At Home with God

  One day I had a revelation: When Jesus blessed the children, they were blessed!    Okay, I know that sounds obvious, but bear with me a moment while I explain. If Jesus walked into a room, blessed two of the people there, then walked out again, we would expect those two people’s lives to take a turn for the better from that moment on, wouldn’t we?    In other words, when Jesus blessed people, it was not a case of wishing the best for them, or even speaking a few nice words to make them feel well. Nor was it a superstitious act or a magic spell. Instead, it was a divine declaration that had the power to change the direction of a life. In short, there was power in the blessing that Jesus spoke: when Jesus blessed the children, they were blessed!    This is the Jewish understanding of blessing: it invites God’s presence to come to that person or into a situation. As we pray blessings over our children, we are inviting God to fulfil His will for their li...

My children clean their teeth most days now without us having to ask (though they do still need the odd reminder).   This is the fruit of some very intentional work on our part as parents. We saw personal as an essential part of their preparation for future life so built in a routine of brushing their teeth from when they were very little.  Supporting the more when they were younger, then encouraging them and now leaving them to it.  In the same way we should encourage our children to develop their own times of reading the Bible.  In our home this is encouraged from when they have the skills to be able to read the simplest Bibles and are older than five so able to take some measure of responsibility for it.  Set a target Set a target of reading for your children, perhaps by guiding them to a particular book. For children in primary school a few verses or a short story is a good starting point, for children in secondary school a chapter a day is very achiev...

It can be daunting to know where to start when it comes to reading the Bible as a family.  I’m not thinking so much about the  how  we can read the Bible together – there are hundreds of amazing resources and suggestions out there that address this. Rather, I am seeking to reflect on  what  we should be reading.  Where should we start? Here are 8 ideas of places to begin your Bible reading journey as a family. These have come from history, personal experience and from speaking with the oldest members of our congregations to hear what their parents used to do for them when they were children.   1. T he core stories.  When children are young you can simply open a Bible story book, snuggle up on the sofa and start to read. Stories of Jonah, Adam and Eve, David & Goliath and the miracles of Jesus are all the more gripping when hearing them for the first time and enjoyable when they become well known. They help lay a foundation of Bible knowle...

In this series of three blogs, I want to reflect on the importance of exposing our children to the Bible in the home.  This first article we look at the importance of reading the Bible together. In the next article we consider places where we can start to read the Bible. Finally, we will look at how we can encourage a regular habit of Bible reading and personal devotion.  Why? But first a quick comment on  why  we should prioritize reading the Bible together. In times past, reading the Bible together as a family was consider the normal daily thing to do. With increased time pressures of modern living and decreased communication across the generations, family Bible reading times are not as common as they should be.    That’s not to pile guilt on parents, but it is a statement that we should seek to read the Bible together regularly as a family, even if it is only a verse a day on the way out of the door or in the car on the school run.    The ...

  Big events require big monuments (or mementos). When you spend lots of money to go on the holiday of a lifetime or see the concert you have longed to see without taking home a memento of that time.  Whether it is the photos that you have taken or heap tat from a gift shop a wise person will find a way to bottle some of the memories of the time. God specifically instructs the Israelites to keep a memento of key events in the Bible. For example, God told the Israelites to collect up stones when they passed through the river Jordan on their way to Jericho (Joshua 3). God himself placed a memorial in the form of a rainbow to promise that he would never flood the earth again. Of course mementos are not just there to remember the good times, they are also there to remember the harder times and serve as a warning and a way of counting blessings into the future. The simple act of wearing a poppy on remembrance Sunday to remember those who gave their lives to fight for our freedom he...

With the recent announcement from the UK government of the closure of schools for all but essential workers, we know some parents are dreading the practical implications of what this will mean for their family. While I am sure some parents will be delighting in the prolonged holiday together many parents are wondering how they can help keep their children’s education moving forward and continue working from home as well. As a parent who works from home and who has also schooled our children at home over several years I hope the following will be of help. 1) Don’t panic In times of uncertainty it is easy to panic as we try to work out how things will work. Our attitude should not be one of panic, but one of trust and faith in God. He will bring us through this time stronger and more ready to bring His kingdom to the world. When you take this attitude, your children will pick up on it and find the same strength in the Lord. 2) Do structure It would be easy to let the da...

I watched the child at the end of the service. He was only around six or seven years old and he was acting suspiciously. He looked around him to see if anyone was watching then knelt down and dived into a lady’s handbag. He came up triumphant, sneaking a sweet into his pocket and scurrying off to a quiet corner of the church. The lady was not his mother, or a relative, or even a friend of the family. To this boy she was a complete stranger. When I approached the young boy, he was hid in a corner, busy chewing a sweet. He looked up at me, startled from his seclusion. “Where did you get the sweet from?” I asked him. I told him I had been watching him for the past ten minutes and had seen what he had done. He had no answer to give. In my mind, this event was serious. Sure, he had not stolen her purse, or her money, or anything of real value, but he had gone into a stranger’s bag to take something he wanted. ‘I will have to tell you parents about this,’ I said, gravely. ‘Please d...

Children can be leaders. Children should be leaders. Children who follow Jesus will find themselves leading others. I have seen this happen time after a time. This should be no surprise, for those who are of the kingdom of God are called to be leaders in the world: our calling as salt and light is not dependant on age or spiritual maturity. Indeed, Jesus implies that anyone who is following him is the light and salt of the world (not that we need to become it). The only question is whether or now we will hide our light and whether our salt will lose its saltiness.  This means, by definition, our children are called to lead. By leadership I do not mean that children will take over the church eldership and start managing the church budgets. I mean that they are prepared to make a stand for God no matter what comes their way.  This is part of what it means to be adopted. No wonder the rebuke from Paul over the church in Corinth’s inability to judge correctly is so pa...

The worship song had begun and the girl on the camp started to pray for everyone around her. I am all for children praying for each other, but something about what she was doing caught my attention. I stepped off the platform to chat with her and after a brief conversation encouraged her not to worry about anyone else at this time, but to worship God for the remainder of the song. I climbed back on to the platform to carry on leading. Five seconds later she was praying for people again. ‘You are not to pray for people now, now is the time to worship Jesus.’ Moments later the girl was off praying for others. It soon became clear that she had been taught to minister to people, but did not know how to minister to the Lord. In part one of this series we looked at the importance of giving our children opportunities to stretch their faith. If their faith is to develop, it must have a forum in which it can move beyond the theory into action. The hall of faith listed in Hebrews 11 shows t...