On My Mind

Posted by Cindy on December 28, 2008

I listened to Casting Crown’s While You Were Sleeping many times this Christmas season.  Each time, I was moved.  Each time, I found myself silently (or not so silently sometimes) saying, “Amen.”

Listen for yourself.

I was particularly moved by “As we’re sung to sleep by philosophies that save the trees and kill the children…”

Fast forward to today.  I was browsing blog posts from my Homeschool Buzz widget and ran across Redbud Lane’s blog.  In her side bar I saw this:

Add the abortion ticker to your blog or site.

Did you read that number?  Did you really think about what that number represents?  Seven and a half MILLION babies.  People.  God’s people.  His babies have been murdered.

Think about this…

We had raccoons infesting our barn when we first moved to our farm.  They were creating a mess and destroying hay, feed and structures.  We had to secretly catch and kill these destructive creatures because it was illegal to kill raccoons at the time.  They weren’t “in season”.  We could have gotten in big trouble.  I guess we still could now that I’m mentioning it.

Deer are all over the place on our farm (and the roads that we travel daily.)  Did you know you can get in BIG trouble – fines, removal of personal property, and possible jail time – for killing a deer out of season?

Did you know you can face the same consequences for fishing without a paid license?

Did you know you can go to federal prison for killing an eagle or taking one of its eggs?

I’m almost done, but there’s one more real example I have to give.  I used to work with a Teen MOPS group.  It’s purpose was not to support teenage pregnancy, but to teach teenage moms how to raise a child, to teach them how to *not* get pregnant again, to encourage them to see God’s will for themselves and their child and to hopefully lead them to Him through our teaching and example.

We fed these girls and their children before each meeting.  Many of them weren’t getting very wholesome meals because, like most teenagers, they thought McDonalds offered all the food groups in a healthy way.  The local churches would each sponsor one meal a year for our meetings.  I went to my very own church one month asking the ladies to come up with something really great for these families to enjoy for the next meeting.  All I recieved were rolled eyes and accusations that I was supporting teenage pregnancy.

Hear that.  In my own church (and I venture to say many others that were approached) the main thought wasn’t turned toward uplifting these teens for taking the high road and not aborting their babies.  It wasn’t on loving these girls who made mistakes and are now trying to be better moms.  It wasn’t on asking, “What else can I do to help these girls learn to follow my Jesus and raise their children to follow Him, too?”

The main thought was something that a Pharisee might have had.  “You want ME to support THEM?  Cindy, what kind of so-called ministry are you part of?”

I don’t mention that story for any other reason than to point out more of the obvious.  Our priorities in this world, in our country, and even in our churches are not in the right place.  Casting Crowns’ song asks, “America, will we go down in history as a nation with no room for its King?”  I ask, “Christians, are we doing all we can to make room for Him – in our own hearts and in our nation?”

“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.  I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.  My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place.  When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body.”  Psalm 139:13-16

“Wisdom calls aloud in the street, she raises her voice in the public squares; at the head of the noisy streets she cries out, in the gateway of the cities she gives her speech: ‘How long will you simple ones love your simple ways?  How long will mockers delight in mockery and fools hate knowledge?  If you would have responded to my rebuke, I would have poured out my heart to you and made my thoughts known to you.  But since you rejected me when I called and no one gave heed when I stretched out my hand, since you ignored all my advice and would not accept my rebuke, I in turn will laugh at your disaster; I will mock when calamity overtakes you -  when calamity overtakes you like a storm, when disaster sweeps over you like a whirlwind, when distress and trouble overwhelm you.  Then they will call to me but I will not answer; they will look for me but will not find me.  Since they hated knowledge and did not choose to fear the LORD since they would not accept my advice and spurned my rebuke, they will eat the fruit of their ways and be filled with the fruit of their schemes.  For the waywardness of the simple will kill them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them; but whoever listens to me will live in safety and be at ease, without fear of harm.”‘ Proverbs 1:20-33

Kids and Money

Posted by Cindy on April 14, 2008

Kids and Money – Teaching Biblical Stewardship and Allowances

This topic can go so many different ways based on the preferences of parents.  I’m offering just a brief overview of how we handle kids and money in our house.  I’d love to hear some of your ideas and thoughts about raising money-wise, generous children.

God tells us to give – to Him and to others.  Biblical stewardship can come in the form of money, things and time.  That’s something we try to teach our children early, so when they were little we bought My Giving Bank.  They would put their little bits of money in the tithe, save and spend sections and it gave them a good picture of one Biblically sound way to organize their money.  We would transfer the same idea over to time, for instance, too.  “Make sure your time is being spent on God, others and yourself – not necessarily in the same percentages as the money bank, though.”

As time has gone on, chores and allowance have been added to the mix.    We, personally, use allowance as “pay” for chores.  The amount is set.  Chores aren’t an option, so they get paid the full amount each week.  The older you are, the more you make.  (You also do a few more chores.)  Our children are expected to tithe and save part of their allowance.  They are responsible for purchasing all their “wants”.  Of course “wants” can be placed on a birthday or Christmas list, but the rest of the year, the “wants” are their responsibility.  No money may be removed from tithing or savings to purchase a “want”.

We do not give loans.  Brother or sister may choose to make a loan to the other, but nothing else can be purchased by the borrower until the original loan has been paid off.  A fair interest on the loan is acceptable if the loaner wants to charge the borrower.

If a big-ticket item is on the “want” list, our children may offer to do extra big-time chores and negotiate a fair wage for the chores.  They are also free to offer house cleaning, baking, pet-sitting, etc. to grandparents and neighbors if they’d like to try to earn even more money.

That’s our plan.

Here are some helpful resources.  Some of which we have used, while others have been recommended by friends.

Here are some fun and helpful websites:

US Government’s Online Money Games for Kids

Practical Money Skills for Life Online Games

Money Games and Lessons For Kids

The Peace Place

Posted by Cindy on January 8, 2008

A peace place.  A place for my children (or myself) to go when we are not being peaceful.  A time-out of sorts, but focused on God and His desires for us.  A quiet and comfortable place for us to reflect on why we haven’t been peaceful and to ask forgiveness.  A place to rid ourselves of frustration, focus on the Word and work through forgiveness towards the person or people who have offended us.

In this place, you’ll find a Bible, a peace notebook, paper, pens and a servant jar.  The peace notebook includes everything included on Holy Experience’s post about making a peace place (above).  As the kids read through the pages in the notebook, my prayer is that their hearts begin to soften.  That they grow closer to the Lord and learn to walk in His ways more readily.  That they learn how to better handle the frustrations of life (especially life with brothers and sisters.)

The servant jar.  When one of my children gets angry and offends someone else in the house with ugly words or ugly actions, not only do they get to spend a little time in the Peace Place, but they get to choose a slip of paper from the servant jar.  On the little slips are jobs that person can do to serve the person they’ve offended.  What better way to ask forgiveness of someone than to serve them.

We’ve only just begun our Peace Place, but I’m praying that God will reveal Himself to us when we visit.  I’m praying that our walk will grow closer to His as we learn better to ask forgiveness and to forgive others.  I’m praying that, eventually, we won’t need the Peace Place anymore because our hearts will have turned towards Him in such a way that our actions and reactions are generally peaceful.  Ah, peace.

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.”  Matthew 5:9

(The original idea for our peace place and servant jar came from a mixture of posts on the same topic from A Holy Experience and Preschoolers and Peace.  Love those ladies!)

Our Favorite Character Building Books

Posted by Cindy on November 16, 2006

Ever since my children were babies, we have LOVED books.  Because of this love, I have used books as our character building “curriculum”.  Just about any good, living book can be used to talk about character issues – good and bad.  I’ll include a list of our favorite character building books and give a few examples of how I’ve used them.

Our copy of For Instruction in Righteousness has been invaluable in helping me to tie in Biblical examples and Bible verses to go along with a literature book.

Above are *some* of my favorites that are geared specifically for Christians.  Below, I’ve included a list of regular ol’ literature books that we like and how I’ve used some of them for character training.

The Little Red Hen (Folk Tale Classics) -  Pick out either the trait of laziness or selfishness to discuss.  For laziness, read some Bible verses that talk about laziness, tell a Bible story about someone who was lazy or someone who was not lazy and talk about how they failed or prospered.  Talk about times in our own lives when we’ve reaped the harvest of our laziness.

Stone Soup – Compare and contrast selfishness vs. sharing and how everyone prospered when sharing.  Read Bible verses about sharing and tell Bible stories of people who did share and how they were blessed.  Talk about what we can do to be better sharers.  Maybe even take on a project that day to share with someone else.

Higgins Bend Song and Dance – Jacqueline Martin (boastfulness)

Roxaboxen – Barbara Cooney (resourcefulness, creativity)

Always Room for One More – Sorche Nic Leodhas (hostpitality)

Miss Rumphius – Barbara Cooney (thinking ahead, opening our eyes to God’s beauty)

Bartholomew and the Oobleck – Dr. Suess (consequences for our actions)

The Wartville Wizard – Don Madden (consequences for our actions)

The Duchess Bakes a Cake – Virginia Kahl (following directions, allowing others to help us)

Mirette on the High Wire – Emily McCully (perseverance)

The King’s Chessboard  - David Birch (forethought)

The Grouchy Ladybug – Eric Carle (grouchiness)

Boy, oh boy!  I think I’ll stop because I could go on forever.  Just about any book you read could be used to grow into a character study!!  If you run across this idea and try it in your home, please let me know how it goes!!