Teaching Your Child About Their Personal Testimony

20 Thursday Apr 2017

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Baptism, Book Recommendation, Faith, First Things First, Girls

Our girls will finally be getting baptized in a few weeks, and the pastor of the church has asked they give (or at least write for him to read!) a brief testimony before their baptism. (We will be going for an immersion baptism, not the “sprinkle”!)

Growing up in a Southern Baptist Church, I always knew what this meant, but I realized I found it difficult to explain this in non-church-y words to my girls. So of course I went to my favorite resource – the Internet!

Here are some sites that I thought might be useful to you:

Kids Testimony Form

Free Testimony Worksheet

How to Share Your Testimony

Billy Graham’s Teaching Tweens to Share their Testimonies

Parenting Like Hannah’s Tips for Teaching Kids to Share their Faith

Our Families Adventure’s Teaching Kids to Write a Personal Testimony

Jeff McClung’s Free Booklet to Help Kids Write & Share Their Testimony

I thought also that it would be a good idea if my husband and I went through this exercise WITH the girls, as a family activity. (Not that I’ve told my husband that yet, but I know he’ll be open to it! 🙂 ) So they could watch and see us do it, but also practice it on us. That would give us another opportunity to share and talk about this topic with them, and to really make sure they truly understand the decision they’ve made.

This is IN ADDITION to several workbooks that we used after they let us know of this decision several years ago. We did one page a day in as part of their devotional time every morning. I liked that it really made them think through this, but at their level. This is one I personally liked:

I hope this is useful!

Show me . . . . How/Where You Do Your Devotional Time.!

14 Tuesday Apr 2015

Posted by MP31W! in Uncategorized

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Devotional Time, Faith, Show Me Series

For more information about our new “Show Me” Series, go here.
Welcome to our “Show Me” series! Your link-up can be just a picture, or pictures with explanation. Or just explanation if you’re like me when taking the picture and actually getting it uploaded might mean you’d miss out!
The goal of this linkup is fun, though some might have a homeschool bent. If you don’t homeschool, please feel free to participate anyway and show us how that “show me” theme pertains to you and your home! And if we can share some tips and cool brainstorming ideas along the way — EVEN BETTER!

This week’s theme is “Show Me How/Where You Do Your Devotional Time.

As you can see, I have no picture. Because I am confessing I’ve fallen completely off the devotional time bandwagon.

Part of that is because of adjusting to the move, which I think is finally happening now. (Um, ten months later.) Every move means adjustments to house layouts and to family schedules, which means my how/where much change. What worked at the last place won’t necessarily work here. I’m still trying things, and attempting to find my full groove. Some things are finally starting to click and work well. My devotional time just . . . isn’t.

I know I’m entirely too busy. I have about twenty too many things on my plate. I know I’m not participating in a group Bible study (see above). I haven’t quite found my “tribe” there yet, so to speak, though I’ve not put much effort into it (see beginning of this paragraph). I’ve not even quite found a study that I want to do.

A bigger part is that I’ve been struggling with some stuff spiritually. I’m dealing with things. Don’t worry – there’s nothing that you need to worry about. It’s just . . . life. It would be so much easier if I really only saw 2 sides -black or white, this way or that. But life is made up of so much more gray murkiness, and right now today in this season of life I’m just trying to feel my way through. I feel like I’m being pulled by the current a bit, rather than swimming it under my own power. Normally, I wouldn’t “settle” for this, but for right now, it’s what I’ve got.

So confessing this to you guys is just as much as about being as truthful and honest with you guys as giving myself a bit of grace. I’ve learned, as my type-A-recovering self, that I have to accept those times where I don’t have it all together. It is what it is.

As long as IT doesn’t stay that way.

Be sure to check out some of my friend’s posts!

Amy at Http://homegrownhatfields.wordpress.com
Michelle at http://homeschoolerontheedge.crookers.com/
Kyndra at http://kyndrasteinmann.com

Join us and post your link in the comments! Be sure to check out everyone else’s posts!

Show me . . . . Your Sweetest Easter Memory For This Year!

07 Tuesday Apr 2015

Posted by MP31W! in Uncategorized

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Church, Faith, Family, Girls, Show Me Series

This week’s theme is “Show Me Your Sweetest Easter Memory For This Year!” This Easter was very near and dear to my heart. It’s the first Easter that my girls are believers. To me, it’s their first “real” Easter. Good Friday took on all new meaning for me.

While we celebrate this day as a solemn, serious occasion, I still see so much love in rejoicing in this event.

I would lay my life down for these girls. Without even thinking about it.

But even laying MY LIFE down for them wouldn’t be enough.

I could be the BESTEST ______, MOST AWESOMEST _____ and I still couldn’t save my own kids. Nothing I could do could ever be enough.

And frankly, for this recovering Type-A overachiever, that’s a hard pill to swallow.

But also so freeing! Because you know what? I don’t have to!

I can relax, because the Lord Jesus loves my kids more than I do. (And I as I tell my girls, that is a whole heck of a lot!) More than I could possibly EVER.

And he loves me too. He saved my kids for me, because He knew I couldn’t.

I can relax. I can rejoice. Because I know He’s got this.

Yes, the crucifixion was an amazingly horrible, painful, and harrowing experience.

But HE DID IT. IT IS FINISHED.

(You know how good it feels to mark something off your to-do list??? Yeah. Think about getting to scratch that off! IT IS FINISHED takes on whole new meaning, doesn’t it?)

As a Good Friday writing exercise, I asked both my girls to write a paragraph about why Good Friday was important, and what this all meant, as if the person they were writing to didn’t know what Easter was. I promised them I would share it here (which they love, by the way. I might have future bloggers on my hands!). These paragraphs are my most special memories from this year. And so, here it is, in their own words. (I did fix the misspellings.)

YOUNGEST: (Age 6)

“Jesus died on the cross. Why? Because He wanted the punishment, to take away everyone’s sins. That is why we celebrate Easter. We collect eggs, but that is not the best part. What is it? Jesus! Jesus is the best part of Easter. It is say that Jesus dies on the cross, but He rose again! After the cross, a friend of Jesus took him into a little cave. And 3 days later, He had risen!”

Oldest: (Age 8)

I am going to tell you why Jesus died on the cross. You know all the bad things we do? They’re called sins. Jesus got nailed on the cross. He did not do anything bad. And it hurt very bad. That is why we celebrate Easter. He died on the cross for our sins. Easter is all about him dying on the cross for our sins.