Posts with the category “children-s-ministry”

Dads and DaughtersMother’s Day was last month, and now this month is Father’s Day! Let’s celebrate the wonderful men in our lives! I hope you are planning on doing something special for the dads in your life, and dads, I hope your family is planning something great for you! Fingers crossed for a great new tie!!?I just wanted to say, right off the top, thank you dads! Those of you who are receiving...  Read More

The People Kept SinningJudges 2In the Book of Judges, we see a cycle of sin, oppression, repentance, rescue, obedience, and then back to sin. The condition of man's heart when left to himself will "do what is right in his own eyes" (Judges 21:25). Our own hearts lead us to sinful behavior that leads to enslavement to sin. Judges reveal who we are apart from God's grace.The Book of Judges also unco...  Read More

Joshua Challenged the PeopleJoshua 23-24Joshua was getting along in years, so he gathered the people at the place where God had made a promise to Abraham. (See Gen. 12:6-7.) Joshua wanted the people to remember and to live based on what they knew to be true about God: God can be trusted. He is good, and He is faithful.Joshua issued a challenge: “Be very strong and continue obeying all that is writ...  Read More

God Gave the People the LandJoshua 7-11In today's story, we see that God fights for His people and gives them peace and rest. We live in a world filled with conflict and pain. We desperately want peace. The reality is that true peace doesn’t come from any amount of solitude or self-confidence; we need true peace that comes from being forgiven. Peace comes as we trust in the finished work of Jesus....  Read More

God Gave the People the LandJoshua 7-11In our Bible story today, we see not just mercy, but courageous mercy. Rahab by faith, courageously trusted God and hid the Hebrew spies. Mercy is not courageous until being merciful costs us something. Rahab's mercy was pushed to the testing point. She had compassion and, in doing so, risked her life. She showed mercy; as a result, she received mercy.Mercy i...  Read More

The Bible Helps Us Live For God2 Timothy 3In 2 Timothy 3:16-17, Paul points out that Scripture is enough for us. It is our source for godliness and our final authority in matters pertaining to doctrine. The confessions of every Protestant denomination affirm the sufficiency of Scripture.Why does this matter for kids? We need to teach our kids that even though the Bible may not mention everything i...  Read More

Playing the Comparison GameHave you ever had one of those days when you just barely make it out the door?  House is a wreck, you haven’t had a shower today and the kids are already fighting.  Your parenting self-esteem has already taken a hit when you run into that family.  You know the one:  they look like they just stepped out of the pages of a magazine, kids are behaving perfectly and mom has b...  Read More

God Stopped the Jordan RiverJoshua 3–4The children of Israel often gave in to worry and bitterness. Their attitude revealed deeper heart issues: their belief that God had failed to take care of them and would fail in the future. It was in the 40 years of wandering in the desert that God showed them over and over that He was worthy of their trust. Yet they still did not trust Him.When God provided ...  Read More

God's Miracles Prove Who He IsMark 16This week on Palm Sunday, our kids learned about the Easter story.The Bible is a supernatural book filled with accounts of supernatural events. Dozens of miracles are recorded in the Bible. Each miracle points to a greater reality and reveals to us what God is like.In the story of Israel’s crossing the Jordan, we see how God hears our cries and provides for us ...  Read More

God Encouraged JoshuaJoshua 1We often think that fear is the absence of courage, and to some degree, it is. However, true courage is not someone who is free of fear. Courage comes to us most often, and especially when we are young, from the presence of another. In C. S. Lewis' The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Lucy, the young heroine of Lewis' stories, was on a boat that went into the dark night of ...  Read More

Body Image: 3 Ways To Set A Solid FoundationEven as adults, waking up and looking in the mirror can be a struggle. Sometimes we can be our own worst critics when it comes to body image and how we feel about how we look. If that’s a challenge for us as adults, imagine what must be going through your older child’s mind.  As children receive messages about body image from endless sources, we want to ...  Read More

God Healed the PeopleNumbers 21If there was one thing the Israelites were good at, it was grumbling. They weren’t just good; they were experts: “We have no food. We have no water. Why are we in the wilderness left to die? The land has big people in it.” And on and on and on. We have to wonder how Moses put up with it all.In Numbers 21, we encounter another time when the people grumbled—once again ...  Read More

No One Is Like Our God1 Peter 1Peter began his first epistle by reminding believers that we are not of this world; our true citizenship is found in God’s kingdom. As such, we live in the present world as exiles and ambassadors—representatives of our true King.With this reminder established, Peter explained how Christ’s ambassadors are to live, which can be summed up in God’s words recorded at the ...  Read More

Moses Disobeyed GodNumbers 20Many of us categorize sins, whether we intend to or not. There are the major sins—the really bad ones like murder that are clearly wrong. Thankfully, few of us are prone to commit these sins, so we are pretty safe from them.Then there are the significant sins, like getting angry or lying. We know these are harmful, but we don’t see them on the same level as the major o...  Read More

The People Didn't Go into the LandNumbers 13-14If you’ve ever bought a house, you likely know that even the “most perfect” house really isn’t perfect. There seems to always be some compromise that must be made: location, yard size, location of a bathroom, school district, price, and so forth. The choice is then ours to make: do we live with the compromises we need to make, or do we pass on the hou...  Read More

Hello, Hello Moms, Dads, and Amazing Adults in the Lives of Kids!We are back with another great online parenting topic, to inspire and inform you! It is a quick couple minutes of your month to give you the tools you need to continue to do what God has blessed you to be able to do, raise Godly kids!This month is another great video, that I am sure you will love. It is about “Parenting from a United...  Read More

God Deserves Our WorshipLeviticus 1-4Think back to Eden. When Adam and Eve rebelled against God, their eyes were opened and they realized their nakedness. What was once no problem in their innocence had become shameful in their sinfulness. So the couple took leaves to try to cover their bodies and their shame. But what did God do just before expelling the couple from Eden to face a fallen world on...  Read More

The People Built the TabernacleExodus 35-40One of the key themes of the Bible is God’s desire to live with the people He created. We see this first in God's creating the garden of Eden, placing Adam and Eve into this paradise, and then presumably coming down regularly to be with them.But when Adam and Eve rebelled against Creator God, one consequence of their sin was expulsion from the garden. No ...  Read More

The People Worshiped a Golden CalfExodus 32-34After all God had done for the Israelites, the story of the Israelites’ worshiping a golden calf may seem surprising. How could God’s people turn so quickly from God, who delivered them from slavery and provided for them, even after they explicitly agreed to do everything He had commanded? (See Ex. 24:3.) When we think about the reasons why Israel fell...  Read More

God Gave the Ten CommandmentsExodus 19-20As the rescued people of Israel traveled toward the promised land, God met with Moses at Mount Sinai and made a covenant with the Israelites. We refer to this covenant as the Mosaic covenant. God promised five things in this covenant: 1) Israel will be God’s own possession; 2) Israel will be God’s kingdom of priests; 3) Israel will be a holy nation; 4) God ...  Read More

Overcoming Failures:Nobody is perfect—you and your kids included. While I know this doesn’t come as a big surprise to you, intellectually, I also know that all too often parents choose to focus on their child’s imperfections instead of tending to their hearts.The video this month covers the topic of allowing our children to be their unique and special self instead of what we think they should be. ...  Read More

GOD PROVIDED MANNAExodus 16-17The Israelites had personally experienced God’s faithfulness as He directed them out of Egypt, fought for them as He parted the Red Sea, and then delivered them into the wilderness with the promise of a land of their own. What happened next is retold as a cautionary tale in both the Psalms and Book of Hebrews.The Israelites tasted freedom for the first time in 400 yea...  Read More

God Parted the Red SeaExodus 13-15God’s people were finally free. After 430 years of slavery in Egypt, the Israelites—now numbering 600,000 men plus their families—were on their way out with Moses as their leader. God had promised to give them a new land: “a land flowing with milk and honey” (Ex. 3:17).What did sudden freedom feel like? Did the Israelites feel strong and courageous? Did they feel ...  Read More

God Delivered His PeopleExodus 5-12God’s heart is for His people. When the Israelites cried out to the Lord, He heard them and had a plan to rescue them from their suffering.That’s why God called Moses back to Egypt. Though Moses had been raised among the royal household in Egypt, his heart was for his own people too. God chose Moses to deliver the enslaved Israelites after a series of plagues.God...  Read More

The Power of the Family GoalHappy New Year!  How is the pace of your family life? Do you feel overwhelmed by the constant push to do more and be more places? It might be time to sit down and decide on what this month’s Online Parenting Class calls “Family Goals.”You have goals at work for the things your boss needs you to do, and your kids have goals that they must accomplish to get their grades. ...  Read More

MERRY CHRISTMASGod Keeps His PromisesIsaiah 9God’s faithfulness is present throughout the Bible, but the theme is prominent in the Book of Exodus. God is consistent and unchanging. Even when the Israelites are faithless, God is faithful. The Israelites regularly celebrated God’s miraculous acts like the Passover and the parting of the Red Sea to remember that God keeps His promises.As you read and...  Read More

God Controls EverythingBook of JobIn research, there is a common practice used to measure data: the pre-test and post-test. The pre-test is a baseline, assessing the state of something prior to experimental factors being introduced. As is suggested by the name, this happens prior to the experiment.The post-test is a comparison, designed to compare the outcome of the experiment to the pre-test resu...  Read More

Discuss the meaning of Christmas in a whole new wayChristmas provides many opportunities for parents to pass down their faith. One unique way is to discuss the birth of Jesus.God could have chosen to send the Messiah as a King with an army out of the sky, but He decided on a baby-a helpless child dependent upon God for life. Jesus’ birth reveals dependency as one of the ways to relate with God.Mat...  Read More

God Had a Plan for JosephGenesis 37–50The story of Joseph is packed full of moments that resonate with us. Maybe you were the favorite child or the favorite child’s sibling. Some people resonate with being cast away from family or being undeservingly welcomed into a new family. Some resonate with finding favor with an enemy or showing favor to an enemy. In Joseph’s story, we can see ourselves and ...  Read More

God Changed Isaac Genesis 25–33Jacob’s journey in Genesis is one of unexpected and undeserved blessing after blessing. With a name that literally means he cheats, Jacob was unlikely to receive the privilege and opportunity God gave him.Jacob was a cheater, a liar, and a deceiver. He was quiet and not strongly gifted. And he was gullible, too. We cannot miss that the deceiver was deceived at times ...  Read More

God Provided Isaac Genesis 21–22It’s been said that when a word or phrase is repeated in the Bible, we ought to pay close attention. In Genesis 22, Abraham repeated one phrase three times: “Here I am.”Abraham first used “Here I am” on his journey when God called his name. Abraham’s eager response to God shows that he was ready and expectant to hear from God.Abraham then used this phrase in respons...  Read More

Melchizedek Blessed Abraham Genesis 14; Hebrews 5; 7We marvel at stories with two characters who are total opposites of each other. This is why so many stories feature some form of a noble hero and an immoral villain. The contrast of character and conduct is what drives the tension of the story.In Genesis 14, we find two completely opposite kings: the king of Sodom and the king of Salem. One sough...  Read More

SLEEP TROUBLES:  Is Bedtime a Nightmare?Psalm 4:8 says “In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety”.We all want peaceful nights and restful sleep. That is hard to do when you have a preschooler who is anti-bedtime. We want to share some more practical tips to help make bedtime a little easier.On average, preschoolers need 10-12 hours of sleep a day, inc...  Read More

God Made a Covenant with AbrahamGenesis 12-20Think about all of the choices that we have each day. Just in the morning, we have dozens of different cereals to eat, perhaps that many varieties of milk to pour on top of the cereal, and nearly as many ways to make coffee to go with it. All of these are choices that we often take for granted.Now think about all of the choices God had as He took a sign...  Read More

People Rebel Against GodGenesis 10–11We love to measure the health, success, or sustainability of pretty much anything and everything. We measure our kids by their grades in school. We measure teams by their wins and losses. We measure people by their influence and following on social media. In a world obsessed with measuring “success,” we ought to be assessing in our own lives something we cannot...  Read More

God Spared NoahGenesis 6-10The Bible is full of promises. As early as the first few chapters of Genesis, we begin to see God make, and even fulfill, His promises: promises for punishment and for blessing, for death and for life, for separation and for salvation. In Noah’s journey to build an ark, survive the flood, and begin to repopulate the earth, we find multiple reminders that the Lord is fait...  Read More

SIN SPREAD TO PEOPLEGenesis 4-5Siblings often fight and compete as children and even adults. It may be over something as innocent as who gets the last cookie or as serious as who inherits their parents’ prized heirloom.The competition Cain felt toward Abel—the world’s first siblings—reminds us that these family tensions can cause great damage to our relationships with one another, with parents, an...  Read More

Sin Entered the WorldGenesis 3Does the story of the fall surprise you? How could Adam and Eve—who had everything they needed—rebel against a loving God? Do you think you would have acted differently?Adam and Eve’s story is our story. Think about the last time you blatantly sinned. What lies were you believing in that moment? Satan wants us to believe the same lie that Eve believed: Maybe God is ho...  Read More

Creation Glorifies GodPsalm 19In the first two sessions of this unit, we have seen a common thread of God’s glory. God created everything, including people, to display His glory. In this session, we want to make sure that our kids understand what that means. What is God’s glory?God’s glory can be thought of as God’s greatness. The Bible often uses the picture of a brilliant white light when it com...  Read More

Southport Kid's Sunday School LessonSeptember 19Genesis 1-2Humans are at the center of everything God created. Only God Himself is more important. That is why the creation of the first man and woman—Adam and Eve—deserved its own session.As you talk with your kids about this week’s session, there are two words that might be unclear or even confusing. The first is our in Genesis 1:26. “Let us make m...  Read More