10 Things to Remember When Correcting Your Children

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1. You disobey the Lord…and He is the perfect Father.

2. His kindness leads us to repentance.

3. God disciplines those He loves.

4. Your child’s disobedience does not measure your value any more than his obedience showcases your achievement.

5. Your child’s disobedience teaches you dependence on God.

6. And sometimes it’s more than dependence He’s after, it’s complete desperation for Him.

7. Your child is clearly a sinner, and needs to hear the truth of the Gospel, and see it lived out through you.

8. Times of correction serve to remind, or establish within your child, his own sense of need for a Savior.

9. It’s not good behavior you really desire…you want his heart.

10. Your child is a person, not a project.

via Ruth Simons

Helpful Reminders for Those Leading Worship

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My friend, Paul, sent this to me and put it on his church worship blog. I found it very helpful and humbling.

Top 10 Pet Peeves About Worship Leaders (with examples)

Asking the Congregation to do Something (21 responses)
Makes us shake hands with the people around us.
When a worship leader tells you to lift up your hands, it takes a meaningful personal action and turns it into a obligatory command.
Talks like they’re at a high school pep rally, “Let me hear ya!”
Asks how everyone is doing. We’re not at a concert, so we’re not going to scream.
Tells you what to do and how to worship… to the point where it makes you feel guilty if you don’t conform yourself to her/his understanding of what worship is.
I hate it when worship leaders script the worship too much by telling people what to do. I’ve had worship leaders completely distract me from God when they start telling me what to do.
Mini-Sermons & Talking (20 responses)
Talks between every song.
I am distracted when worship leaders start talking about anything that is not directions on what we are about to do.
When they repeat the same catch-phrases every week.
Breathy speaking between songs.
Sermonettes are annoying if too long or common
You can tell a mile away when a worship leader is “sharing” because he feels obligated to. It’s always a cheesy or over emotional blurb. When God’s really laid something on a worship leader’s heart, it’s cool. But even then, say it in less than 45 seconds! Don’t meander on for 3 minutes.
Not Focusing on God (17 responses)
Forget that the audience of worship is God and start making it a performance for those sitting in front of them.
When they perform rather than worship themselves.
Showing zero emotion, standing still, focusing too much on perfection.
Worship leaders who seem really wrapped up in being “cool.”
Sometimes you can tell they’re being fake and/or showy.
I hate it when the music guy/gal asks the crowd to praise God but soaks it up like they are Bono and the crowd is really praising them.
I hate it when worship leaders don’t lead people.
Unprofessional (14 responses)
Starts service late.
Typos on the screen.
Talks to the praise band while leading worship instead of using hand signals to tell them what to do.
When the leader changes the key of the song and does not tell the rest of the team.
Goes out of order or adds another song in the middle of the set
When the leader and/or band member turns away from the people to mess with their gear.
When the production team on stage are laughing, joking, and gesturing behind the worship leader to the soundboard guys in the transition between worship and the message.
Singing (11 responses)
Can’t sing very well.
Doesn’t know the lyrics.
When worship leaders run words together.
When they put their own little spin on simple, common words.
Repeating the same line in a song 3.6 million times. There’s the Spirit’s leading and then there’s just plain losing people.
Our old church’s leader would sing so high that no one could sing along. She provided no harmony for us to pick up. It was to showcase her own voice.
Appearance (9 responses)
Sing with their eyes closed.
When singers act like they are really bored up there.
Wears crotch hugging jeans.
Looks or sounds seductive.
One of our young worship leaders had a really big hicky on his neck a couple of weeks ago.
Prayer (8 responses)
Inauthentic prayer – too scripted or so random that it doesn’t make sense, or rushed/dragged out to make the prayer fit the interlude.
Prays the words of the songs.
When they can’t talk or pray appropriately between songs.
Bad Transitions (5 responses)
Transitions between songs take long time.
Allows uncomfortable dead time between songs.
When they pray essentially the same prayer at a transition moment.
Using the song name as an introduction/transition – “You know I was thinking about how much God has done for me…it really is ‘Amazing Grace’ isn’t it?”
Lifestyle (4 responses)
When he’s obviously ungodly during practice and throughout life, but turns into a saint on Sunday morning.
I hate to see a person who is suppose to be leading worship acting like a jerk before service and then getting up on stage acting like nothing ever happened.
As a Pastor, I hate it when the music guy/gal is lazy apart from their 30 minute set on Sundays.
Catering to the Congregation (4 responses)
When they hold back because they are obviously conscious of what the congregation and/or pastor will think.
I hate it when worship leaders/pastors play to people who think the worship somehow revolves around what they like and what makes them feel good when it has absolutely nothing to do with our preferences or likes.
Has to risk being a cheerleader because the people that claim to love God exhibit no sense of joy when singing about Him.

READ ARTICLE HERE

Adopted For Life

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I was reading Adopted for Life: The Priority of Adoption for Christian Families and Churches again this afternoon. I started the book on vacation and got about halfway. I am eager to finish it but there is so much in it that rattles my affections that I tend to only get through half a chapter and I have to pray and think about what this means for me and my family. Today’s reading did not disappoint and I felt like I had to absolutely share this with whoever will listen!

“Think of how revolutionary it is for Christians to adopt a young boy with a cleft palate from a region of India where most people see him as ‘defective.’ Think of how counterintuitive it is for Christians to adopt a Chinese girl-when many there see her as a disappointment. Think of how odd it must seem to American secularists to see Christians adopting a baby whose body trembles with an addiction to the cocaine her mother sent through her bloodstream before birth. Think of the kind of credibility such action lends to the proclamation of the gospel. An adoption culture in our churches advances the cause of life, even beyond the individual lives of the children adopted. Imagine if Christian churches were known as the places where unwanted babies become beloved children. If this were the case across the board around the world, sure, there would still be abortions, there would still be abusive homes. But wouldn’t we see more women willing to give their children life if they’d seen with their own eyes what an adoption culture looks like? And wouldn’t these mothers and fathers, who may themselves feel unwanted, be a bit more ready to hear our talk about a kingdom where all are welcomed?”

“Not every believer will stand praying outside an abortion clinic. Not every believer will take a pregnant teenager into his or her quest bedroom. Not every believer is called to adopt. But every believer is called to recognize Jesus in the face of his little brothers and sisters when he decides to show up in their lives, even if it interrupts everything else.”

“Think of the plight of the orphan somewhere right now out there in the world. It’s not just that she’s lonely. It’s that she has no inheritance, no future. With every passing year, she’s less ‘cute,’ less adoptable. In just a few years, on her eighteenth birthday, she’ll be expelled from the orphanage or from ‘the system.’ What will happen to her then? Maybe she’ll join the military or find some job training. Maybe she’ll stare at a tile on the ceiling above her as her body is violated by a man who’s willing to pay her enough to eat for a day, alone in a back alley or in front of a camera crew of strangers. Maybe she’ll place a revolver in her mouth or tie a rope around her neck, knowing no one will have to deal with her except, once again, the bureaucratic ‘authorities’ who can clean up the mess she leaves behind. Can you feel the force of such desperation? Jesus can. She’s his little sister. What if a mighty battalion of Christian parents would open their hearts and their homes to unwanted infants-infants some so-called ‘clinics’ would like to see carried out with the medical waste? It might mean that next Christmas there’ll be one more stocking at the chimney at your house-a new son or daughter who escaped the abortionist’s knife or the orphanage’s grip to find at your knee the grace of a carpenter’s Son.”

A Progression of Thought

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My family is enjoying our summer “staycation” at Grandma’s and Grandpa’s. Basically, that means we drove up north last week for the 4th and are staying until tomorrow. We have been taking “adventures” each morning with the kids. I hope to post more details and pictures on the family blog this weekend.

For now, I want to share something I experienced yesterday at Brannan Island. We pretty much had the place to ourselves but toward the end of our stay a mom and her kids showed up. Actually, I think one of the kids was not hers. Anyways, she had two boys in high school and 3-4 girls in elementary grades. I could tell that this single mom had experienced a pretty rough life. She just had that look. I didn’t think much of it. The youngest of the two boys was fishing off to the side and was ignoring her calls to come and eat. When he finally made his way over, she ignored him. Apparently, he ate pretty quickly and went back to fishing, leaving a mess of some sort. She walked over to the food and proceeded to verbally assault him. She let loose with a profanity-filled, demeaning rant. It was sad and uncomfortable. As I analyzed my thoughts, it was interesting to see the progression. That is what I wanted to share.

1) Sadness (Immediately)
I just felt bad for the boy. I remember being a young boy with not much consideration for others. In fact, I can still have little consideration for others, and I’m thirty years old! I think she was upset that he left a mess for someone else to clean up, in particular, her. She could have asked nicely. She didn’t have to call this awkward kid a *blank* this or *blank* that. What a poor example to her young girls. How did this boy feel? Was he used to it? Was it common place for her to blast the kids in front of complete strangers? Was he so numb to it that he could no longer cry?

2) Anger (A few moments later)
Who does this woman think she is! She has no business being a parent. And why is she cussing (loudly) with my family right here? Not to mention the cousins also playing with us. Someone should take these kids and give them a better home. I should tell her to knock it off!

3) Gospel (Much later)
If not for Christ, I would be the one yelling at my kid. Christ has done the work on the cross and continues to work in my heart. I am no better than this lady. Sure, my situation is vastly different than hers and that is why I think I am above such wretched displays of anger. But sadly, even as a redeemed child of God, I get brought to a boiling point in my heart and demonstrate it in more “Christian” ways. My wife has seen the worst of me. How proud am I? She needs Jesus. Her kids need Jesus.

As I wrestled with all of this, and it took me a while, several verses came to mind. I have included one passage below. It was just another good reminder of the power of the gospel. She (along with her kids) is walking according to the world she knows. Maybe she knows about Jesus, maybe she doesn’t. But God can make them alive in Christ. Right now, they are separated from God, but He can bring them near. I’m reminded to pray for them and many others like them. Also, convicted to approach people more and show Christ’s love when love is apparently lacking. I need wisdom to know how.

Sidenote: The boy finally caught a fish while we were walking away and his response was to proudly show his mom. She ignored him. My heart broke for him.

Ephesians 2:1-13 reminds me “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. Therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called “Uncircumcision” by the so-called “Circumcision,” which is performed in the flesh by human hands–remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.”

Prayer

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Today is National Day of Prayer. Sure. I did however find this post to be a very convicting and helpful reminder. If you are a parent, take time to think about your prayer life in regards to your children.

Read below:

Christian parents have many reasons to thank to God for all the practical resources now available on parenting. We easily forget that biblically informed and cross-centered books, articles, and conferences have not been around forever.

But as I know from personal experience, this wealth of material at our fingertips can also subtly lead us to believe successful parenting is merely the accumulation of sound bite suggestions, reading the right material, and accurately putting all this into practice. Discernment and practice are critical, but even more essential to successful parenting is the active grace and power of our sovereign God. Like few other responsibilities, parenting reveals our human weaknesses and provides us with many opportunities for prayer.

In his new book A Praying Life, Paul Miller shares a number of personal stories in his growth in personal prayer including this one, which—if I’m honest—confronts my personal pattern of parenting. Miller writes,

When our kids were two, five, eight, twelve, fourteen, and sixteen, I wrote this in my prayer journal:

March 19, 1991. Amazing how when I don’t pray in the morning evil just floods into our home. I absolutely must pray! Oh, God, give me the grace to pray.

It took me seventeen years to realize I couldn’t parent on my own. It was not a great spiritual insight, just a realistic observation. If I didn’t pray deliberately and reflectively for members of my family by name every morning, they’d kill one another. I was incapable of getting inside their hearts. I was desperate. But even more, I couldn’t change my self-confident heart. My prayer journal reflects both my inability to change my kids and my inability to change my self-confidence. That’s why I need grace even to pray…

It didn’t take me long to realize that I did my best parenting by prayer, I began to speak less to the kids and more to God. It was actually quite relaxing.

–Paul E. Miller, A Praying Life (NavPress 2009) pp. 59-60.

Post Source

Toddler Devotions

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Here are some helpful thoughts for devotions with young children.

1. Have an open Bible on your lap during story time. This reinforces where the story comes from—God’s word.

2. Use short sentences and few words. Too many words overwhelm young minds.

3. Be animated in your facial expressions and tone of voice. This will help keep children engaged.

3. Incorporate movement into the story and singing. Children this age need to move their bodies. Movement helps them learn and remember what you’re teaching them.

4. Create routines during the story/circle times by using songs, finger plays, etc.

5. Use repetition to cement biblical concepts in children’s hearts and minds.

6. Keep it short and sweet. A story time of 5-10 minutes is the maximum children this age can attend to and sit for.

Read the article here