The Greatest Mission Trip You'll Ever Take

When Mother's Day Is Challenging

burtonfam6@att.net (Deb Burton) — Sun, 10 May 2009 21:48:00 +0000

photo by di_the_huntress
I love Mother’s Day. I love the fact that it falls on a Sunday and that we get to celebrate it in our church worship services. Everyone is all hugs and smiles, the moms tend to be more dressed up than usual, and there’s just an air of sweet nostalgia that hangs over everything.

Today our church’s praise team leader read from the book of Samuel, describing from the first chapter Hannah’s anguish in not being able to conceive a child. As her words poured out across the page, her pain was palpable, heart rending and real. She so badly wanted a child that she poured everything she felt out before the Lord.

I felt a tug at my heart, one that triggered a memory that had quieted over the years, but had never ever left my mind. Nineteen years ago I was lying on an exam table in my obstetrician’s office. I was twelve weeks pregnant and the doctor had scheduled an ultrasound to listen for fetal heart tones. I was anticipating the joy of hearing life for the first time within me.

Instead we were met with a deafening silence. We discovered that the child I was carrying had perished within me. I was quickly scheduled for a D&C, but what I felt torn from me could only be answered with tears and a heart that screamed in grief-stricken anguish.

As we celebrate Mother’s Day with chocolates, flowers and special dinners, I’m reminded that not everything in life comes with guarantees. Sometimes, because of unfortunate genetics, we lose a child or give birth to one who will go through life with challenges. Sometimes, because of ill judgment on our part or otherwise, we bring a child into the world we weren’t prepared for.

Sometimes, just because, we’re faced with circumstances beyond our control and we find ourselves crying out to God in our confusion and pain, wondering how we can possibly get through what seems like insurmountable trial ahead of us.

That’s when it helps to realize that we’re not required to do this mothering role by ourselves. We don’t have to be that strong or that resilient or that whatever to come out victorious.

We have a God who knew us before we were born, who knows the very number of hairs on our heads and who cares for us and our circumstances. In fact, He’s always been here and has promised that He will never forsake us. How awesome is that?

After the passage from Samuel was read our church’s praise team sang the song You Are God Alone from Phillips, Craig and Dean. It was the perfect song to perform. I want to share it with you here in a video. If you’re a mom who is struggling with certain challenges, in spite of the fact that everyone around you thinks you should be celebrating this very special day, I pray this song will remind you that you don’t have to go it alone.

Our God is so good. Trust in Him to see you through.

Verse Memorization Can Be Done

burtonfam6@att.net (Deb Burton) — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 11:05:00 +0000

A friend sent this video to me and I think it is just too cute not to share. Beyond that, however, it emphasizes that our children are never too young to learn the Word of God. Give it a look-see.

I'd guess this little girl is about three years old, but I bet her daddy, who I assume is the one filming and offering the occasional coaching, has been working with her for quite some time to get her verses down. Some might argue that this seems a little too over the top, that there's no point to having someone her age memorize something she probably doesn't understand anyway.

I say, Go for it, Dad! There are more advantages to teaching your child to memorize Bible verses than there are disadvantages. The biggest one is the fact that God is being made a big deal in your home so that someday, when your child is old enough to understand a little more, she'll make a decision to make Jesus her Savior, and one day when she really gets it, she makes a commitment to follow and obey.

It's a cute video, but it speaks volumes. You can get your child to memorize Bible verses. Go for it!

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An Opportunity For Prayer

burtonfam6@att.net (Deb Burton) — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 11:51:00 +0000

photo by US Geological Survey
This article was originally written in February 2008, after our town suffered not one, but two, serious floods within a four week period. The picture to the left was taken at Legion Park, a beautiful recreational area that sits on the Iroquois River. We weren't living in Watseka then, but would move there within the next few months (not on or near the river, mind you). Catastrophe comes in many forms, but all provide opportunity to demonstrate prayer to your child.

For the second time in a month my children and I found ourselves baling water out of our basement following torrential rains, a large snowmelt and having a ground so saturated that there was nowhere for the water to go. The first time was on January 7th, when I awoke at 4am to two feet of water in our basement and a parade of Christmas decorations floating by. This second time was nowhere near as bad, having caught it as it was happening and being able to keep up with it as it came in, finally getting ahead of it by eleven at night. Our legs and backs ached for days after.

We were fortunate we didn’t fare much worse. Our neighbors to the west, across the Illinois state line, found themselves evacuating their homes once again as the waters of the Iroquois River overran its banks, flooding their streets, homes and businesses. For the second time in a month our church was converted into a Red Cross shelter, providing safety and warmth for those who by now felt nothing but a sense of resignation and overwhelming fatigue.

As my children and I put up our buckets and peeled off our wet boots and socks, I wondered out loud how our neighbors in Watseka were doing. My children shook their heads in wonderment also. No telling, they both said. I recognized this as an opportunity to teach them concern for the welfare of others, and announced, “I want us to pray for them right now.” Wet and tired as we were, we bowed our heads and asked the Lord to look after our neighbors, provide for their needs, and to stay the waters of the Iroquois.

Opportunities to pray with our children present themselves everyday. Sometimes my husband or I will take the lead, sometimes one of the children will step up. That the children feel comfortable enough to pray out loud is due to years of my husband and I setting the example. As a result, the children know that they can stop anyplace, any time, and speak to the God of the universe with whatever is on their heart.

Praying with our children is a tool we as Christian parents have to help them develop and maintain a relationship with their Savior. Whether they’ve made a decision for Christ yet or not, they know He is only a spoken word away. Take advantage of opportunities to pray with your children so they may see how special your relationship is to the Lord, and desire the same for themselves.

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Teaching Your Child To Want More Of God

burtonfam6@att.net (Deb Burton) — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 11:50:00 +0000

photo by babasteve

One of the most important tools you can use for bringing your child to a decision for Christ is prayer. Not praying for your child (we’ll talk about that another time), but praying with your child. Praying with your child makes God real and a big deal in your home. It lets him or her know that our God is personal and near to us. It’s part of how we help our child establish a relationship as opposed to just knowledge of the Lord. As that relationship grows, your child will become more inclined to making a decision for Christ’s salvation.

Saying grace before meals (breakfast, lunch and dinner) and praying at bedtime is wonderful, but don’t relegate God to a time slot. Since He’s the Creator of time we have to assume He’s bigger than it. What I’m talking about here is creating an ongoing dialogue in the same way you want your child to come to you in conversation.

We’ll look at how to integrate prayer into your child’s daily life, how to answer when your child says, “But I don’t hear God,” defining what I call prayer speak, and how to overcome the fear that many of us have, that of praying out loud.

Teaching your child how to speak to his God is an awesome way of sharing intimacy with him, and it seems very few parents get to really experience that level of closeness with their child. That same level of closeness to the Lord is what you will be passing on. That which we are close to, we want more of. Teach your child the intimacy of prayer. Then watch him desire to want more of God.

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Our Approachable God

burtonfam6@att.net (Deb Burton) — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 11:20:00 +0000

photo by Dave_F almost retired

Our morning family devotions have centered around using a William Barclay commentary on the Gospel of Matthew (from the Daily Study Bible Series). Barclay's commentary has added rich insight and extensive knowledge to our readings, using the occasional story analogy to even more highlight God's truths. Here's one we read just Friday that I want to share with you. After reading it, my children and I sighed with deep satisfaction at knowing we have this kind of relationship with our Lord. I think it's a wonderful precursor for our Easter celebration.

If we believe that God is Father, it settles our relationship to God. It is not that it removes the might, majesty and power of God. It is not that it makes God any the less God; but it makes that might, and majesty, and power, approachable for us.

There is an old Roman story which tells how a Roman Emperor was enjoying a triumph. He had the privilege, which Rome gave to her great victors, of marching his troops through the streets of Rome, with all his captured trophies and his prisoners in his train. So the Emperor was on the march with his troops. The streets were lined with cheering people. The tall legionaries lined the streets' edges to keep the people in their places. At one point on thetriumphal route there was a little platform where the Empress and her family were sitting to watch the Emperor go by in all the pride of his triumph. On the platform with his mother there was the Emperor's youngest son, a little boy. As the Emperor came near the little boy jumped off the platform, burrowed through the crowd, tried to dodge between the legs of a legionary, and to run out on to the road to meet his father's chariot. The legionary stooped down and stopped him. He swung him up in his arms: "You can't do that, boy," he said. "Don't you know who that is in the chariot? That's the Emperor. You can't run out to his chariot." And the little lad laughed down. "He may be your Emperor," he said, "but he's my father." That is exactly the way the Christian feels towards God. The might, and the majesty, and the power are the might, and the majesty, and the power of one whom Jesus taught us to call Our Father.

-excerpted from The Daily Study Bible Series, The Gospel of Matthew, Vol. 1 (Chapters 1 to 10), Revised Edition, translated with an introduction and interpretation by William Barclay, The Westminster Press, Philadelphia, 1975.

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The Passion Of Our Christ

burtonfam6@att.net (Deb Burton) — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 12:37:00 +0000

We introduced our youngest son when he was thirteen to the movie The Passion Of The Christ. My husband and I had discussed it several weeks prior and had decided he was old enough and mature enough to handle the graphic nature of its content. We prepared him for it about two or three weeks before showing the movie, occasionally bringing up that we felt he was old enough to understand and appreciate its message, and that it would be a good way to celebrate the true meaning of Easter.

My husband and I and our oldest son, when he was nineteen, saw the movie together when it came out in theater. Our daughter saw it on DVD the Easter after she turned thirteen. My youngest probably felt this was something of a rite of passage for him, but my husband and I saw it as much more. This was an opportunity for us to make Christ’s death on the cross a more tangible reality, and hopefully deepen our son’s trust and love for his Father and Savior.

Before starting the movie my husband spent time discussing with our son what he could expect to see, that our watching it on Thursday evening probably coincided with the timeframe of the events in the movie, and that the depiction of Jesus’ beatings were probably pretty accurate and truthfully highlighted how He took the punishment we deserve. I inserted my motherly advice, saying it was appropriate and perfectly normal to be emotionally affected by the scenes, sharing that I, his dad, his brother and pretty much everyone else in the theater was either crying or too stunned to move from their seats when the movie finished.

Our son handled it very well. He was quite quiet and detached for a little while afterwards. My husband asked him if the movie helped him better understand just how much Jesus sacrificed for our benefit. Quietly nodding his head, he said, “Most definitely.” He began asking questions, and my husband spent time gently answering them.

The Passion Of The Christ is a good tool to use for sharing the Easter story with teenagers (definitely not anyone younger than thirteen), but only if they are mature enough to handle the message and its graphic portrayal, and only with the loving presence of you there to discuss the meaning of the message and its application in our lives. I would suggest using the same kind of preparatory approach we used, priming your child for what to expect and assuring him you think he’s ready to handle it. If there’s any indication that he’s reluctant or skittish, I’d postpone it for another time, probably in a year. In addition, I’d advise to watch the movie early enough in the day or evening to allow time to decompress from the emotional intensity created by it.

“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” May the sacrifice of our Lord and Savior be not lost on us as we celebrate the most holy of holy days of our Christian faith. I pray you have a blessed Easter!

A Journey of Obedience

burtonfam6@att.net (Deb Burton) — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 12:04:00 +0000

photo by snap

One of the things most Christians are familiar with is how God may answer our prayers, with a ‘yes’, a ‘no’, or a ‘not now.’ But we also need to be aware that his moving in our life is based on our readiness to move to the next level of spiritual maturity and our willingness to submit to His sovereignty. In other words, His perfect timing.

God knows what we have need of before we ask it or even if we’re not aware the need exists. If we want to become the parent He desires us to be, He will place the people, resources and encouragement in our path that will get us there. But the timing is all His. Some of us (the finger here is pointing in my direction) need more time to get the big picture, and some of us (still pointing at me) are a little slow to kick it into action. God has shown immeasurable patience on my behalf, waiting for me to “get it”.

If He knows the very number of hairs on my head, He knows me intimately enough to understand what it’ll take to push me in the right direction. Sometimes He has to push harder than at other times when I need it. Sometimes, like the great Father He is, He sits back and lets me struggle, knowing I’ll come out of it stronger and more able.

Here’s what it all boils down to: It’s not about the results, it’s about the obedience. God will take care of the results. I will try my hardest to teach my child the ways of the Lord, but he may or may not make a decision for Christ in his life. I will create a home of godly worship, but I may find the world creeping in anyway. I will make Jesus the center of who our family is, but I will fail from time to time when I either lose my focus or allow myself to be distracted from it. But I love the Lord, and I am committed to abiding in His Word and striving to make Him real to my children.

Never take your eyes off the prize. Parenting is a process. Christian parenting is a journey of obedience.

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Defaulting On Our Contract

burtonfam6@att.net (Deb Burton) — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 14:48:00 +0000

photo by Joe Beone

Credit card offers arrive in our mailbox by the dozen, promising low APRs, no transfer fees and an easy approval process. In fact, most of the time they say we’re pre-approved. Just sign here and we are on our way to financial freedom. Nothing to it. If you look at the teeny-tiny fine print on the backside, however, you’ll notice all kinds of disclaimers, waivers and double-speak that makes it quite obvious it’s not as cut and dry as the creditor makes it out to be.

In today’s society it is commonplace to keep your word only for as long as it is convenient to do so. As soon as a loophole presents itself, many will take advantage of it and opt out of their agreement with the other party. It’s not a very honorable way of doing things.

When we entered a relationship with Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, we also entered a contract, a covenant. When He said, “Follow me” and we each said, “I will”, we began a commitment of obedience to His commandments. Deuteronomy 5:9 states “Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them slip from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them.”

It is our responsibility to teach our children about God and His laws. It’s wonderful if we have a dynamic pastor or if the children’s programs at our church have brilliant teachers and awesome lessons. Our church may have one of the most energetic youth outreach programs in the area. However, if we’re not making God a big deal in our own homes with our children, we’re not worthy of the sacrifice He made for our benefit. We’re defaulting on our contract.

Besides, wouldn’t our church staff have an easier time of it if what they were teaching our children was reinforced at home? Wait a minute. Let’s turn that around. What if what we were teaching our children at home was being reinforced by the pastor and youth leaders? That’s biblical. What church staff do is supposed to be supplementing what we as parents do, not taking the place of it.

Christian parenting is a deliberate choice, born of obedience to God’s Word and His commandments that we teach our children about Him. Are you willing to do whatever it takes to recognize and act as though your home is the mission field God wants it to be?

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Two To The Thousandth Power Kind Of Blessing

burtonfam6@att.net (Deb Burton) — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 01:00:00 +0000

photo by CarbonNYC

Math is not my strong suit, but I’m going to use it here to make a point. Go to Deuteronomy 5:8-9 and read the first part of the second commandment.

“You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me….”

God is pure holiness and righteousness and is forever consistent with His promises. He says that if we put our focus on anything but Him, He will punish our children, our grandchildren and at least our great grandchildren for our sin. That’s at least 100 years worth of liability that I’m not sure I want the burden of.

Continue reading through verse 10, though: “…but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.” Here’s where the math comes in. If every Christian family has two children, and those two children each have two children, and so on down the line for a thousand generations, how many people are we talking about here?

Somewhere in the recesses of my mind I know this is two to the thousandth power, or 2x2x2x2 a thousand times. I Googled that number and discovered that it equals 1.07150861 x 10 to the 301st power. Translation: move that decimal point to the right 301 times, and that’s how many people would be affected in a thousand generations.

If every Christian household would be obedient to God’s Word and teach their children about the Lord and His salvation, we could save the world. I don’t know of another mission field that could bring more honor and glory to God.

Are you with me?

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Pack Your Bags, We're Leaving Today

burtonfam6@att.net (Deb Burton) — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 14:45:00 +0000

photo by Phineas H

As many of you have noticed, I've been a little (all right, a lot) absent lately. By way of explanation, I've been focusing a good bit of my time on starting up a business, one that will eventually allow my husband to step out of a truck and join me in partnership.

For right now, this focus needs to take priority. Ever since my husband lost his job back in May 2008, we've been struggling financially. And as he moves ever so quickly toward retirement age, the aches and pains he used to work through are getting harder to ignore.

So, for awhile, I'll be reposting articles from when I first started this ministry. Many of you who are new to TGMT will see where this all started, and for those of you who have been followers for awhile, please invite friends, family and associates to get in on the TGMT vision.

Together we can witness the Word to our children, who are absolutely the richest mission field waiting to be harvested for the Lord.

Pack Your Bags, We're Leaving Today

Is your desire to serve the Lord, reach people with the Gospel of Jesus Christ and live your life in such a way as to make God pleased you’re His? Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be a missionary? Would you like to think you have what it takes to be one?

Pack your bags, then, beloved. Bring your Bible, your full armor of God and a toothbrush if you have it, because we are going to the far outreaches of….

…your front door.

Huh?

We are about to embark on the mission trip of a lifetime, one that will see you witnessing your faith, sharing God’s Word and glorifying Him in the way we live and speak His name. Our intended outreach? Our children.

Eighty-eight percent of children raised in an evangelical home will walk away from their faith after they turn eighteen, many never to return to it. And what of the ones raised in other Christian households? How can this tragic statistic be real if us parents are teaching our children the truths of the Bible and the magnificence of the Lord?

We are teaching them, aren’t we? Please don’t tell me we’ve turned this life-giving instruction over to someone else like our pastor or our children’s youth leader. They’re all fine and good, but frankly it’s not their job to teach our children. It’s ours. It says so over and over again in the Bible.

Learn with me. I promise I struggle with the same things you do, and I don’t always get it right, but the Word of God is food for my soul and strength for my body as I do battle with the world for my children’s souls.

Learn with me. I promise this will be the greatest mission trip you’ll ever take.

Christian Charity That Is Outside The Box

burtonfam6@att.net (Deb Burton) — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 09:03:00 +0000

photo by elvissa
How about some ideas for helping your child develop a charitable heart that may be a little outside the traditional realm, but lots of fun?

Go diving for coins. Into your furniture that is. One day this past week, I pulled all the cushions off my living room furniture just to see what I’d find. I found: a corn chip, a pistachio nut shell, a guitar pick, a file label insert and 41 cents. And lots of dog hair. The same day I also found two dimes in the washer and a penny on a bedroom floor, making a grand total of 62 cents, and I wasn’t even looking hard. Collect all your coins for a month, then donate them to your church’s benevolent fund or ministry of choice.

Pick up trash. One lazy Sunday afternoon while my husband and I were taking a drive, we wandered a bit into the country. I could not get over the amount of aluminum cans and plastic bottles I saw lying on the side of the road. This trash is worth money if you have a recycling center near you that pays. Spend the day picking up trash along the roadway or in your local park, turn the useful stuff in for cash and donate that to your church’s benevolent fund.

Donate used devotionals. Does your family have books and devotional materials that you no longer use or have outgrown? There are plenty of ministries that operate on a shoestring that would find your castoffs a treasure trove of useful resources. Bundle them up and send them off. (If you need the name of someone to donate to, I have a friend in Kenya who has been asking for materials for the orphanage he directs. Let me know and I will forward his address and mailing instructions to you.)

Recycle old eyeglasses. There are many in the world who suffer from poor vision but who don’t have the means for obtaining eyeglasses. There are two organizations who accept old eyeglasses, the Lion’s Club International and CrossLink International. Your child and you can organize a local drive to collect old glasses and drop them off at any of the collection centers near where you live.

Go caroling. Who says caroling has to be done only at Christmas? Are there nursing home residents or shut-ins who would love to hear some classic oldies but goodies from a bunch of families gathered together for that purpose? Bring some cookies to share or simple floral bouquets of fresh picked flowers, and you’ll have an avalanche of smiles from everyone.

All of these ideas are simple and inexpensive, requiring some time and minimal effort to carry off. What other ideas can you come up with that would be a little out of the box but provide good exposure for developing charity in your children?

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Resource Friday - Kidbuilder.net

burtonfam6@att.net (Deb Burton) — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 09:44:00 +0000

Here’s a cute site that your 5 - 11 year old child might get a kick out of. Kidbuilder.net is a fun site with quizzes, puzzles and tile games designed to engage the young child in biblical truths. Some of the themes include spiritual armor, friendship and the golden rule, using simple videos to teach the concept.

The site was designed by Tim Inman, an American missionary with his wife Lauri in Northern Ireland. According to Tim:

At kids' events we encouraged kids to become life-long followers of
Christ, but we knew we wouldn't see most of them again until the next year. We knew some, but not all of the kids we're going home to families with spiritual links. I wanted to have something more to give those kids. I decided to create a website where they could go to learn more about following Christ. I had the idea that it could be sort of an on-line kids' club where they could earn badges as they progressed.

I started over a year ago, brushing up on my web skills and learning 'Ruby on Rails', a web-development framework, along the way. There are only a handful of videos and games on the site currently. I want to add more videos and games and I'm looking for media and web people to pull into the project with me.

In order to earn badges, your child must sign up and log-in each time, although he can still play without doing that, he just won’t earn badges. The badges consist of various icons that can be collected, including a pirate face, various fun foods, some precious gems, and even an Elvis face (thank you very much).

It’s always good to find child-safe sites that your young one can enjoy, but this site doubles as a ministry, making it twice as nice. Support the Inman’s ministry with your participation, or if you can share technological expertise there’s a feedback tab on the left hand side where you can send them an email.

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Setting An Example Of Christian Charity For Your Child

burtonfam6@att.net (Deb Burton) — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 08:49:00 +0000

photo by dubswede
Our children are watching us all the time. In fact, research shows that we influence our children more than their peers, celebrities and the media ever will. That’s why deliberately discipling our children is so important if we want them to grow spiritually in their walk with the Lord.

There are lots of ways that we can demonstrate charitable behavior that our children will learn from and hopefully incorporate into their own lives. As explained in the last article, it doesn’t have to require monetary donations or extensive labor, just a genuine love for God and a heart for others.

With your child, deliver a homemade gift to a neighbor who has been helpful to your family. A former neighbor of ours always loaned us their wet-dry vac every time our basement got water in it and always cut part of our yard when he was out mowing his. I discovered their family really liked the loaf of pumpkin bread we made in appreciation for their kindness, so we made it for them frequently.

As a family clean out your church’s supply cabinet(s) for the children’s ministry. They tend to get very disheveled and unorganized, making it hard for workers to find what they’re looking for each Sunday. Throw out unusable or damaged materials, sort through and reorganize art supplies and donate or recycle outdated (for your church) take home papers.

Conspire with your child to leave grocery coupons for others. It’s kind of a reverse scavenger hunt. You’re looking for grocery store items to leave coupons for others to find. One child can be the lookout while the other one does the dastardly deed.

Be open to the needs of the community. Our town, at the moment, is dealing with receding flood waters. A lot of people, including my 23-year old son, helped with sandbagging and putting furniture up as the waters got closer to town. Maybe you know someone who suffered a house fire, experienced sudden tragedy or is dealing with a long-term challenge. Your family can provide so much in the way of encouragement and needed help with a simple act of a meal, donated clothes or a well-timed card.

A charitable heart doesn’t come naturally. It has to be taught. Bringing your child alongside you as you demonstrate love for others gives you the perfect opportunity to explain what you’re doing and why you’re doing it.

If the teachings and ideas at TGMT bless you, please share them with friends and family. Send them an email with a link to the homepage.

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Teaching Christian Charity

burtonfam6@att.net (Deb Burton) — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 11:40:00 +0000

photo by di_the_huntress

When you hear the word charity, what does it bring to mind? Volunteer work? Donating money or goods to an organization? Helping the poor?

In the King James Bible, Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 13:13 that charity is the greatest of the three virtues listed, that of faith, hope and charity. In the NIV Bible, the word charity is translated love. When researching the original Greek word, charity is the translation of agape, the same sacrificial love God demonstrated for His people when He gave up His Son on the cross for our salvation.

Teaching our children to be charitable, then, means teaching them to give of themselves sacrificially, with God at the very center of the reason for their charity. Not an easy thing to do.

When teaching our children about investing themselves in something, whatever it may be, my husband tells them that they have three things at their disposal: their time, their money and their energy. Depending on circumstances, any one of them can be in short supply. My fourteen year old son has more time and energy than he does money, while my sixteen year old daughter has more money and less time because she works part-time.

The same three assets can be the basis for teaching your child to think in charitable terms. What can they give away in terms of time, energy and/or money that would demonstrate Christian love and character to others?

The money part is generally pretty easy. There are always organizations willing to accept financial support to help in their operation. What about time and energy? Here are some very simple ideas that will allow even the youngest child to learn to give of him or herself:

Pick a task that can be done for someone else in the family. Charity should start at home, right? How easy it would be to give away a few minutes of time and a little bit of energy by doing someone else’s chore without being asked to do so, yet how far the sentiment would go with the recipient of the act of love. Ideas include making a bed, folding clean towels, taking out the garbage and feeding the family pet.

Give a smile away. Christians don’t have to suffer the stereotype of being dull and lifeless if your child is willing to give away a tiny bit of effort and learn to smile at people. Make it a game. Tell your child that you each have to give your smile away to at least three people during the course of your day. Watch the response you get. It’s a wonderful gift.

Walk or play with a neighbor’s pet. With households being as busy as they are nowadays, many pets go hours without human interaction or stimulating exercise. If it’s safe to do so (I’m not advocating approaching a potentially menacing animal), offer to take your neighbor’s pet for a walk, a romp in the backyard, or just some loving pets and belly rubs.

Ask before taking the last of something. This was a hard one in our household, especially with the boys competing with each other for the last slice of pizza or chocolate chip cookie. The real charity comes when your child has to give up that last thing with a cheerful attitude. Nonetheless, applying this concept is a virtue that will reverberate throughout your household.

Christian charity is a noble virtue for your child to have, but it doesn’t have to come expensively or be labor intensive. In fact, the simpler the learning, the easier it will become a part of his or her character as it is consistently carried out.

What ideas do you have for instilling simple charity in your child?

Recommended Resources:

Instruction In Righteousness - Resource For Character Training

Parent's Guide To The Spiritual Growth Of Children

Related Articles:

Teaching Kindness To Your Children

Do You Fight On Your Way To Church?

Making Connections With Our Children

Flying By The Seat Of Your Pants Family Discipleship

burtonfam6@att.net (Deb Burton) — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 10:20:00 +0000

photo by koyochi

What happens when you cross a flying-by-the-seat-of-your-pants approach to time management with an unexpected crisis? You get what my week was last week. Nothing that I thought I would get done, got done and a whole lot of running around in circles was the extent of most of my activity.

Such is life sometimes, but it really should be the exception to the rule instead of the rule itself. If I don’t establish certain goals and parameters within which to work, I’m not going to accomplish what it is I’m trying to do. Whether it’s writing articles to my blog, planning school work for the kids, scheduling time for social media networking or researching business ideas, it’s all going to go to a very warm place in a hand basket if I’m not deliberate about doing it.

Same thing with family discipleship. It doesn’t happen if you’re not purposeful with it.

It’s one thing to say, I want my kids to learn how to pray so they can have a closer relationship with the Lord, but how and when will you do it?

You think to yourself, I hope my child makes the right choices about dating, but how can you teach him/her about what God wants in relationships? And when would you get around to teaching it?

You keep poking yourself to spend time in family devotion, but when and how will that happen?

Flying by the seat of our pants doesn’t work with family discipleship any more than it doesn’t work with getting through our work week. Throw in the inevitable emergency or family crisis, and making God a big deal in our homes just doesn’t seem to make it off the back burner.

So, here’s what we do with our family discipleship. We make it deliberate. We plan. We schedule. We set goals. We write them down and make a committed effort. Then when the inevitable happens, we reshuffle and reschedule, but our plan is still in place. We just get back on track as soon as we can.

No more flying by the seat of our pants family discipleship. From now on it’s purposeful, deliberate and focused. The links below will help get you started.

Recommended Resources:

Devotion Resources For Toddlers & Preschoolers

Bible Reading For The Early Elementary Child

Bible Reading For The Older Elementary Child

Bible Reading For Teenagers

Related Articles:

Family Devotion Ideas

Step By Step To Family Devotions - The Series

5 Ways To Create A Home Of Worship

Bailout Needed!

burtonfam6@att.net (Deb Burton) — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 21:17:00 +0000

Well, in the literal sense, not the financial sense (although that wouldn't be bad either). No teaching post today. The Iroquois River, which skirts our town, has overflowed its banks, shutting down parts of town and causing a few families to voluntarily evacuate instead of deal with not being able to leave their homes.

And as for us, we're lucky enough to have water POURING in from cracks in the basement cement floor. We've finally gotten ahead of it with the right sump pump and the four of us baling with buckets. But, MAN, am I sore and wiped out.

So, no post today. We'll see about tomorrow. I usually try to write my articles ahead of time, but failed to do that this week. So, there you go.

Right now I'm going to eat a handful of ibuprofen (two or three, anyway), go get some dinner with the kids (can you say p-i-z-z-a?) and then come back and hope the river has crested so water will stop seeping (seeping?) through the cracks.

Here's a video from a major flood that hit our town in January 2008. It was shot and produced by Phil Gioja from our church (he's a great videographer) and he does an incredible job of capturing both the devastation and the faith that got people through.

I'll return as soon as my back stops screaming.

Related Article:
An Opportunity For Prayer

How To Make Church Un-Boring For Your Teen

burtonfam6@att.net (Deb Burton) — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 14:56:00 +0000

photo by striatic

Somewhere between the ages of ten and twelve, a lot of kids develop a different spirit about themselves. It’s almost like a veil that descends on the happy go-lucky nature of the young child transitioning into the moody or oftentimes rebellious teenager. What happens?

A lot of things can be the cause of these changes - hormones, peer pressure, developing perception of independence, changes in relationship dynamics. For the teen who lives in a Christ-centered home, where love and affirmation rule over judgment and condemnation, the phase is usually relatively short-lived, with emphasis on the word relatively. For some parents it may seem like their child will never come out of it.

The moodiness and/or rebellious behavior may show up in church, too - slouched in their seat, arms folded in front of them, finding more interest in the lint on the shirt on the person in front of them than in the activities of worship. Beyond asking them to sit up out of respect for the pastor (which we always told our kids when we found them sitting that way), there are things you can do which will help engage them in the worship experience and in the life of the body of Christ.

Introduce your child to your pastor. I think this is a much overlooked relationship to cultivate. Most pastors make themselves available after the service to greet the congregation. Make it a point to stand in line, shake his hand and introduce your child. Do it every Sunday for several in a row. Make small talk of what your teen is doing in school or otherwise. You may find your teen beginning to look at your pastor as someone who is real and can be approached rather than a talking head.

Introduce your teen to role models. One of the unfortunate outcomes of conventional school settings is that most kids think it’s normal to age-segregate themselves. What a loss! There are so many wonderful examples of Christian men and women in your church who could provide inspiration or knowledge. Make it a point to introduce your child to them.

Engage in ministry together as a family. Don’t go your separate ways when you get to church. Find ways you can work together for the good of others. Our children often greet with us when it’s our turn. One family I know teaches Sunday school together to preschoolers. We have a coffee bar in our church where I’ve seen teens working alongside their parents.

Pray for people on your church’s prayer list. If you don’t know who they are, see about getting a pictorial directory if your church has one. It makes it easier for your teen to get to know the people he or she worships with.

Play the same kind of music at home. Especially if your church plays contemporary praise music, pop in a CD of something that was performed the previous Sunday. You might find a look of recognition on your teen’s face when it starts up. Singing along together is allowed and encouraged.

There are other ways of helping your child pay attention during the sermon, such as discussing the take away points on the way home, taking notes together, writing down Bible references made and looking them up later or asking your child to share three things he learned in church today.

These are all good (and I think necessary), but what needs to be encouraged is something more of an investment. The key word here is engage. By getting your teen to look outside of himself, you’ll help him develop a fellowship with other believers that will benefit him in the short run, and hopefully, as he pulls himself out of his teen funk as a lifestyle, will allow him to be a benefit to others around him.

So, while you’re teaching and sharing and discipling at home, help your teen weather the transition into adolescence at church, too. It’ll be a blessing all the way around.

Recommend the TGMT blog to your church's website as a resource for other parents in your church. Thanks ahead of time!

Recommended Resources:

ApParent Privilege

Bible Reading For Teenagers

Related Articles:

Helping Your Child Listen During Sermons

More Teaching Tips For Getting Kids To Listen

Problem Of The Week - Boring Sermons

Poll Results

burtonfam6@att.net (Deb Burton) — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 17:38:00 +0000

photo by Milica Sekulic

Out of pure curiosity I put up a poll this past Monday, asking readers "When do (did) you first let your child partake of holy communion?" The question was born when I heard a small child seated behind me in church last Sunday ask his or her parent, as the tray of grape juice cups was being passed, "How come I don't get one?"

It started me thinking, since our family has been part of so many different churches with so many different traditions because of our moving, whether there was a consensus among parents out there.

Not very many people voted in the poll - only seven - but five of the seven stated that they waited for their child to make a profession of faith before partaking of holy communion. One voted for "At the earliest possible age" while the last voter selected "Other". The comments left also reflected that predominant thought.

However, Chuck Huckaby twittered his reply to me on the poll, suggesting that whether a parent lets their child participate in communion or not is really left to the discretion of the church they attend. That certainly has been the case with us. Each church and even each denomination tends to have their own tradition that they encourage their congregation to follow.

Thanks to those who took the time to vote, and especially if you left a comment to help clarify. Have a great weekend!

Resource Friday - Daily Audio Bible

burtonfam6@att.net (Deb Burton) — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 12:25:00 +0000

photo by Roberto_Garcia

For those of you who would like to use new technology and an audio Bible resource to encourage your child to have personal devotions, I have a site for you to go to. Carole Hicks from everythingnorder.com twittered me recently about dailyaudiobible.com, the brainchild of Brian Hardin, a producer, photographer and graphic designer who wanted to help people read the Word of God in a more relaxed way.

To take advantage of the resources at Daily Audio Bible you need to register (for free), which allows you to listen to a daily podcast of that day’s Bible reading. You can also read along while you listen by clicking on the link that says DAB Read Along (makes sense - I love it when sites are user friendly).

Brian Hardin narrates the reading, which takes you through an Old Testament passage, a New Testament one, a passage from Proverbs and one more from Psalms. There is background music and sounds from nature to accompany the reading.

Each week features a different Bible translation, which for some may be a bit disconcerting. Hardin explains in the FAQ section that, “In order to take in the full weight of what the scriptures tell us we often use different translations to feel the different complexions of the language. I personally wanted this experience in my own life and it struck a chord with the community. It allows us to appreciate the beauty of the text.”

You can decide for yourself whether this is a feature you like or not. The translation for this past week was the Contemporary English Version.

The participant is also encouraged to journal as they proceed through the Bible, which is provided online if one so chooses. This is not a free feature, however. You won’t find any heavy hitting promotion, though, and there are not any ads that I saw on the site.

So, if your child (most likely, teen) is going to have earphones plugged in anyway, why not pipe through the Word of God? In twenty minutes a day he or she can have time with the Lord while systematically working their way through the Bible.

Do you have any resources you'd like to recommend? Drop me an email or leave a comment with a way to get back to you. Your sharing just might be the blessing someone else needs!

Related Articles:

Summertime And The Connecting Is Easy

Taking My Own Advice

Tools Of The Christian Family

Family Devotion Idea: Your Church Prayer List

burtonfam6@att.net (Deb Burton) — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 11:52:00 +0000

photo by nancybcrow
A typical Sunday finds us getting home from church around 11:30am, where I get a nice lunch ready for us while my husband gets ready for work. As we’re finishing lunch my husband, Bill, will usually open his Bible and read a little from it, pausing occasionally to explain or ask a question.

At the end of the reading he’ll pull out the blue insert from our church bulletin we received that morning. It contains the names of people requesting prayer for themselves or loved ones. Down the list we’ll go, looking for new people on the list or updates from missionaries our church supports.

Then, as a family, we pray over these people, asking for God’s strength, His intervention where it’s His will, His provision for those who serve Him on the mission field and protection for those serving in the armed forces from our church.

It’s really a very simple thing, not taking more than a few minutes to do. I have found, however, that doing this simple thing has produced some good results:

Our children learned that prayer involves more than praying for yourself. By praying for others we’ve taken the focus off of God doing for us and put it on being intercessory people for the sake of others in need.
Our church became a smaller community. Although we live in a rural area, our church holds three services with an average of 600 people in attendance on any given Sunday. We’ve been attending there for about two years and are still amazed at the new faces we meet, only to find out they’ve been attending for years and years. Praying for specific people makes our church not so big and crowded.
Our church became a place of real people. We used to go over the prayer list with our church directory in front of us so we could match faces with names. It made the praying more personal when we realized we’d seen the person we were praying for. For those of you who have a teen who hasn’t invested in the church experience yet, it can also create a greater sense of family instead of the list of names being just, well, a list of names.
It’s given us a chance to discuss the meaning of certain things, to help our children realize when some situations call for dire prayer. There’s a difference in prayer intensity for someone getting rotator cuff surgery and someone who’s asked for prayer for a loved one in end stage terminal cancer who doesn’t know Jesus as their Savior.
It’s allowed our children to learn to communicate with people at church about their prayer needs. Although we’re still working on this one, we will try to get updates on someone’s condition/situation so we can pray more specifically, letting the person/family know we’ve been praying as a family over their request.
Our children see how our praying for others has an impact. Frequently we will send out a note of encouragement to let a person know they have a family praying over their need. Sometimes on the following Sunday that person will come up to us to personally, and sometimes tearfully, thank us for praying. Our children learn that praying for others is vital to loving the family of Christ that we belong to.

This has become such a regular thing around our Sunday table that I’ll find the children, first thing before Sunday morning service starts, pulling their blue prayer list out of the bulletin to see what changes have been made.

These bulletin inserts are often tossed aside by many people, never looked at or considered. However, they can be a wonderful ministry and devotion idea that you can share with your children. Your family can have an amazing impact on the world just by praying for those people in need right in front of you.

Your church's prayer request list may not come as an insert in your Sunday morning bulletin, but you can still use what your church provides to bring your family together in prayer over others.

Related Articles:
The Circle Prayer
Learning To Pray Out Loud The Hard Way
What Do We Teach Our Children To Pray For?

8 Excuses Christian Parents Make - The Series

burtonfam6@att.net (Deb Burton) — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 20:38:00 +0000

Purposefully blunt and intended to be convicting. Here are the three articles designed to determine what excuses you've been making for not reading the Bible to your child, and ideas for overcoming them.

8 Excuses Christian Parents Make
Overcoming The First Four Excuses
Overcoming The Last Four Excuses

Why Should We Read The Bible To Our Children - The Series

burtonfam6@att.net (Deb Burton) — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 20:25:00 +0000

Here are the six articles included in this series which gives you foundational arguments for spending time together as a family in God's Word.

Interactive Parenting At Its Best
Why Should We Read The Bible To Our Children? It's A Parent's Job To
Going To The Source
Why Should We Read The Bible To Our Children? The Way To Salvation Is Found In It
Psalm 78:1-8
Why Should We Read The Bible To Our Children? It Is How The Legacy Of God Continues

Communion For Children: A Poll

burtonfam6@att.net (Deb Burton) — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 11:36:00 +0000

photo by spisharam

Our church took communion this past Sunday. After the trays of wafers had been passed around and we partook of remembering Christ’s body, the trays of grape juice were passed. Somewhere behind me a wee voice plaintively whispered, how come I don’t get one?

I didn’t turn around to see how old the child was, but the voice sounded like he or she was five or under. I began thinking - at what age do you let your child partake of holy communion, and why?

Because of our moving around we’ve been in all kinds of churches with all kinds of expectations. Some offered separate children’s services for the younger ones while others insisted that children, no matter the age, sit with their parents during the service. Some expressed preference that only those who had made a profession of faith could join in communion, while others never said anything about who could or couldn’t take part.

Except when our youngest two were babies, most of the time our children sat with us during the service. As I recall, we allowed our children to participate in communion only when we felt they could follow the ritual of taking the bread and juice together with the congregation, and not treat the celebration like a mini-snack time. We also spent time explaining to them, in as basic of terms as we could, what we were celebrating. We realized a lot of the explanation would be abstract, but we were trying to convey that holy communion was a special time of remembrance that we did because we loved Jesus. This discussion usually came after we got home from church and after we ourselves heard, how come I don’t get one?

How about you? When do (or did) you let your child participate in holy communion, and why? What kind of explanation, if any, did you offer for your choice? I don’t think there’s a right or wrong answer here; I think it’s mostly a matter of preference and/or possibly conviction. I’m just purely curious.

Choose one answer that fits best on the poll, and I’d love for you to elaborate in the comment section below. I’ll share the poll results on Saturday.

Please include a comment by clicking on the link below. That way you can elaborate on your thoughts.

Related Articles:

Do You Fight On Your Way To Church?

James 3 - Taming The Tongue

4 Ways To Teach Your Child To Love God's Word

Most Popular Articles For February

burtonfam6@att.net (Deb Burton) — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 12:11:00 +0000

photo by Sister72

Can you believe we are already into March? I am so looking forward to warmer weather coming and staying. My three season porch has been unused for far too long. I’m looking forward to throwing open the windows, parking my laptop in front of me and working out some articles as our dog lies in a sunny spot made just for him.

In the meantime, while we deal with a seesaw of chilly temperatures and warmer spikes, here’s a recap of the most popular articles for the month of February. Think warm thoughts while you read them over again.

Jesus Laughing
Malachi 2:15: Not Your Usual Parenting Verse
Recommended Resources Page
Helping Your Child Find His Way Around The Bible
Family Devotions Ideas: Use What You’re Studying
Teaching Kindness To Your Child

Share these links with friends and encourage them to subscribe to The Greatest Mission Trip's regular articles. And I thank you ahead of time for partnering with TGMT to get the word out!

Why should you subscribe to TGMT?

Subscribe to The Greatest Mission Trip You'll Ever Take by Email

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Your Week In Review

burtonfam6@att.net (Deb Burton) — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 13:45:00 +0000

photo by Noel Zia Lee

On Monday I wrote an article about planning for the week ahead how you were going to deliberately witness the gospel to your child. It’s now the end of the week, and I have one question for you to think about:

What was the most important thing that happened between you and your child this week?

Think about that and how it will impact any decisions you make for the upcoming week. Will you do anything differently? Will you improve your effort for connecting with your child?

Was God glorified in your relationship with your child at all this week?

Want to get the articles from TGMT straight to your email box or reader? Subscribe to The Greatest Mission Trip by clicking on one of the links in the upper right sidebar. The process is super easy!

Related Articles:

My Week In Review

Connecting With Our Children, Marathon Style

Our Child's Best Teacher