Archive for August, 2007

• Language Learning, Part 1: the alphabet

  Date: 2007.08.29 | Category: Twins | Response: 1

  The girls have been learning their ABCs. They can sing the ABC song with help and sometimes they will even initiate singing it. Sometimes you can have a pile of letters on the carpet and say, “Give me the letter O” and they will grab it for you. (They can also pick out A, R, L, M, B, D usually 80% of the time.)

  We own the Leap Frog ABC toy.

  I had put the letters into storage for a while merely because I didn’t want to pick up all 26 letters and 10 numbers every day. They are in a ziploc bag, coming out of storage and the girls carry the bag around the house and play with the letters. This morning, they were on my bed with the letters and playing with them. We had been singing the ABC song at breakfast with the help of Leap himself, courtesy of Rachel. Please sing the song to yourself now before reading the rest of this post.

  Alexis, while playing on my bed and shuffling through letters, says, “Momma, where’s my elmo?”

  I said, “What?” I was thinking she meant the red puppet from Sesame Street.

  Alexis repeated the question, “Where’s my elmo?” All the while, she is shuffling through letters. It’s becoming clear that she may not necessarily be talking about The Elmo. “Is this my elmo?” she asked, holding up the letter T.

  “OOOOHHHH!” the light bulb goes on in my head. Alexis thinks “elmo” is the name of a letter. You know “h, i, j, k elmo, p” “No, honey, that’s the letter T. Keep looking….” I say as I coax them off my bed and into their room to get dressed for the day.

  The funny thing is that we don’t watch any Elmo shows and we only own one Elmo toy. ONE!

• Camping

  Date: 2007.08.27 | Category: Twins | Response: 0

  For some time, People have suggested that we go camping. So last night, we had brats at the campfire and set up the hello kitty tent for the twins and our tent for the two of us. We got the girls PJs sprayed down with bug repellant, got blankets, lammies, bunnies, and the foam mattress from the futon in place. And they would NOT settle down. It seems that they were afraid of being in the tent for the night.
  So finally at 9pm, we brought them into our tent — foam mattress and all, and attempted to settle them down for a night of sleeping under the stars. At 10 pm they were still wound up; Alexis jumping everywhere and talking up a storm, Rachel periodically breaking out into tears, so … I decided to call it quits for the night and all of us went inside, dragging our tents behind us, to sleep in our house. None of us were “happy campers.”

  This morning, I awake at 7:53 am to the sound of rain.

  How thankful I was that I was in my bed and that my children were still sleeping in their beds. We had scrambled eggs for breakfast and I started a load of laundry.

• Feeling Worse

  Date: 2007.08.21 | Category: Bible Study | Response: 0

  We always want to “feel better” about ourselves and our situation. Sometimes the things we do to feel better about ourselves only make us feel worse.

  example – mall. Feel better about the new jeans, but worse b/c in a bigger size or worse b/c you don’t have the shoes/purse/earrings to go w/

  example – hair cut. Hair feels better but you don’t like the way your bangs fall. Or it’s too short.

  example – buy a magazine to relive our boredom, but only feel worse b/c you cant afford all the nifty stuff they’re advertising, or you feel disgusted about the promiscuous lives the stars live.

  In order to really feel better about ourselves, we have to let God do some work on us. Temporarily we feel worse, as we receive his discipline in our lives. Ultimately as we are completely made-over into his image we do feel better because we allow him to pour out his grace on us and remove the guilt and power of sin in our lives.

  How much of who we really are is tied up in the clothes we wear and the kind of car our mom drives and what our mom wears?

  “What’s the difference between Christian shopping and culture shopping?” “Christians say ‘wear more and spend less’. The culture says, ‘wear less and spend more’.”

  Culture kills us spiritually

  The magazines, the media, the movies all say “who you are is crucially tied to your career, your paycheck, and your stuff.”

  Christianity is a religion built around a man who was rich and became poor. By examining the gospels, we see that Jesus could enjoy the good life without being seduced by it.

  Your net worth isn’t the same as your self worth, and your value isn’t determined by your valuables.

  Few things control our behavior more than our economic status. Jesus was aware of that—that’s why he said to the rich young ruler, “You’ve got to sell what you have and give it to the poor.” Not because the poor needed the money, but because the rich young ruler needed to be freed from the way in which money was conditioning his whole perspective on life. See Luke 18.18-23 and Mt 19.16-22 and Mark 10.17-22

  Jesus said, “Not many rich and not many powerful and not many wise of this world end up being my followers.” Jer 9.23-24;

  Making money is a wonderful thing. The problem is spending it wisely. I go back to Wesley’s statement—we are supposed to make money so we can give it away. USA Today said that the disposable weekly income of an American teenager amounts to $70 per week. Teenage girls spend $60 annually (about $5/day). That means that young people are in a better position than adults to give money to meet the needs of the poor.

  I want to challenge you to do something significant with your money for the kingdom of God.

  what the Bible says: Your money doesn’t follow your heart; your heart follows your money. Money controls consciousness much more than we are ready to admit.

  The Bible is quite clear: When you give, make sure your left hand does not know what your right hand is doing. You have an obligation to sneak up on the back steps, slip the money under the door, go to a telephone, call, and say, “There’s $500 under your door. It’s for you. This is God,” and hang up. Because then who gets the credit? To God be the glory.

  Contentment is a heart issue, not a paycheck issue, and the easiest way to get what you want is to want less.

  So let’s talk bout how we get ideas on what to spend money on.

  Magazine

  Do you –without realizing it – allow the advertising industry to dictate to you what you “need”?

  Look into the eyes of the magazine models and the holly wood actresses.

  Do their eyes show how happy they are or how miserable they are?

  Hair cuts

  Ever gotten a bad hair cut?

  I’ve gotten bad ones at Wal-Mart and Not-so-fantastic Sam’s.

  When you get a bad hair cut, how long does it take for you to get over it?

  How do you cope? Wear a hoodie?

  Why is it such a big deal? b/c 1 Cor 11.15 admits that long hair on a woman is glorious.

  But even our hair does not completely define us.

  So why do we keep on going back to all these things, trying to feel better about ourselves?

  Boys, dating, sex

  Make up, hair cuts, makeovers, mall workouts

  Movies, magazines,

  Friends, food

  Move into your small groups, to discuss the question of why we keep going back to the things that don’t completely satisfy us…

  Small group p 140

  So how do you get over yourself?

  Romance yourself, says the author.

  Don’t be dependent on another person for your joy, happiness, contentment.

  Look to God for the fulfillment of your longings. Psalm 37.4-8

  I agree, and I say, Let God Romance you.

  God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him. – Piper

  When we are emotionally involved and enthusiastically connecting with god he is more glorified in our life. God isn’t into “yeah whatever” relationships.

  God is the source of our joy. Seek pleasure in God in this life. and it’s commanded

  “Are you planning your life the way God wants or the way everyone else wants?”

  In 10 days you start school.

  How are you preparing for God to use you this school year 2007-2008?

  What are your spiritual gifts? See p 111.

  Some of you have the gift of miracles. What miracles are you praying for? What miracles do you want to see God perform?

  Some of you have the gift of encouragement. Have you begun to pray yet about who you are going to encourage this school year?

  Some of you have the gift of giving and serving. Have you begun to survey the physical needs among your class, the class of 2013, to see where God wants you to thrive in service and generosity?

  Some of you have the gift of leadership and administration. Ask God to make you humble enough to be able to associate with all kinds of people – smart, dumb, rich, poor, pretty, ugly, Christian, non-Christian.

  As you practice using the gifts God has given you, you will begin to feel better about yourself, much better than a trip to the Mall of America could make you feel. Much better than participating in an extreme make-over could.

• Lying

  Date: 2007.08.15 | Category: Youth Ministry and Discipleship | Response: 0

  Lying is bad for a number of reasons. First of all, it’s one of the seven things that God hates. See Proverbs 6.16-19.

  Secondly, when someone lies to you, you feel you no longer can trust them.

  It’s like this:

  You have a Styrofoam cup full of hot tea. The Styrofoam cup represents trust. The tea represents the relationship. Every time you lie, it’s like tearing off a piece of the Styrofoam cup. Pretty soon, you have no cup left, and the tea is everywhere, and you have a big mess. Lying is just like that. You lie to your friends or your parents and you rip off a piece of the cup. They begin to distrust you. Soon, you don’t understand why you don’t have any real friends and why your parents no longer trust you. It’s because you don’t have a cup. the habit of lying chipped away at the trust in the relationship.

  And it’s not like you can glue a Styrofoam cup back together and have it hold hot tea again.

• Food & Eating

  Date: 2007.08.14 | Category: Bible Study | Response: 0

  Today’s topic is food, and before I get into this, I need to give you a hermeneutics lesson.

  Anytime the Bible mentions something for the first time, it’s important. I call this the “law of the first time”. Example, in creation, God says, “It was good” several times. See Gen 1. It’s significant when God says, “it was not good” for the man to be alone. See Gen 2.

  Let’s talk about some other firsts. What was the first commandment ever? (not eat) What was the first sin? (It was eating!) What was the first temptation of Christ, Luke 4.1-4 (make food) How are we to remember the Lord’s death? (with a meal called the Lord’s Supper).

  Food is not a neutral issue for most women and girls. I will discuss two kinds of eating – healthy and emotional.

  In healthy eating – I’m going to try to avoid teaching a full blown health class here– you would eat 3 meals per day, when you are hungry. These meals would consist of proteins, dairy, whole grains, and 5 fruit/veg daily. Get color on your plate – not monochromatic

  You might say, “I don’t like veggies! ” To that I say, “Try something 15 times before you say that! (babies don’t like anything). Maybe it’s time to re-train your taste buds.” For a new outlook on food, read the nine basics from the “pregnancy diet” p 84 in What to expect when you’re expecting – eat a balanced diet, make the calories count toward good nutrition. As a teenager, you are completing your final growth and development. You want this final phase to be fueled by proper nutrition.

  Now, for emotional eating.

  Emotional eating occurs when to comfort your pain or celebrate your joy, you reach for that Hershey bar, chocolate chip cookie dough, pizza with ranch dressing on it, or ___(comfort food). Maybe you’re not emotionally eating but you’re eating because you’re bored. Boredom is an emotion; boredom stems from a self-centered lack of contentment.

  We’re all guilty of emotional eating. But how much of it are you doing?

  It’s a wicked cycle. The more you emotionally eat, the worse you feel about yourself, and the worse you feel, the more you eat. As someone here said, Food always loves you back. But there’s a price involved. It’s not unconditional love. The price for genuine unconditional love has already been paid through Jesus Christ’s death on the cross. There’s a God in heaven, who loves you with an everlasting love and who loves you more than you can imagine. As you give yourself to Him on a moment by moment basis – all that you know of yourself to all that you know about God — He begins to fill you up and satisfy those deep places in your heart that no one else can and that nothing else can.

  Psalm 63.5 My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you.

  Control: Let me ask you a series of questions

  1. Does Food control you?Or you control food? And where is the control of the Holy spirit in all of this?Gal 5.22-23
  2. Do you eat something 3 times a day?
  3. Did you eat breakfast? What did you have? Why did you eat breakfast?
  4. Did you eat healthy? Or junk?
  5. Did you eat because you were hungry, or because it was time to eat?
  6. What does it feel like when you are hungry?
  7. What do you do with leftover food? What do you do with forbidden foods?
  8. Do you confuse a nervous butterfly feeling in your stomach with hunger pangs?
  9. Do you confuse being thirsty with being hungry? Are you drinking enough water?
  10. Have you ever been hungry, but you didn’t know what you were hungry for? You’re rummaging around in the pantry, fridge, freezer and you go back and forth several times between these places and you swear there’s nothing to eat.
  11. Consumed by the question, what do I need to do to lose this weight?
  12. Are you obsessed with the scale? Do you weigh yourself more than twice a week?
  13. When it comes to eating, who’s in charge?
  14. Is it your mother, saying, you can only eat 3 cookies then you have eat something healthy. , or stop eating all day long, or…?
  15. Is God truly Lord of your life when it comes to eating?

  Pray: Lord, how do you want me to be spending my time instead of this?

  Read over the section on Eating disorders p 127 in your Mirror Mirror text. Then read over pg 130, “Amy’s” journey through the control of eating and discuss page 131 with a friend.

  If someone you know is not eating healthy, please take time to hold them accountable.

• The World

  Date: 2007.08.07 | Category: Bible Study | Response: 0

  What happens to God from 7am to 4 pm, M-F, when you’re out in the world, at work, or at school? How are you influencing others?

  Are you using the skills, abilities, spiritual gifts and passions that God has given you to impact those in your sphere of influence? Or are you trying to fit into someone else’s mold? Instead of trying to reshape ourselves to be like someone else, we should celebrate the shape God has given to each of us. Sometimes we cower in the corner between the lockers and the bathrooms.
  Live a life worth imitating. To evaluate yourself in this, see p117 in our Mirror, Mirror text.

  If we’re going to impact the world in a positive way, it’s got to be by the power of Christ.

  Jesus is ever-present. He gives us the Power to change self. And as He changes us, we have the Power to change the world. We have the power thru Jesus to change the world but Change always costs. It may cost us approval, money, free time. It cost Jesus life.

  What if Jesus showed up during your lunch on the first day back at school? How would you handle it? As a Christian, how do you relate to the world, and your friends who follow the world’s system?

  God carefully knit you together so that your personality would mesh with the spiritual gift you would receive at your spiritual birth. You should know your “SHAPE”so that you can serve in the areas that are a fit for you.

  Are you serving in the area that best fits your SHAPE?

  SHAPE stands for:Spiritual gifts, Heart (passion), Abilities, Personality, Experience

   

   

  SPIRITUAL GIFTS (SG)

  Scriptures: Romans 12; 1 Corinthians 12; Ephesians 4; 1 Peter 4

  Explanation – SG = our ministry capacity or abilities given by the spirit that express our unique motivation for building up the body of Christ. All followers of Christ are given SG. All SG are important- pastor isn’t more important. “what I do doesn’t matter b/c I am only a teenager.” (um, not!) All SG share the same purpose –build up body/church.

  Ways to discover them include asking others and yourself, evaluating past present and future ministry involvement, getting a variety of ministry experiences, and taking a Spiritual Gifts test. If you’ve never taken a test, you can find one on page 108-111 in the Mirror Mirror text. If you’ve already taken one or more tests over the years, you should probably take another one. As you grow and develop over the years, you will have opportunity to develop your gifts. As you are faithful in “small things,” God will make you faithful over many things. In my lifetime, I have taken countless SG tests. Usually, something new comes up. If your scores cluster or “flatline”, then be aware that it takes time to develop your gifts. They are not fully developed at the beginning of your spiritual life.

  HEART (Passion) – Just because you are gifted in an area doesn’t mean you are going to be fulfilled regardless of the arena in which you are using it. There are other factors.

  How do you discover your passion or heart? (What do you really like to do? What drives you, what do you find yourself drawn to which doesn’t feel like a drudgery; that energizes you?). What age group or section of people do you have a heart for? These God-given motivations serve as an internal guidance system for your life. They determine your interests and what will bring you the most satisfaction and fulfillment.

  ABILITIES (Natural talents)

  We need to understand our abilities, because all that we have and all that we are needs to be used for the glory of God (1 Cor. 10:31). You are good at a lot of things, but you may take them for granted. But understand that our abilities do not hold the same priority as our spiritual gifts when we consider our preparation for ministry. Many times we ask people what they are good at and then immediately place them in a ministry in accordance with their natural abilities.

  Illustration: For instance, you may ask me if I’m skilled at the computer. I would have to say yes, relatively speaking. But that is not my gift or passion, and if you put me in a job or ministry where that was my focus, I would not be fulfilled.

  PERSONALITY

  Temperament is your natural disposition; inborn traits. Personality is the way you express yourself.

  What are the benefits to being aware of temperaments and personality? It helps you to better understand yourself. It reveals patterns in behavioral strengths and weaknesses. It promotes understanding of others.

  What are the dangers of temperament study? Don’t make TOO much of the information. Don’t allow the information to limit the Holy Spirit’s work in your life. Don’t make excuses for sin (“oh it’s just my personality).

  Go to http://advisorteam.org/ for a free personality test. Click on the link for the Keirsey Temperament sorter.
  

  EXPERIENCES

  So much of our readiness to serve others grows out of a wise response to the life experiences that have been sovereignly woven into our past. By taking some time to pay attention to these experiences, we can become alert to opportunities we may have to minister to others in need.

  Let God use your experiences to prepare you in ministry to others. 2 Corinthians 1:3-4.

  Here are some questions from “Purpose Driven Life” to help you evaluate your experiences.

  Educational experiences: What were your favorite subjects in school?

  Vocational experiences: What jobs have you enjoyed and achieved results while doing?

  Spiritual experiences: What have been the meaningful or decisive times with God in your life?

  Ministry experiences: How have you served God in the past?

  Painful experiences: What are the problems, hurts, and trials that you’ve learned from?