How will we ever find the money…?

I just taught the kids over the past month how to be content with what they have. I was talking about how we need to trust God and that He always provides for us. Then something happened to me. On my way to work, a tire blew out. After waiting a couple of hours for AAA and then being taken to the nearest Pep Boys, I found out that not only did my car need 2 new front tires, but it also needs a multitude of other things, totaling $650 (on top of the $300 I spent on my tires and alignment).

Yikes! Being a family of 2, one person in school full time and the other working a part-time job…money is extremely tight. I’ve found myself spending countless hours worrying about how we can afford Christmas gifts, if we can celebrate our anniversary, if I need to get a second job to supplement our family’s income (making the ministry suffer)….and all for what?

Like I’ve been teaching my kids, Jesus said, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

How difficult! I find that the moment I take my eyes, ears, and thoughts off of Jesus, I begin to worry about my present circumstance. So here’s my lesson – How do you stop worrying? Think about Jesus…all day long.

What are some things that you do to make the worries fade away?

September Materials

Here are our Family Ministry resources for the month of September:

All Parents:

Orange Blog

252 Basics (1st grade-6th grade)

Parent Cue

Extra Memory Verses

God Time Week 1

God Time Week 2

God Time Week 3

God Time Week 4

God Time Week 5

First Look (age 3- Kindergarten)

Parent Cue

Parent Cue Cards

We are kicking off our new fall schedule!

Our TrinityKids services:

9:00 Sunday morning eXplore!

• Group 3s-kindergarten
• 1st-4th grade groups based off of The Dig Curriculum
• 5th-6th grade Grapple Group

10:30 Sunday morning eXclaim!

• Small groups 3s-Kindergarten
• Large group for 1st-4th grade
• 5th-6th grade X-Crew

6:30-7:30 Wednesday night  eXplosion!

• Game Based Lessons 3s-Kindergarten
• Game Based Lessons 1st-4th Grade
• eXtreme56! for 5th-6th Grade (Game Based Lessons with a Youth Group Atmosphere)

The Nursery is always up and running when we have programming!

But I thought you said…

My husband and I tend to communicate well…but every so often, we hit a bump in the road and it can tend to be quite frustrating. For example, we were driving home from our vacation yesterday and discussing our plans for two weeks from now when we attend a friend’s wedding back in our home town of Buffalo, NY. My husband said, “so since we’re staying at my parents’ house…” And at that I knew we had a problem. I was SURE that I had made plans to stay at my parents’ house. Does it really matter? No. But it did to me in that second.

Making a long story short – we argued. We got angry and we hurt each others feelings. And I thought, “we’re good communicators…after all we’re pastors.” But, apparently, we aren’t as good of communicators to each other as we should be sometimes.

I decided to do some investigating and found an article on my go-to website (Focus on the Family). Here’s what I found in “Learning to Communicate”

“A Non Sequitur cartoon by Wiley Miller pictures a couple in bed. The wife has put down the book she’s been reading and said something to her husband. Here’s what he heard: “Time for the annual review of how you make my life a living nightmare.”

All she actually said, though, is, “Sweetie, let’s talk about us.”…..Most couples need help to discuss their needs in a productive way. Having different attitudes toward talking doesn’t mean there is something wrong with either spouse, that anyone was deceived, or that the marriage is hopeless.”
Now, I didn’t feel like I was being neglected or that my marriage was hopeless, but I did feel like I wasn’t being listened to. And my husband and I have only been married for 6 1/2 months. I can only imagine how I would feel if my husband and I continued to have communication problems for years and years. So how do you improve communication?

One of these ways is simply not implying your spouse can read your mind, and Making time to talk:

“Here are five steps to doing just that:

1. Keep your promise. Many couples, at their weddings, light a “unity candle” and blow out their individual candles. That symbolizes husband and wife dying to themselves in order to give birth to something new and much more intimate, beautiful, and mysterious—”two becoming one.” One of the best ways to become one is to spend time together, and that can happen when you and your spouse talk, celebrate special occasions, set goals, go shopping, pay bills, play tennis, or study a devotional book.
2. Be intentional and selective. Everyone has the same amount of time—24 hours a day. Avoid being sloppy with yours. Manufacturing more time isn’t possible, but you can make excellent use of what you have by allocating time to talk and do things together. When that time comes, make sure you’re rested and not rushed or preoccupied. If talking really is a priority for you, you’ll say no to time-stealers like sitcoms, reality shows, and the Internet.
3. Be creative and perseverant. Talk about a variety of subjects—solving problems, overcoming challenges, establishing goals and priorities, your spiritual life, preferences, and just having fun. Start small and build. Some couples tend to have unrealistic expectations. This may result in discouragement, criticism, and blaming. Remember that bonding and connecting don’t happen overnight.
4. Enjoy and encourage uniqueness. You and your spouse aren’t alike. Think of how awful and boring it would be to be married to yourself! Those conversations wouldn’t be very interesting, would they? As you spend time together, resist the temptation to try remaking your spouse in your image. Let the Holy Spirit transform both of you into the image of Christ. Allow and encourage your spouse to be the person God has created him or her to be, and enjoy that person.
5. Be loving, respectful, and patient. The gift God has given you and your spouse is each other. In the end, He’ll probably be less interested in your professional success or how much money you made than in how you nurtured the gift He gave you in marriage.”

What do you do to promote healthy communication in your family?

Why study God?

One of the boys in my ministry came up to me yesterday after our story time. He said, “you know, I’ve heard that story before…so why did we have to talk about it again?” This made me think…why do we go over some of the basic stories with our kids over and over – Jesus walking on water, Moses leading his people, Noah and the ark, Jesus heals the sick girl, Adam and Eve….

We tell these stories over and over because they’re important. But, not just because they’re important. We tell these stories over and over because as children grow you can tell them more background and detail about the story. For instance, we tell kids when they’re in the nursery about how there were the first 2 created people. In preschool and kindergarten, we tell them that Adam and Eve disobeyed God and that there were consequences. When they’re in 1st-6th grade we can give more details about the boundaries that God sets for our lives and how sin affects people years after we commit them….and it goes on.

I decided to look up an article from our friends at Focus on the Family. “Why study God?” says:

“Does theology really matter? I believe in God. I believe in Jesus. I believe in the Bible. Isn’t that enough?” Reactions to theology are mixed, but more often than not, theology is viewed with suspicion. After all, isn’t theology responsible for divisions among Christians? Don’t theological arguments result in more heat than light? Given all the negative aspects associated with theology, does it really matter?”

I say it does. How many kids do you know that grew up in a Christian home, with faithful parents and a church family that loved and taught them…but they never really understood the full story. How many kids do you know that walked away from the faith because they were never taught the full truth of the Bible? What it really says, what it really means, exploring the grey areas with them as they can understand them. This is where we have Dogma and Doctrine (Dogma being the beliefs of Christians that are non-negotiable. Doctrine being the grey-ish areas of the Bible that separates denominations.) come in. This is a whole different discussion, but I will give a brief example. For instance – we should always teach our kids; God is 3 in 1 (the Trinity), Jesus died and rose again, God is the only true Divine being. A doctrinal issue would be; should women be pastors? Since I will be ordained into the Wesleyan church after my 2 years of practical ministry and have studied areas in scripture that support this view, I say yes. However, if you disagree I wouldn’t think any less of  you as a Christian. I would still consider you a brother or sister in Christ!

Back to our topic;

“Jesus called his followers to worship God “in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24, NIV), later adding, “you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32, NIV). But what sort of God are we to worship and how do we know we are worshiping “in spirit and in truth”? If the truth will set us free, then it seems quite reasonable to want to determine what truth, specifically, will set us free.

This is where theology can help us a great deal. Far from being an area of study reserved only for academics or the clergy, theology is important to every Christian. In short, theology is the study of God, encompassing concepts such as His nature, the nature of reality, the human condition, the person of Christ and more. But our study of theology must extend beyond merely learning facts and information. That’s where applying theology on a practical level – often called practical theology – also comes into play.

In Philippians 3:10, the Apostle Paul wrote, “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection …” To know Christ is to know theology. C.S. Lewis once said, “Good philosophy must exist, if for no other reason, because bad philosophy needs to be answered.” Similarly, good theology must exist, not only because bad theology needs to be answered, but also because good theology ensures that we are indeed worshiping God “in spirit and in truth,” and that we “know Christ” as He would have us know Him.”

It is so important for our kids (and parents) to know the true Theology of the Bible, and not just what different books have to say. Christians need to learn Biblical truths at all ages, discover and wrestle with the tough issues, and embrace their religion. Without a real and true relationship with God and a theological basis to your worldview, you can never really become what God has created you to be!

Explore! Dive deeply into the Bible! Fall in love with God’s word, and understand the meaning of what is written!

Please read the whole article at –  http://www.focusonthefamily.com/faith/the_study_of_god/why_study_god.aspx