In the last 2 posts, I shared a Discipleship Map helping us train our children in the next steps in their faith. I gave you the opportunity to answer these questions: 1. Has my child ever accepted God’s gift of salvation through Jesus? 2. Does my child know how to [...]
A Uniting Dad I’ve always been interested in music. During my adolescent years, I focused an enormous amount of time on the different tones that guitars and amps could provide. I had a certain tone that I loved and always sought to imitate that tone within my own equipment setup. [...]
We are working through a Discipleship Map in this 3-week series! In the last post, we answered the question: 1. Has my child ever accepted God’s gift of salvation through Jesus? I shared some options based on your answer to that question for each of your children. Please go back [...]
In our first exclusive Grandparent blog post, we talked about showing God’s grace to our grandkids. Over the next several months, we’ll be using the Legacy Coalition, “My Declaration” for Grandparents to unpack key ideas in being a grandparent who will guide their grandchildren to know and love Jesus by [...]
In our first exclusive Grandparent blog post, we talked about showing God’s grace to our grandkids. Over the next several months, we’ll be using the Legacy Coalition, “My Declaration” for Grandparents to unpack key ideas in being a grandparent who will guide their grandchildren to know and love Jesus by [...]
Discipleship Map – Starting with the Gospel 4/21 Parents and grandparents are often at a loss when it comes to discipling their children. There’s a process I have gone through with teen as a student minister and with our children that I learned in youth ministry training in college. It [...]
Youth Ministry That Lasts a Lifetime by Dr. Richard Ross Dr. Richard Ross is a youth ministry professor at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and has served faithfully in that role for several decades. He is a sought-after speaker and author in youth ministry but is also a scholarly and passionate [...]
What would your life be like without knowing the truth of Jesus’ Resurrection? Without the resurrection, there is no hope. As parents that’s a pretty scary thought. Why have children at all? If you have them, what hope and purpose do they have? If this life is all there is [...]
Growing up, I always felt the need to give the impression that I could defend myself. Even though I had never been in a real fight, I worked to give off the impression that I could stand my ground if necessary. Most of the guys around me did the same [...]
Intentional Life: Empowering your children to Live for Jesus 3.21 Colossians 3:23-24 says, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is [...]
All month we’ve been talking about the hurdles to getting started having intentional home discipleship with your children. Over the years, we’ve heard from families about their personal pain points and MANY of them are the same across families. Is it difficult to find a regular time to have Family [...]
Intentional Freedom: Helping your children avoid captivity 3.21 In addition to telling our children the truth of the Gospel, we need to live our lives as though we have been saved. According to Galatians 5:1, we must stand firm and stay free. If our children look at our lives and [...]
Intentional Freedom: Helping your children avoid captivity 3.21 In addition to telling our children the truth of the Gospel, we need to live our lives as though we have been saved. According to Galatians 5:1, we must stand firm and stay free. If our children look at our lives and [...]
Family Ministry Field Guide: How Your Church Can Equip Parents to Make Disciples by Timothy Paul Jones For the life of me, I cannot remember how I was first exposed to the writings of Dr. Timothy Paul Jones of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.1 Regardless, I’m very thankful to have [...]
Intentional Invitation: Sharing the Good News of Jesus with your Children 3.21 I published the Good News of the Gospel on the home page of my personal website. A friend texted me about a week after I sent her the site to tell me her daughter accepted Jesus using the [...]
Helloooooo grandparents! We LOVE YOU! Family Time counts it a privilege to minister with you to see your grandchildren come to know God’s Word and by His Spirit trust Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. Today we’re beginning a series based on a beautiful piece of artwork called “My [...]
In our short study of Colossians 3:1-14, we have talked about setting our hearts and minds on things above, getting rid of whatever is in our earthly nature, and recognizing our place as royalty to help us act like royalty to help our children do the same. We talked [...]
Recently, I scheduled an appointment to get a haircut. This is a monthly ritual for me, and I always look forward to spending time with my barber. We always have great conversations about a myriad of topics but in this particular visit, the discussion drifted toward the topic of family. [...]
Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. Colossians 3:13 What has God forgiven you of, friend? If you are like me, you would rather not answer that question. I’d prefer to answer with “everything” or [...]
When you think of partnership what comes to mind? Maybe you immediately think of your partner in business, your “partner in crime” or your tennis partner. Stop a minute a think: are you someone who values equal partnership in relationships? Last month, we highlighted the topic of partnership in [...]
Let’s continue our personal check up in our relationships with our children. Colossians 3:12 says, “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.” What does it look like to get dressed in compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience as preparation to serve [...]
I first heard about Dr. Donald S. Whitney through a book entitled The Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life . I was assigned that book while in seminary, and it meant the world to me. 1 From then on, I paid attention when I heard his name mentioned. Eventually, I [...]
21 ½ Years ago on August 7th, I went to one of the most beautiful weddings I’ve ever been to. The officiant was someone I deeply respect and the people getting married have helped define who I am as a person and a mother, so I remember the wedding well! [...]
We are going to finish up our study on 1 Peter 1:13-16 with the highest expectations given so far. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; 16 for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.” (Leviticus 11:45) How do [...]
The 1 Peter 1:13-16 passage has been great to clear out the fog and help me refocus my mind! The New Living translation paints the next verse in a very practical light that helps us see ourselves and our children more clearly. “So you must live as God’s obedient children. [...]
Continuing to clear our minds of pandemic and holiday fog, we move forward through 1 Peter 1:13-16 focusing on the second part of verse 13. “Set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming.” In 2020, many people felt hopeless. Now 2020 [...]
Much of 2020 has been a fog of waiting. We keep waiting for the pandemic problem to be solved so we can get back to normal, stop wearing masks and be able to hug our friends for real. There is hope for a slow resolution of this ongoing problem with [...]
I have been reflecting on the losses of 2020. Loss has taken on all sizes and types, but each and every one has affected us. Our children have been affected in ways that we may not even fully comprehend and they might not fully recognize. Some of our losses have [...]
“Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see.” Hebrews 11:1 There have been so many unknowns for all of us in 2020. Will our family get the virus? Will my children get to go back to school full-time or do [...]
Immanuel in our relating. God is with us in our relationships. God is with you in your strained relationship with your step-mom who never wanted to be a mom in the first place. He is with you as you mother without a maternal example to follow. God is with you [...]
Pausing again to study our foundational passage through the lens of Immanuel’s presence with us in Deuteronomy 6:7-9, look for the times we are instructed to talk to our children and remind them of God and His commands while we stay at home. "Repeat them again and again to your [...]
One of the main passages we focus on at Family Time Training is Deuteronomy 6:4-9 “Listen, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD alone. [a] And you must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength. And you must commit [...]
Family Time Training just released an advent study called “Come and See.” It’s a fun four-week family activities series based on Isaiah 9:6. If you haven’t picked it up for your family, it’s not too late! You can get buy it here! Isaiah 9:6 says, For a child is born [...]
No matter who wins the election, there will be people your children know who are overjoyed about the new president and people who are upset about the outcome. Some will be hopeful about what’s to come in the next four years from the White House and some will be concerned [...]
I shake my milk jug when I pull it from the refrigerator. Now my children also shake the milk jug when they get it out of the refrigerator. Why do I shake the jug of milk?? Because MY mother always shook the milk before using it. You guessed it… HER [...]
As we have stood on our porch and looked beyond our sidewalks at attitudes of greed, selfishness, and arrogance, now we turn ourselves back around and look inside our own windows. We may see the same attitudes happening inside our home. Just before school began, I heard a handful of [...]
COVID-19 has highlighted some notable attitudes in our world. We should think through these attitudes in order to help our children process what they are seeing and experiencing. We have seen greed in grocery hoarding. This behavior goes beyond emergency food storage. This has to do with fear and panic [...]
We are experiencing something wonderful and wacky in our home this year in hybrid learning! A hybrid schedule means our children go to school two days a week in-person, have two asynchronous days of school online at home, and one synchronous day of school online at home. Some of us [...]
I like to laugh. I like to be silly and joke around… life is hard, so I want to be a Proverbs 31 woman who “laughs at the days to come.” But I’ve lived long enough to know that there are times to be serious. Take a moment to consider [...]
Overcoming Hurdles to Getting Started with Family Time Whether a family has one, three, or seven kids… If they have a two year old or a 12 year old… If they home school or public school… live in the city or the country, EVERY family has hurdles to overcome if [...]
Parents and Leaders as Partners I hope you were inspired by yesterday’s post. What God has called us to as parents matters so, so much. Our kids are counting on us to love them and educate them. What could be more important than loving them and pointing them to Jesus? [...]
Parents, Let’s Build Faith and Truth at Home How did you learn to ride a bike? Brush your teeth? Play the piano? Read a book? Someone taught you, of course. Or maybe several “someone’s” taught you in these areas. “It takes a village” as the African proverb says. But as [...]
“Am I my brother’s keeper?” I’ve never uttered those words because I don’t have any siblings, but I am raising them. I must regularly ask my husband if the way our children are relating is normal.Something we see in our children that is different in our children’s relationships with each [...]
Like many white-skinned Americans, I’ve been spending a lot of time absorbing information over the past few weeks. I’ve also been evaluating my own thought patterns and habitual/learned thinking. As a Christian, I’ve been praying for our world, those most closely affected, and for how I can respond. I’ve [...]
I am very blessed to be a work-from-home mom. I do a few part-time jobs and our home is my home-base for those roles. A funny thing happens when everyone is home with me all the time. I just want to be with them. During the first part [...]
Our world has been in such a flux with the stay-at-home order melting into the safer-at-home order and especially flowing from school at home to no school at home. We realized early on that our children needed a schedule to know what to expect and also fluidity and adaptability [...]
It bothers me to find something broken in my home. There are things that are purposefully broken like when a child gets mad and throws a sibling’s toy in vengeance. There are things that are accidentally broken like when someone is learning how to throw a frisbee and it breaks [...]
“Have courage and be kind.” What a beautiful mantra Cinderella learned from her mama in the live - action movie from 2015. What will your children remember you saying? I once heard Chonda Pierce say that her mother used to tell her to not drink beer because it [...]
Here’s the classic Mother’s Day verse preached on Mother’s Day as a goal for wives and mothers: “Her children stand and bless her. Her husband praises her: ‘There are many virtuous and capable women in the world, but you surpass them all.’” Proverbs 31:28-29 It would be awesome [...]
In the first week of the stay-at-home order, I took my trash out at 7:45pm and it was completely silent. I’m talking no cars driving by, no one talking, no one walking by my house. I wasn’t horror movie afraid, I was still. I just stood on my [...]