If a 1 & 1/2 Year Old Can Do It...

....then why is it so hard for us to do the same? We must make it a lifestyle! This clip of my son Malachi was taken on my phone 1 year ago, February 28, 2007. I was thinking, "Yes Malachi, you're making me look good!" Carrie & I showed this clip during a portion of the sermon a few weeks ago when Pastor Chris was preaching the series, "Extreme Makeover, Family Edition". We were asked to share what we did with our children to raise them to have a Christ-centered focus. Of course, (cough, cough) my little 2 1/2 years experience pales in comparison to Carrie's; so I had to let her have the most time of our 15 minutes or so. :) There are so many other parents with many great things they do, have done and are doing with their children. Please email us your pearls of wisdom so we can share here on the blog. One thing I am getting questions about is the book I referenced that my husband, Shawn, bought online: The Memory Bible Narrated by Kirk Cameron and written by Stephen Elkins. Here is what it looks like:



If our little ones can memorize a nursery rhyme, then they can memorize these little memory verse songs. They are all scripture which most Praise & Worship music is. Faith comes by hearing the Word of God; so Malachi gets these little songs stuck in his head and runs around singing them building every one's faith within an earshot! Amazing!

7 Steps to Answered Prayer

Be Specific and stand on Gods promises: Once you know what you want from God, find the scriptures that definitely promise you these things. Ask God for what you want: Then believe that you receive them according to the Word. Be positive in your thinking: Let every thought and desire affirm that you have what you have asked for. Guard your mind against every evil thought that tries to make you doubt God's Word: Do as Jesus, "it is written" and quote your scripture that promises you complete healing, etc... Meditate constantly: Speak out loud God's promises upon which you have based your answer to prayer. Continually thank God for the answer: In your every waking moment, think on the greatness of God and His goodness, and count your blessings. Once you have asked him for it, just stand in faith thanking God for making it happen rather than praying for it all over again! Make every prayer a statement of faith: It is thinking faith thoughts and speaking faith words that lead the heart out of defeat and into victory. Interface Prayer Ministry www.freedomlifechurch.com Praise, Petition & Persevere!

1440 of them

I recently read Life Wide Open by David Jeremiah. One quote that really stuck out to me was this: “You have as much of God as you really want. People may say they wish their relationship was better with Him or they wish they had more time to spend with Him; but if a person truly desired this then they would do whatever it took to make it happen.” I did not make time to search the book for the exact verbiage but that is a good paraphrase.

OOOOOUCH! That hurt when I read that!

I began to think about this a lot. I have been one of those people. At any given minute in my life I have a choice; I can do homework, I can catch up on cleaning, I can play with the kids, I can converse with my husband, I can sleep, if the house is quiet and both kids are sleeping I can read my Bible, I can sit silently in God’s presence, I can pray, I can waste time online, etc… there are endless possibilities. So now I often stop myself and think about my priorities and instead of wasting that spare minute doing something that is not Kingdom minded, I decided to turn my countless wasted minutes into productive ones. After all we only have 1440 of them each day.