Joshua’s House

Things have been a little slower around here this week in regard to Joshua’s House as I was out of town for five days last week.   Then, when I got back it was straight to decorating for a friend’s wedding for me.  The wedding was gorgeous and it’s so wonderful to see two people join their lives together in Christ.

Now I’m working on getting back on track.  I am hoping to be getting an overdue newsletter out this week.  Also, keep looking for some great blog posts coming up this month.  I’m excited about our guest contribution this month that will be about traditions.

Well, that’s about it for now.  Keep watching and don’t forget to leave comments.  Have a blessed week!

I’m not a morning person. When my parents used to take me to school in the morning, the drive was often quiet as none of us had become fully awake yet. If this is a situation you find yourself in frequently, take advantage of the opportunity to hide God’s Word in your heart and in the hearts of your children. This is a great chance to break the silence by playing scripture songs or Biblical education songs (like the books of the Bible, 10 commandments, etc) for your kids. Who knows, before long you might find that you are all singing along even on those early morning rides.

Keep watching. In the next couple of days you may nottice a new addition to the Family Fun Ideas. I have been recognizing that while the Family Fun Ideas we’ve been posting are great for families, for many they are overwhelming for everyday use. Don’t worry, we won’t do away with them entirely. We will still be posting Family Fun Ideas. What we are doing is adding what’s called Quick and Easy Family Fun Ideas. These are things you can do with your children on the spur of the moment and in every day situations.

We would love to hear your tips and ideas too, so don’t hesitate to share them with us. And remember to keep your eyes peeled for the new Quick and Easy Family Fun Ideas.

By Lindsay Edmonds

Lindsay with her daughter Karis

I was exceedingly blessed to be raised in a solid Christian family where Jesus Christ was worshipped and enjoyed, the Word of God taught and lived out by the grace of God. It was not perfect by any means, but my parents were intentional. They did not leave our spiritual growth to the church, as is prominent in our day. “Leave it to the professionals!” You will hear from many Sunday school environments. My parents took the Biblical command to teach the truth and actively pursued it with their children.

Our Call

“These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to yours son and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up (Deut. 6:6-7)”.

This is a call to the passionate and diligent pursuit of teaching our children the Word of God! Why? The active storing up of the Word of God was in order to “watch yourself, that you do not forget the Lord who brought you from the land of Egypt…You shall fear only the Lord your God; and you shall worship Him and swear by His name (Deut. 6:12-13).”

Since becoming parents, my husband and I have taken seriously the call from Scripture to raise our children “in the instruction and admonition of the Lord (Ephesians 6:4)”. We believe it is our primary responsibility to pass on the truth of righteousness to the next generation, to develop Biblical worldviews, to invest in their eternal souls, trusting that the Lord will bring them into His eternal kingdom, rather than trusting any other Christian system to do it for us. My heart’s cry and prayer is that they would come to know the living God and passionately desire to serve Him for all their days.

Passing on the Legacy

In order to be purposeful in this pursuit, we must make plans and steps towards passing on this spiritual legacy to our children. We must actively read the Word at home. This is the very Word of God and the training manual for all of life! It is “inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness (2 Tim. 3:16)”, all of which are essential for proper success in parenting and in Christ-centered child raising. It is the tool necessary to prepare us for a life of godliness and service (2 Tim 3:17), that we might be prepared for the fiery darts of the enemy and his lies (Eph 6), and that we might be conformed into the very image of Christ (1 Peter 1:4).

In order for my husband and I to properly train and disciple our children, we must first be in the truth ourselves individually. We must be growing in righteousness and maturity in Christ Jesus, rising early to seek His face. We must be humble and willing to confess our sins to our children, so Christ Jesus might radiate His saving grace through us.

Thus we purposefully seek to read the word individually and together in the morning, and have times of family worship (singing praise songs together) on evenings throughout the week or read godly Christian books together. Our morning devotions normally include reading through one chapter or two in the Bible. For those with older children, you may benefit from choosing a good Biblical catechism to read and discuss together as well. It may not happen every day, but we are aiming to purposefully include it in our schedule. During our worship times, we can display to our children that we value Christ above all else. While our little ones are very young and as they grow older, we desire to plant the truth in their hearts by including them in the Sunday morning church service. We want them to see us worshipping the Lord, learning from our example, and to hear the truth taught together.

I enjoy singing worship songs to my daughter throughout the day, but especially as I am rocking her to sleep at night. I have posted a bulletin board over the changing table with different missionaries that we support. While I complete the routine task of diaper changing, I am repeatedly reminded to pray for others out loud so she can hear. My heart’s desire is that my children would catch a vision for missions and service through these small means. For Christmas this year, we are hoping to purchase a copy of the Bible on CD for our children to listen to while they fall asleep at night. How much better when their minds are being developed, when their hearts are soft and pliable, to plant these precious seeds? It is never too early to start.

As our children grow, we will be investing in and supplying our children with quality books that will strengthen their understanding of the Bible (doctrinal books) and increase a heart for service (missionary biographies, history, etc).

It is not an easy task in our day and age to invest in the eternal wellbeing of our children. We are constantly bombarded with false worldviews through television, movies, internet, music and our encounters with unbelievers. Thus it is wisely important to carefully guard these entrances of the home or some may need to be removed altogether. These are opportunities also to discuss with your children right and wrong, to discern truth from error.

Challenge

Overall, God’s grace is sufficient when we humbly come before Him, acknowledging our dependence upon Him to complete this high and holy task. Yet, we must devote ourselves purposefully to God’s calling for our roles as parents. If you could start with one thing today, I would encourage you to begin reading the Word together. Start with Proverbs, which has such wisdom for all! Take turns reading just five verses or so and share a comment. Be faithful and trust the Lord for the fruit even though it will take time and repeated practice.

Reflecting back upon the morning devotions while growing up, I remember it clearly. My parents made “wisdom search”, as they called it (searching for nuggets of wisdom, most frequently in Proverbs), a daily routine. For a long time, many of us children did not value it whatsoever. We hated rising early and stumbling downstairs to gather in the living room around the Word of God. But slowly and surely, as my parents practiced faithfulness, the seeds of righteousness were planted, watered, and took root in our hearts. Through their faithfulness, I grew to love the Word of God and come to my own personal saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

Thank God for my parents making the teaching of the Word at home such a priority. I want to pass on such a gift to my children.

For excellent further reading, I highly recommend Family Driven Faith by Voddie Baucham, Jr.

Lindsay Edmonds is a mother of one (soon to be two), who is passionate about her family and about serving God in all she does. Her kind and loving spirit evidence her strong faith and love for the Lord. To find out more about Lindsay, visit her at her blog.

Click here for prinatble PDF version.
.

“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. ” Ephesians 6:10-13

Have you ever had a day when you need an activity to keep your kids occupied for a while, or maybe you need a family worship idea that’s meaningful and will last for several days. Either way, this activity is sure to be a winner with your kids and will help them to learn the importance of the tools God has given us to remain strong during spiritual warfare. All you need is some construction paper, tape, and a little creativity.

As Family Worship
Begin by reading Ephesians 6:10-18 together. Take a little time to explore the passage. What is the battle we are fighting? Why do we need armor? Get your kids thinking. Each day, explore one piece of armor a bit further. If you start with the belt of truth, talk about what truth means. Maybe you can think of an example of truth as a family. What does it have to do with you? When you are finished discussing each day, you can make the corresponding piece of armor. Click here for instructions to make an entire suit of armor.

As a Rainy Day Activity
Get your kids started by reading Ephesians 6:10-18 together. Give your kids plenty of construction paper, glue and this set of instructions. Make sure to check back with your kids regularly to see how their armor building is going. When they are all done, be sure to take some time to ask them about each piece of armor and how it will help them as they fight the good fight.

At the end of this week, I’m headed out for a grand adventure. I will be going to Florida for a few days for business.  Because of the trip I may miss a news update for next week.

In the meantime, things are still going strong here at the office. I continue to plug away on the junior’s curriculum. I also realized that I haven’t sent a newsletter out in a while, so I’m going to work hard at getting that going. I’m also toying with the idea of putting together a quarterly paper newsletter that we can mail out - kind of like a mini-magazine. I’m not sure. What do you guys think, would you or anyone you know be interested in that? It would mostly have the information and ideas that are posted on our website here, but will cater to those who aren’t so web savvy.

My mind is constantly bursting with ideas and I just can’t contain them all.  I must pray for patience, diligence  and focus so that God can work in me to do as much as He needs me to.  I hope you all have a great week.

God bless,

So, today is the exciting beginning of guest blogs here on Joshua’s House. It’s great to hear from other people about all the ways God is teaching them to grow, and to have them share with us a few tips on Christ focused families. A couple of the blogs you can look forward to reading are about the importance of family traditions, and tips on starting a few of your own; thoughts from a house parent - what it means to be a mom at an orphanage; thoughts from a mother’s heart about why raising children with a heart for God is so important, and many more.

To kick off our guest posts, we are doing something a little out of the ordinary (I know, it’s strange to start that way, but bear with me.) I am going to share with you a few excerpts from some articles I found on the Crown Financial Ministries website.

Have you ever longed to teach your children Godly stewardship from a young age, but you weren’t really sure how. Or maybe you’ve never really looked at the reasons for good money management yourself. Stewardship is a principle that Jesus told many parables about, so it must be important. Crown has some great advice. In their first article on Children and Finances, Crown gives three basic principles that are applicable to both parents and children.

1. Teach by example that God owns it all.
2. Exercise self-control.
3. Live on a budget.

The article then goes on to lay down five simple rules that should always be observed.

1. Pay children only for jobs completed (Proverbs 12:11).
2. Pay for quality work (Colossians 3:23)
3. Pay fairly within the family budget.
4. Encourage sharing.
5. Encourage saving.

This conclusion of the first article is taken directly from their website:

With regard to financial management, parents’ goals should be slowly to develop financial discipline and wisdom in their children.

It doesn’t happen overnight; but, with consistency the seeds of responsibility that parents sow will eventually take root in the lives of their children and will yield results in their future financial dealings.

Part two of the Children and Finances article includes ideas for working with children of various age groups. Here are some of our favorites:

• Age 8 and under - Begin a prebudget. A prebudget is described as giving children three jars or envelopes; one for God (tithe), one for savings and one for spending.
• Age 9-12 - The prebudget graduates to a mini budget. In the mini budget, the child is expected to put 10 percent of all money earned into tithe, 25 percent for short term savings, 25 percent for long term savings and 40 percent for spending.
• Teen Years - At this time the budget becomes more complex and your teen should start keeping a written record of all expenses. At this time, you may also consider opening a checking account for your child to learn more money management principles.

What is listed here is only an introduction to the articles at the Crown website. I encourage you to head over to their website to find out more about teaching your children about wise money management.

Wow, this week has sure been a whirlwind. The two biggest things that have been taking my time and energies this week were the ministry expo at Southern Adventist University and a big brainstorming party for an upcoming even Joshua’s House will be hosting.

The ministry expo went pretty well. For those of you who are wondering what in the world the ministry expo is, I’ll explain. This event takes place every year at the beginning of the school year and gives local college students and community members an opportunity to see how they can reach out and serve people during the year. It is a great time for ministries to hook up with volunteers who are passionate about their mission. It’s still a little too early to tell what kind of involvement Joshua’s House will have from this experience. Either way, it’s always an exciting time for me as the growth of Joshua’s House can be seen from year to year.

As far as the planning party goes, that’s a bit of a surprise. All I can tell you is that God truly blessed and we ended up bouncing around some pretty good ideas. Continue to look for more information on this upcoming mystery event in the next few months. I will tell you this, it will be a fantastic opportunity for Joshua’s House to get involved in the local community and it will be a fabulous way to encourage families to dive back into God’s Word.

What’s ahead for this week? Well, I plan on working on the new Family Fun Idea for this month (it has to do with the armor of God), along with more production of the 10-12 year old study in Luke and Acts. All in all, it looks like a busy week, but I know God will bless tremendously.

I found a book that made me so excited, I decided I just have to share it with you guys. It’s called The Big Book of Service Projects and it’s produced by Gospel Light. I am invoved in a small after school care program at a local church school and have really been enjoying it. The one area that I’ve had a hard time coming up with ideas about is service projects that can be enjoyed by kids from first to eigth grade without a requirement of leaving the school building as that is not currently a viable option. I have been totally stumped.

This book is loaded with ideas. It begins with getting kids involved with people they know - their friends and family - and then step-by-step, helps them reach out to a larger group ending up with a chapter on missions and outreach. Another cool thing about this book is that it has the simple project idea and each activity comes with additional options for older and younger kids.

While this book is intended for a classroom setting, I think it is a wonderful find for families. Not only does it help you introduce your kids to the idea of and reasons for service, but it loads you with an arsenal of 93 projects to get your whole family in the serving spirit.