primary means of understanding the nature, character, and will of God is vital as liberal theology continues to take its toll on the evangelical church. It is through the teaching of scripture and the work of the Holy Spirit that we come into a relationship with the one true God. If scripture is not the source of our knowledge of God we will teach our children to worship something other than the true God, they will be just like the Greeks worshiping worthless idols. If we want our children to grow to be wise, know and love the living God, and build their lives on the firm foundation of scripture, so that when the storms of trials come they can cling to what what they know is true and stand firm in their faith they must be taught put the truth of scripture above every other source of wisdom. This will requires great effort, but by God’s grace we can succeed!    

I hope this has been helpful as you labor to disciple your children, until next time go serve your King!

 

 

 

Trusting God

We continued teaching the kids from the book of Acts; this week we discussed the account from Acts 16:13-40 where Paul and Silas exercises the demon from the slave girl, end up in jail, convert the jailer, and ultimately walk away with the apologies of the chief magistrate. It is a great story to introduce the concept that obedience will not always bring the blessing that we may expect. Generally it is true that when you obey things go well for you, but sometime we encounter situations like Paul and Silas did, we do what’s right and things don’t immediately go well. Our kids need to learn to trust God and obey even when they do not see the immediate blessing from their obedience. They need to know that their Heavenly Father is in control of all things, He will make sure their needs are met, and that they can show Him love by obeying Him.

Here is the lesson it is a little longer than some of our other lessons, but still only takes about 3 min to read out loud:

Lesson: After Lydia was converted Paul and Silas continued to teach about Jesus in Philippi, however they were being followed by a demon possessed slave girl who made money for her master by tell people’s future. She continued to call out loudly that “These men are bond-servants of the most God, who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation.” After several days of this Paul became annoyed. (Do you guys know what it is to be annoyed? – It is when someone is doing something that really bothers you.) Finally Paul was so annoyed that he turned to the spirit and said, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her” and the demon left the girl.

The man who owned the slave was angry with Paul when he realized that he could no longer use the girl to make money. So he drug Paul and Silas before the ruling authority of the town, and made false claims against them. The crowed rose up against Paul and Silas, the authorities beat them, and put them in prison with chains on their ankles.

That night Paul and Silas were singing, praying, and praising God while all the prisoners listened. All of a sudden there was a great earthquake, and all the doors to the prison were opened and all of the chains were unlocked. The jailer woke up, and saw all the open doors thought the prisoners had escaped. He knew he would be in big trouble, so he was about to take his own life, but Paul called out to him do not harm yourself we are all still here.

The guard called for the lights, and rushed into where Paul and Silas were. He brought them out and immediately asked, “what must I do to be saved.” They told him to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. They spoke the words of the Lord to the jailer and to his entire house. That very hour they washed Paul and Silas’s wounds, were baptized, and eat together, all rejoiced greatly having believed in God. The next day word was brought to the jailer that Paul and Silas were to be set free.

Two things happened in the story first Paul did the right thing and called the demon out of the girl, but he suffered for doing what was right. Then Paul called out to the jailer and kept him from killing himself once he saw all the doors to the prison were open. In the second part of the story Paul was blessed because he did what was right. Had Paul not trusted God, he would have kept silent and let the jailer kill himself so they could escape. However, Paul got a double blessing he save the slave girl from demon possession and in the end the jailer and his whole house believed Jesus. Our God is in charge of everything, we need to trust Him to take care of us, and show Him our love by obeying His word.

We ask the following questions during snack time not only to see what the kids understood from the lesson, but it offers them a chance to interact with the retelling of the account helping them retain more of what was taught.

• Who was following Paul and Silas around as they tried to teach the people of Philippi about Jesus? (A demon possessed girl)
• What did Paul do when the girl annoyed him? (He called the demon out of her in Christ’s name, and it left her)
• Was the girl’s master happy or angry? (Angry)
• What did he do to Paul and Silas? (Brought them before the town officials and made false claims against them)
• What did the officials do to Paul and Silas? (Beat them and put them in jail)
• What did Paul and Silas do while they were in jail? (Sang hymns of praise and prayed while the other prisoners listened)
• What happened in the middle of the night? (There was a great earth quake, all the doors in the jail opened, and all the chains were unlocked)
• What stopped the jailer from taking his own life when he thought the prisoners escaped? (Paul called out to him and told him they were all still in the prison)
• What question did the jailer ask Paul? (What must I do to be saved?)
• What did Paul and Silas tell him? (They told him to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and then explained exactly what that meant)
• What happened to the jailer? (He and his whole house believed and were saved!)

It seems that there is no greater lesson that we can teach our children than to trust God and His word. I dare say that every sin has its root in a failure to trust God. Had Adam and Eve just trusted God, their creator, to provide what was best for them they would not have fallen into sin. Living in a sin stained world makes trusting God even harder, one repercussion of the fall is our desire to operate as autonomous creatures who possess the power to rule our own domain. However, we must teach our children that they are not all powerful rules of their destine, they are created by God and their greatest good is only found when they seek after Him, trusting Him as they walk in obedience. I know that I find myself in sin most often, because I don’t believe that God is going to take care of me. I may not ever say those words out loud or even think those thoughts conscientiously, but my sin reveals that I think my way of accomplishing something is better than God’s. Trust in God is the path to obedience, but it only comes as we understand the character of our Creator, the unchanging God (James 1:17, Mal 3:6) who created all things and who works all things together for the good of those who love Him (Ro 8:28-29). As parents we must work very hard to teach our children to trust God, we must work at pointing out His character traits revealed through scripture. This task will take years, but we must prayerfully labor to honor God and raise our children to know Him and trust Him!