Inspiring Purity in Your Teens

 Habits for Happy Kids, Heavenly Habits  No Responses »
May 162013
 

As homeschool parents, one of the things we tend to do well is protect our kids. We watch over them and guide them along life’s journey fervently. It is of utmost importance to us to protect the purity of our children. We want to spare our kids from some of the things we experienced and participated in as teens, and we want to shield them from the deceptions that are in the media. This is not to create a bubble around them so that they can’t relate to the world, but to insulate them with truth so that they may be able to withstand pressure from their peers and the world.

Sherri-Wilson-Johnson-buttonI am a columnist for Choose Now Ministries. I just finished a series on inspiring purity in our teens and I’d like to share a little of that series with you. This part of the series I am going to share was written to parents, like you, who want to help guide their children on the path of purity, whether homeschooled or not.

Using the word PURITY as an acronym, I outlined steps parents could take to accomplish their goals.

Let’s start with P. It’s a privilege we have as parents to offer protection to our teens. Not protection in the way the world means it. I’m not talking about birth control or STD prevention here. I’m talking about the wonderful blessing we have as parents to act as God acts with us.

It says in Psalm 91:4, “He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.”

P is for the privilege we have to offer protection.

There are a lot of words that start with U. You might be surprised at how many there are. I spent some time in my thesaurus looking for the perfect word to focus on for the letter U in Purity and was unable to narrow it down to one. So I focused on six U words/concepts. sxc.hu-photo-1209460

Unified – Umbrella – Unending love and support – U-turns — User-friendly – Unlock the potential!

Find out more about the six U’s of inspiring purity.

We can’t stop our teens from going down the wrong path. But we sure can put up road blocks, detour signs, caution lights, and bright beacons to light the correct way. This is a lot of work but not near the work it will be to go back and try to fix things once the damage has been done. It’s our responsibility as parents to inspire purity in our teens.

R is for responsibility. . .to inspire purity. (Read More)

As parents, we must retain sexual integrity (and integrity in general) so we can help our teens live lives full of it.  I is for integrity! Here are three tips for maintaining sexual integrity.

You may not know it but spending time with your teens can change their lives. Your values rub off on them the more you spend quality time together. You influence them to live upright lives. This time enhances your life, too, because you feel connected to them like you did when they were little.

T is for treasuring time with your teens. It is a step to inspiring purity in them.

Whether you know it or not you really and truly are the most important person in your teen’s life aside from God—if you let yourself be. “Y” is for You, Of Course!

You can have an impact on the life of your teens and make a difference in the way they view the world around them and how they view themselves. I want to encourage you to press on toward the goal, like Paul spoke of in Philippians 3:14. It’s hard work but when you embrace your parenting days with everything you’ve got and you parent purposefully, you will plant seeds that will grow and become firmly planted—seeds that are not easily uprooted.

http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1209460

The Healthy Habit of Laughter

 Habits for a Happy Dad, Habits for a Happy Mom, Habits for Happy Kids, Habits for life  1 Response »
May 142013
 

Then our mouth was filled with laughter, And our tongue with singing. Then they said among the nations, “The Lord has done great things for them.”  Psalm 126:2

Studies have shown that laughter is healthy, healing.  It may even have benefits similar to a light workout!   And we all know the verse  ”A merry heart does good, like medicine, But a broken spirit dries the bones.”  (Prov. 17:22)

The Healthy Habit of LaughterHow can we bring laughter into our homes?

Laugh at yourself– I do this on many occasions, because I am by nature a klutz.  I trip over my own feet, spill things, and knock full glasses off tables regularly.  Laughter helps to diffuse the situation and any tension that might arise with it.

Laugh with your children– What you are in essence doing is teaching them to laugh at themselves.  When they do funny things as mentioned above, have a good laugh with them, but not at them.  Make them feel better by sharing a time something similar happened to you.

Laugh in the good times– that’s easy.  When a prayer is answered and I just didn’t see how it was going to happen, when Dad gets a raise, when we finally book that trip to Disneyworld after years of saving… we laugh.  Not a long, lingering laugh such as when you witness something hilariously funny, just a short, happy laugh, reminding you that God is good.

Laugh in the bad times– when we have had financial trials, when several things around the house are broken and we can’t afford to repair them all, when we are under a tornado warning… my husband and I often resort to light joking about our situation.  In our family, it is ok to make jokes about serious things.  We tread lightly here, cautiously.  This would not work for some families but it has helped ours make light of what would normally be stressful situations.

Make jokes!  Nice ones, clean ones.  Just to let a little laughter into your day.  Read jokes– I love to read “Laughter, the Best Medicine” in Reader’s Digest.

Watch funny tv shows in your leisure time– My all-time favorite is I Love Lucy.  I often insert one of my dvds after a tiring or “down” day.  Who wouldn’t laugh at that?  My family does… even though we’ve seen each episode multiple times!

Watch Christian comedians– we have our favorites.  Sometimes I will just pop over to YouTube and watch a two-minute segment of one of them.  Ah, that relaxes me and helps me get on with my day.

Play board games with your family– want to have a long laugh session?  Play Balderdash.  I still have the picture I took of my parents, sitting at our kitchen table when I was in college, with red faces and tears running down their faces because what someone had just written as a “definition” in Balderdash was hilarious.  I treasure this memory!

Never laugh at another’s expense– if it does not edify, we don’t do it.

Laughter heals– One of my favorite memories of the terrible, yet beautiful ordeal we had with our daughter’s accident was the 5th day she was in the ICU.  Her youth pastor had flown up to visit us, and brought her a number of homemade cards from the youth group.  All were sweet and caring, with Bible verses and artistic drawings.  Except one.  One young man, known for his precociousness, wrote a funny anecdote.  Having been cooped up in the ICU for too long, I probably thought it was even funnier than it was, and started laughing so hard tears ran down my face.  I took a break and then read his card aloud again, and laughed again.  My daughter soon joined in with me, and as I looked at her precious, bruised face under the oxygen mask, my heart swelled with joy.  My little girl was healing.

Ah, the power of laughter.

 ~ Written by Kim A.

What are You Living For?

 Habits for a Happy Mom, Habits for life  2 Responses »
May 092013
 

Florence

Monday morning I sat down with my two oldest boys and asked them this question. I told them I didn’t need an answer right away, but I wanted them to take a little time and think about it. I said, “I know you both know what the right answer is, but what is the real answer?”

“What are you living for?”

One of them chimed in with, “I’m just trying to get all my schoolwork done so I can do what I want to do.” I think he wanted me to believe he was living for school. So I said, “And which of those things are you living for? School? Or doing what you want to do?” He answered honestly.

So I reminded them of this week’s Bible verse, Matthew 22:37-39, which says:

‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’  This is the first and greatest commandment.  And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’

I wasn’t trying to make anyone feel guilty or sad. I was just trying to make them think. Our conversation made me think, too.

What am I living for?

Truthfully, many days I am living for that brief moment in the afternoon when the house is quiet and I can sit and enjoy a cup of coffee without interruption. When my six-year-old is on my lap reading aloud to me, I’m thinking, “Hurry up. Stop looking at the pictures. We’re almost done for the day.” Or when my oldest is struggling through his math and it is 3:00 and we’ve been at this for hours, and all I want to do is be DONE, what am I living for? Most of the time I’m living for me.

I’m not saying that there is anything wrong with enjoying a moment of peace and quiet. And I’m certainly not saying there is anything wrong with coffee. But in my own life, I can see how sometimes the desire for “me time” casts a shadow over everything else, causing me to rush through things and miss the opportunities God has put in front of me to love the people around me.

So I’ve been repeating this question throughout the week, to myself and my children. What are we living for right now? God, what would You have us do with this day?

~written by Kendra

Are You a Funnel or a Jar?

 Habits for life, Heavenly Habits  2 Responses »
May 072013
 

Bet you never thought you would be compared to a funnel or a jar, did you? Well as believers we have the choice to be either one or the other. Both the funnel and the jar were created for a purpose, but it is up to us how we use them.

Jars hold things; water, food, juice, nuts and bolts, medicine–I could go on and on. Funnels on the other hand were not meant to hold anything, they help us to pour a substance from one container to another. You can’t pour something into a funnel and expect it to stay there; it is going to flow out the bottom and if there isn’t a vessel in place to catch it, you will have a mess. Jars on the other hand are great for holding things, but if it isn’t properly sterilized, liquids or food that stay too long will spoil and grow all sorts of terrible stuff.

It’s the same with us; God created us for a purpose, but it is up to us whether we fulfill our purpose or not. Are you being a jar; just letting Him pour and pour into you until you are full. That’s alright for a while, but what happens when God wants to put something new in you? Are you so full of old stuff, that you can’t hold the new?

On the other hand, if you are a funnel, then you are allowing the things God pours into you, to flow out to those around you who are in need. Paul tells us, “we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.” (2 Cor. 4:7)  We are a vessel created to be a dwelling place for the Holy Spirit. Our purpose is to spread the Word of God and His love to everyone we meet. “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” (Ep. 2:10)

When God comforts you, it so that you can comfort the hurting around you. When he blesses you financially, it is so you can be a blessing to those in need. He heals you, whether it is physically, mentally or spiritually, in order for you to tell others what He has done for you and give them hope that He will meet their needs also. Some people will go anywhere, anytime just to hear the Word preached or taught. They take notes and have all kinds of books and CDs, filling themselves with knowledge; but, what good is all that knowledge if it is never shared. Sooner or later it becomes stale and dry. When you are a funnel you don’t have to worry about running out. When God sees you are allowing Him to flow through you, instead of trying to hide Him away, then He will continually pour living water through you and refresh the thirsty world.

So what’ll it be, funnel or jar? Let’s all sing together, “let it FLOW, let it FLOW, let it FLOW.”

~ Written by Beth, “My husband of 46 years and I recently retired from full time ministry and we are looking forward to discovering what God has in store for the next part of our journey.  I am a very proud mother and grandmother and I love to encourage others through the word and my life experiences.  My life verse is Psalm 118:24 – This is the day that the Lord has made; I choose to rejoice and be glad in it.”

The Habit of Tangible Photos with Groovebook

 Technology Habits  3 Responses »
May 012013
 

I’m not even sure I have the words to describe what a treasure family photos are to me. They are definitely one of my most important possessions.  My parents have never had a fancy camera, but they have always been faithful take a photographic journal of our lives.  I remember the excitement I would feel when we would pick up our envelopes of newly developed film and look through them.  I remember even more excitement filling the air when Mom would get all the photos labeled and put in a photo album.  I’m pretty sure I would spend hours pouring over those photos and reliving all the fun memories they captured.

Today, I capture photos of my own family in a couple different ways. I, of course, have my favorite DSLR, but I also have my iPhone for those moments that I don’t have my big girl camera with me.  I have managed to wrack up over 1,000 photos on my phone in just the first few months I’ve owned it!  Please tell me I’m not the only one.

Having a simple way to share digital photos with friends and family is so amazing (seriously, it takes only a few seconds to send a photo in a text or email), but what do you do with your photos after you take them?  Do they just sit in your phone ? Do you even think about printing them off? Yes, it is convenient to have your photos so compact and out of the way, but what about your kids and grandkids?  Will they have the fun experience of seeing printed photos, or will they only associate pictures with images on a screen?  There is just something about holding a tangible picture in my hand that takes my breath away.

This is where Groovebook comes in.  I discovered them a couple months ago, and I am so glad I did!  It is so simple to use, and you will have a little  printed book of 100 photos in your hand in no time!

You start by downloading their app to your mobile device, and follow their simple instructions to start uploading photos!  You sign up for a monthly subscription, where you get the book for free, and pay only $2.99 for shipping!  Seriously, it’s true!

I will tell you that these are not professional quality prints by any means, but phone photos aren’t usually professional quality, anyway!  I do love the fact that they print the date and time and sometimes the place that your photos were taken beside the photo.  No more hours of trying to figure out dates and write them on the back of your photos. . .  Also, if you decide you want to pass a few photos out, the pages are perforated for easy removal.

 To make this all even better, I have a coupon to share with you!  Use the coupon code below, and you will receive your first book for free. . .no shipping cost even!

Hop on over here to try it out, and let me know if you love it, too!

P.S.  I was not asked or paid by Groovebook to write this post; I just wanted to share a product that’s been helpful to me!

P. S. S.  I just asked my four year old if he likes having pictures in a book rather than on Mommy’s phone or computer, he replied, “Yes, that’s better.”  There you have it, you really should try it :)

Your book would make a wonderful Mother’s Day gift!

  ~ Written by Amy @ JerAmy 

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