Bible Study on Practical Prayer

After reading a book by Andy Stanley titled 'Deep and Wide', I decided to write my next Sunday School lesson around something less theoretical and more practical. Specifically, prayer. I'd like to do a short lesson on prayer, put up a verse on the white board, then actually practice what we preach and spend quite time talking to God.

I'll start with reviewing the basics - what is prayer? (Answer, talking with God)
Then ask how often people practice this? Note that probably none of us do it enough, so, while guilt can be motivating to move forward, it should not hold us down with shame. 

1 Thessalonians 5:17 pray without ceasing

Then I'll ask about what happens when you pray? Describe what you talk to God about.

Psalm 95:2 Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!

I'll also include this quote:

“Prayer will make a man cease from sin, or sin will entice a man to cease from prayer.”  ~ John Bunyan

 

Then set a timer and tell everyone to get down on the floor and talk to God for ten minutes. I'll instruct everyone to give thanksgiving, talk about current concerns and simply chat, but try not to make the time a laundry list of requests. 

This is a shorter-than-normal Bible Study, but that's because I expect us to spend more time in silent prayer (at least 10 minutes). This is an effort to expand my emphasis from the intellectual to the 'you can do something with this information'.

Christmas Movies!

Doing the Charlie Brown Christmas made me think of other Christmas movies. I think I collected all the best Christmas movies and placed them somewhere on my Huge List of Movies Every Child Should See. It was surprising how large a percentage of the appropriate-for-a-five-year-old movies were Christmas ones.

The top rated one, How the Grinch stole Christmas, is an all-time favorite for me. There are some strange people who like the Jim Carey version, but I'm too large a fan of the traditional cartoon to care for that movie.

Rudolph and Santa Claus is Comin' to Town are great claymation films. Frosty the Snowman is a brilliant story too! And all of these have good morals in each of their stories. 

I included Yes Virginia on the movie list, another Christmas film, but it's not really a classic in the same way that all the rest of these are. I'm sort of ambivalent about whether it should even be on that 'must see' list, in fact. It's cute, to be sure, and certainly appropriate for a very young audience, but it doesn't strike me as something that, if you didn't see it, you'd be missing out on much. Also the message is one about how Santa is real - that your belief in that is important. That's not something I will be encouraging our children to believe, so it seems a bit counter-productive. to include.

For an older audience, I have Miracle on 34th Street, It's a Wonderful Life, Muppet's Christmas Carol, Nightmare Before Christmas, The Christmas Story, and Scrooged. 

None of these, however, talk about the real meaning behind Christmas. It is a celebration of Jesus' brith and, sadly, there are not many hints of that in any of these films. With that in mind, I don't think we'll watch any of these on Christmas day. I intend to focus more on the idea of it being Jesus' birthday, including a birthday cake and discussion about Jesus' life and His continuing work in us. We'll see how this all plays out.

Anyway, the story behind It's a Wonderful Life is quite fascinating. It only really became a hit because it was a flop in its initial release. It was pretty much given to the networks to play for free every year, so that's what they did. In this case, familiarity didn't breed contempt, but delight in the eyes of the public. They grew to love it, so it became a classic in the end. Another interesting tidbit is that the watchdog groups overseeing movies of that time decreed that all villains meet their just ends, but in this movie, the 'evil banker' slips through without any consequence to his mean character. The film makers managed to sneak that past the censors somehow...

I can't say I'm a huge fan of the muppets, but A Muppet Christmas Carol is genuinely fun! It's probably my favorite version of the Charles Dickens classic. Another version, starting Jim Carey (that's the second time he's been mentioned here, isn't it?) is probably truer to the book, but it isn't as heart-warming or sweet.

Nightmare Before Christmas is weird. I could just leave it at that, because that statement seems to summarize the movie fairly well. That and creepy. All of Tim Burton's stuff is weird and creepy, really. But, despite the disturbing atmosphere, the story is actually pretty good and it is so darn original that I can't help but be impressed with it despite myself. In the end though, this may be more of a Halloween movie than a Christmas one.

The second black-and-white film on the list, Miracle on 34th Street is a film I've only seen a few times and so don't know it well enough to say too much about it. It was a cute movie though, one that I think would make for an enjoyable Christmas-time treat.

The movie about the BB-gun! I'm rather bemused by how many people absolutely love this movie. I must be missing the greatness here because I rather dislike it. I don't know why. The Christmas Story is culturally relevant (and I think my husband likes it), so we'll watch it.

The second version of Dicken's classic, Scrooged, is the last of the Christmas movies on my list...at least I think it is. Perhaps there will be more added later. I'm sure Hollywood is not done making movies on that popular holiday. In fact, there are a slew of other movies out there that other people would probably be appalled that I've left off my lists. Like Elf or The Santa Clause. Most of those movies are pretty stupid comedies though which I strongly detest, so they didn't make my movie list.

And Now I'm finished rambling.

Movie Time

Although I intend to have a weekly movie night, it's too soon to be sure how that will end up playing out, exactly. If it were entirely up to me, I would choose never-before-seen (by my children) films, we'd all watch the movie as a family, then discuss it.

But it won't just be up to me. My husband should have some input (I'm thinking of having him pick the movie every other week) and my kids will no doubt want to have their own input. And what about re-watching movies? Some of the best choices deserve to be seen more than once - how will those fit into the schedule? I've thought of adding a second time slot, this time with whatever the children pick.

I've also thought of giving them 'points', earned during the week for doing chores or finishing school work which could be spent on 'digital time' (movies, TV show episodes, gaming, whatever). So each day a child has the potential to earn enough points to watch a single half-an-hour episode show per day, or could save up the points and watch a full-length movie at the end of the week. In this way, the child has an opportunity to both exercise his/her choices, and also practice the concepts of spending and saving a resource.

Honestly, the above concept seems to be the best compromise between not letting the kids go overboard with too much time in front of the TV or computer and not letting them experience the shows and movies that 'everyone else' gets to see. A firmly limited amount of time that's earned might be used more wisely than if a child is given a vague boundary around how much time is acceptable. Granted, at this point I don't have kids, so the theory may be easier than actually living this out. We'll just have to wait and see.

College Entrance Essay Questions

I spotted some difficult essay topics and wanted to remember them (for the distant future) when my kids may need to practice writing these types of responses before they are required.

• Name a time you faced or witness discrimination and how you overcame it
• What do you consider to be the single most important societal problem? Why?
• Pick a controversial problem on college campuses and suggest a solution.
• What do you see as the greatest threat to the environment today?
• Describe how you have demonstrated leadership ability both in and out of school.
• Discuss a special attribute or accomplishment that sets you apart.
• Describe your most meaningful achievements and how they relate to your future goals.
• Pick an experience from your own life and explain how it has influenced your development.
• Who in your life has been your biggest influence and why?
• How has your family background affected the way you see the world?
• How has your education contributed to who you are today?
• Briefly describe your long- and short-term goals.
• Where do you see yourself 10 years from now?
• Why do you want to get a college education?
• Choose a person or persons you admire and explain why.
• Choose a book or books and that have affected you deeply and explain why.
• Describe a time when you grew as a person

As a few of the more 'off-beat' questions I found:

• How do you feel about Wednesday?
• What outrages you?
• Write a haiku, limerick, or short poem that best represents you 
• Are we alone?
• What is college for?
• Please describe a daily routine or tradition of yours that may seem ordinary to others but holds special meaning for you. Why is this practice significant to you?  
• Make a bold prediction about something in the year 2020 that no one else has made a bold prediction about.
• How did you get caught? (Or not caught, as the case may be.) 
• You have just completed your 300-page autobiography. Please submit Page 217

Personally, I think some of the weirder questions look a whole lot more fun than the standard questions. But that's probably the point. In any case, when High School rolls around for my kids, I'll probably assign them a few of these questions to get them thinking about how to write something about themselves without being too egotistical or bland.

Teaching Budgeting

I think teaching how to manage a budget is one of the most neglected areas - whether a person attends public school or is taught in the home. Which, sadly, explains a whole lot about our society.

Well, in our home, we follow pretty closely to Dave Ramsey's 'Financial Peace University' school of thought. We do a budget before we see a penny of income, then try to stick to that during the month, reducing each fund (food/gas/water bill/etc.) as we use them. Not only do we have a great idea of where we are financially at any point during the month, but we know when (if) we can buy anything extra without going into debt.

Since I feel that we have an excellent handle on our own budget, we will probably teach by example, in many respects. We'll start out when our kids first start earning an allowance by giving them three jars or envelopes - one for saving, one for tithing, one for 'play'. I honestly have no idea how the concept of saving and tithing will go for a young child, but I have some ideas of how to counteract problems if we encounter them. Seeing videos of the poor around the world and how our tithe money can help them is one method. Doing a Bible study on giving/generosity/tithing is another.

For saving, it might be easier to have a goal. This would be a good opportunity to see if there's anything they really want that's expensive and frivolous enough that my hubby and I have chosen not to get them. It could be anything from a game-system to a trip to Disneyland. We'll just have to see what it is that might motivate them. Seeing the money add up and the goal get closer will, I hope, inspire them to save for less immediate goals later.

When they are a bit older, we'll have them help create our monthly budget, balance the checkbook, pay bills, and all the other monthly tasks that go with being financially responsible adults.

Before they are old enough to go out and get a 'real' job, we'll have some formal teaching on why we do things the way we do. We'll probably actually go through the Financial Peace University as a family, plus do an in-depth study on what the Bible says about money and stewardship.

So I think that's the overall plan.

Diverse writting mediums

I think it's safe to say that everyone is familiar with writing on paper, but for a child, especially a young child, it can make an otherwise dull and tedious task of practicing things like spelling words more enjoyable by writing with more creative tools.

No matter the child's age, for a change of pace, doing something different like copying spelling words onto the sidewalk using chalk can make for a fun change. So this post is a list of ideas for different mediums to use for creating words.

Just to be complete, I'll start with 'the usual suspects':
Crayons
Pens
Pencils
Digital (typing)

Still using things (like pens) that are more common, but perhaps in ways bit outside the norm:
Highlighters
Write everything in 'bubble letters' - outlined block letters like this:
         _______
         |__    __|
             |    |
             |__|
Write using the non-dominate hand
Write the entire list or sentence with the eyes closed (longer passages, espeically with multiple lines
        of text can garner the most amusement with this one)
Write everything vertically rather than horizontally
Paint on scrap cardboard
Try to write with two pens - either holding one in each hand and moving them together, or holding
       both pens together to form one double line.
Use stencils

Materials farther outside the box:
Use alphabet noodles/cereal
Shape letters with toothpicks or broken spaghetti noodle segments
Write in shaving foam or whipped cream spread out on cookie sheets
Write in dirt or sand with finger or stick outside
Use pebbles to form words
Write using streams of toilet paper to form words
Give kids digital cameras to take pictures of letters around town and have them crop the photos and
       paste them together (can be literally pasted together if you print it all out, but I recommend
       keepting this all in the digital world and 'paste' into something like MS WORD. 
Cut out letters from a newspaper or magazine to combine into words
Use their bodies to 'spell' out words (also can work as a P.E. activity if they try to go fast through
       forming words!)
String or Yarn
Chalk
Play-doh
foggy mirror/window
Food such as raisins or M&Ms


I'm sure there are many, many more ways to get creative with this. Of course, the whole point of spelling lists are to encourage your children to learn the words, so I don't recommend doing so much of this that a child loses sight of that, but as an occasional creative outlet to bolster lagging enthusiasm, it might be a lot of fun coming up with new and innovative ways to form the words.

Heavenly Rewards

Non-Crown Heavenly Rewards:

We'll have already done a Bible study on Judgement and receiving Crowns, so for this Bible study, we'll look at what the Bible says about rewards that aren't 'Crowns'. I think we'll start with a review of the concept that all actions are subject to judgement, whether good or bad.
“But I, the LORD, search all hearts and examine secret motives. I give all people their due rewards, according to what their actions deserve.” Jeremiah 17:10 

Then look at the fact that the judgement results in rewards: 
If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames. (1 Corn 3:12-15)
Questions: What kinds of things might result in gems? What about wood or hay? Do you think that the gold, silver or gems is symbolic? 


After this, I'll ask what kinds of things we receive as rewards. Hopefully people will remember the previous week's lesson and name 'Crowns' as one of the possibilities.

I'll use the following verse to talk about 'material rewards'. Since we'll have physical bodies and live in a physical New Earth (a concept we've spent a lot of time on already using the book 'Heaven'), it would follow that there will be physical "stuff" there too.

 “Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal. Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.” Matthew 6:19-21 (NLT)

I think this could generate a fairly healthy discussion about what kind of "stuff" might exist. Things that make sense would be things like musical instruments,writing implements, and art supplies, but other 'non-spiritual stuff' could include things like baseballs, hairbrushes, model trains, microscopes, and just about anything that's not a direct result of the Fall (and probably a whole lot of stuff we can't imagine yet). The idea is to spark the imagination with the discussion and want to place 'treasure' in Heaven. The verse speaks of physical items and we can't exactly do a one-to-one exchange (like shipping our favorite DVD up to Heaven), so then the discussion would move on to how we can actually live out this concept. How would a person deposit treasure in Heaven as we are commanded to do?

In addition to "stuff" the Bible also talks about other kinds of rewards. Examples would be in the parables that speak of various faithful service rewarded with authority or responsibility. (Matthew 25:14-30 and Luke 19:12-27). Who will we have authority over?

Also, we will receive words of praise ("Well done, good and faithful servant").

Then we'll review the idea that not everyone gets the same thing on Heaven. We won't all be equal. 
“So if you ignore the least commandment and teach others to do the same, you will be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven. But anyone who obeys God’s laws and teaches them will be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven.” Matthew 6:19 (NLT)  - Note, reading farther, to verse 24, the contrast is not with committed and nominal Christians, but believers and unbelievers. A man cannot have both God as God and Money as god. However, this is not strictly speaking of tithing as the Pharasis strictly tithed, but it was not evidence of their salvation.

“But many who seem to be important now will be the least important then, and those who are considered least here will be the greatest then.” Matthew 19:30 (NLT) 

The parable in Matt 20:1-16 seems to imply that everyone is granted the same thing, however commentators have concluded, based on other verses of the Bible (examples listed above) that the apparent equality either refers to admission into Heaven via grace, or that people are not just given rewards based on their actual service, but on their opportunities and resources (Note that the final group had been standing around all day, but given no chance to work). The Widow with her two mites is a prime example of this principle. 


I think we'll end with discussing whether it's good or bad to be focused on rewards at all. Is it okay to do a 'good work' if you are doing it with an eye towards the reward? (My conclusion would be that it's perfectly fine. God told us of these various rewards to motivate us, after all. And we have no way to quantify exactly what we earn with each 'good thing' we do, so we are not tempted to think we're 'earning' more than we deserve.)

Copy Work ideas for Children

I have been creating lists of ideas for copy-work. For anyone reading this who doesn't know what copy-work is, it's just the act of giving a child a list of words or a phrase of some sort for them to practice handwriting/spelling/memorization. For younger kids, like Kindergarten age, the process would involve me, the teacher, writing down a short one-line something and then the child re-writing that a few times. It could be copied once or twice if the goal is to practice forming letters, but using the same list/sentence multiple times per week would certainly aid in memorization.

The older child could be giving a longer section and may move from copy-work to either memorization or spelling or both. For example, during a single week, for an older child using dictation to improve spelling and grammar might involve presenting him/her with a copy of a poem on Monday to copy out and the child works on remembering how to spell each word and the punctuation through the week. Then the parent, on Friday, reads the poem slowly aloud while the child re-creates it. This emphasizes the spelling and grammar, but instead of writing, the child could focus on memorization and speech skills by ending the week reciting it instead. Either method is a nice learning tool!

Anyway, I was searching out some ideas for copy-work for younger children and came across several ideas and thought it would be make sense to collect the scattered thoughts here.

Kindergarten/1st/2nd grades:

• Address/phone number
• Short proverbs (such as "No man is an island" or "The early bird gets the worm")
• Scripture - at this age I'd either start with small 'pieces' of verses (like "All have sinned" rather than the full verse) or do a larger section in multiple steps.
• Quotes - like proverbs, these can be very short. The difference between them is that these short sayings are not as universally known and have an original speaker attached. They can be quite humorous, silly, or profound.
• Lists of important 'groups':
• Colors of the rainbow
• Month of the year
• Days of the week
• Planets
• Continents
• Books of the Bible
• etc.

•  Rules (socially acceptable actions or behaviors you wish your child to remember. For example,  "Say 'please' when asking for something" or "Do not talk with your mouth full")
• Facts: Any 'everyone knows this' type of fact. For example, "There are 24 hours in a day.", "The Earth travels around the sun.", "Plants need sunlight to grow". These often fall under the category of science-knowledge. In fact, finding simply sentences out of a child's science text books might be a great source for these sentences. 
• Spelling words. You can use both lists of words, or the words incorporated into sentences. The child can even help create the sentences!
• Poems - Nursery rhymes, songs, and poetry are great to memorize, but I put this last on the list because these are often fairly lengthy and may work better as verbal memory work than written copy-work. 

3rd-6th grade:

• Limericks are perfect for this age. The often silly humor is very appealing. Just be sure to create your own list since many limericks can be pretty risque. 
• Geography - start memorizing countries, states and capitols
• Presidents/Kings/Pharaohs/Dynasties
• Quotes - you can get longer, more complicated quotes and really ruminate over the meanings. For example, "Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither." - C. S. Lewis. Although a younger child could copy out the words, it takes an older child to think about the meaning behind this. 
• Poetry (other than limericks) - There are so many great poems out there. Try 'Fog' by Carl Sandburg as a very short introduction or something like 'For whom the Bell tolls' for something longer. 
• Scripture - Memorizing the Bible is, in my opinion, one of the best things a parent can do for their children.
• More Science facts - there is a nearly limitless number of 'things to know' in the world, so this is a limitless category. Try doing some of the laws like "An object in motion stays in motion unless acted on by an outside force." 
• Grammar rules. (i.e. An adverb is...)
• Spelling words. As before, you can do either lists of words or  place the words into sentences. Here might be a good place to practice that complicated grammar you may also be studying (for example, make sentences that use quotes or prepositions).

7th Grade and Beyond:

• Scripture - always more of the Bible! At this point fairly large chunks can be memorized/dictated at a time. 
• Poetry - fairly lengthy poetry such as sections of Shakespeare, can now be attempted.
• Quotes - again, profound quotes that inspire thought are abundant!
• Speeches - Famous speeches, such as the Gettysburg Address or the 'I have a Dream' speech.
• Systems of the Body (i.e. names of the bones), Periodic Table, and other science facts.
• Pretty much anything from the previous age bracket, only these ages allow for both longer segments of everything and more complex ideas. 
• Sections of classic literary work or dramas. 

I think I'll post again on this topic, only giving specific examples of quotes and poetry and proverbs and such. I'm in the middle of organizing what I believe I'll attempt to do each week for the first few years, so we'll see how that goes. In the meantime, I'm still gathering an overabundance of the above material.

Movie: Charlie Brown Christmas

My husband and I intend to severely limit the amount of 'digital time' our kids get. We have no intention of having access to cable TV, so that will help. Since so many studies show that watching the TV is not good for younger children, we intend to hold off until our oldest is around 5 or so. Of course, between visiting babysitters who will have a video going to occassionally needing a break ourselves, I doubt our kids will be completely TV-free. Still, we'll start out with good intentions and see how well they hold up over the long haul.

But, once our kids are old enough, I would like to create a weekly movie night. I think time spent as a family this way could be great fun, as long as we do it together and then spend some time talking about the movie afterwards. 


One of the first movies I intend to introduce our kids to is the Charlie Brown Christmas. It's only 30 minutes and almost completely lacking in anything remotely scary. Perfect for a young kid!




Our kids at this point, would be too young to have much deep discussion on the ideas of Christmas and commercialism. But I do think that a gentle reminder of things like what the true meaning of Christmas is (It's Jesus' birthday!) would be appropriate.

• Do you know what Christmas is?
• Do you remember who's birthday is on Christmas?
• Can you tell me the story of Baby Jesus?

I also think we'll do an art project this same week where we make a paper chain and decorate a bush with it, the sadder the bush the better!

The Danger of Complaining

There was a fantastic devotional (Days of Praise by the Creation Institute) that I read about the Dangers of Complaining.

The verse Psalm 106:15 States "And he gave them their request, but sent leanness into their soul." This is talking about the Children of Israel, while they wandered the desert. They complained (and in Numbers it mentions that their complaints 'kindled God's anger') What a scary verse! They whined and God reduced their spiritual blessings.

In the New Testament, we are commanded to 'Do all things without murmurings or disputing' (Phil 2:14) and there are several verses that speak about contentment (Heb. 13:5).

The Danger I see in complaining is the sense of pride it reveals. Complaining essentially says that the situation we find ourselves in is undeserved and unfair. Unfortunately I think we sometimes forget that not only are we excessively wicked sinners deserving of far worse than anything this world could ever dish out, but that God is in control. He will take care of us and provide for our needs (although, sadly, our wants are not promised).

I can't claim to be free of the desire to complain, and I certainly tell God often enough when I want something to change about my life and circumstances. I don't think it's a bad thing to ask for things. It's not the asking that's the problem. As any parent can attest, there is a difference between a child asking for something and a child whining about not getting it. It's the attitude (reflected in the tone of voice) that's displaying the deeper heart-problem.

As a Bible Study lesson, after looking up the above verses, I will request that everyone think of some things they've recently asked God about and evaluate whether there was any complaining involved. Are there any circumstances in life that they feel resentful over? Some time in prayer spent doing the opposite (giving thanks) seems to be the perfect remedy for complaints. We'll end the Bible Study with the intention of keeping gratitude in the forefront rather than our dissatisfaction. 

Homeschooling art idea

So, I saw this somewhere (and, unfortunately don't have the artist's name or a link since I can't remember where it was I saw this), but I thought it would make a fantastic art project for kids! All we'd need was paint, string, and a place to gather sticks. What a fun idea!