A fun night about aprons

Yes, I agree. Lord, help me to teach our children and youth these truths!

1. Worship Creates Hunger “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?” (Psalm 42:1-2).

When is the last time you heard a teen say, “When can I go and meet with God?” When you hear that phrase you know you’ve met a worshiper. Entering the Lord’s presence through worship creates satisfaction and hunger simultaneously.

2. Raise Your Praise. “Clap your hands, all you nations; shout to God with cries of joy. How awesome is the LORD Most High, the great King over all the earth!” (Psalm 47:1).

In the blank provided write the name of the last professional football event that you attended that was quiet: __________________________. Is the blank still blank? Do you know why? Because the people in the stands are worshipping what’s happening on the field (at least one group of fans). When God is active in our field of life we respond with praise.

3. Let God Find You. “Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks” (John 4:23).

God is looking for us. He is seeking us. Will He find us? If we had a special pair of glasses that revealed true worshipers, how many people would be in the pews Sunday morning? How many would God find?

Zone Members: Read the complete article of "10 Tips for Teaching Teens to Worship"

Your Partners in Ministry,

Paul & Al

Some thoughts....

I was going through my 2008 day planner and thought I'd take a minute to write down a few things that I wrote down last year and want to take with me into 2009.

These are random thoughts from me personally and also out of various books, sermons, and conferences.

*Do you have the COURAGE to walk through a season of disfavor, knowing that it will lead to a greater manifestation of God's favor in your life? (Mary had favor with God, but not with man!)

*I want to be more patient, present, and imaginative with the kids!

*Destress, destress, destress.....NO yelling!

*Read more books to the kids. Play one board game a day.

*Childhood Matters: Everything we do deposits something into our children! Our words, our actions, and our tone of voice.

* Invite wisdom....even if difficult.

*Faith - without it it is IMPOSSIBLE to please God!

*We create our world with our words.

*Jeremiah 29:11 - God has a plan for our lives Psalm 139 - I am fearfully and wonderfully made If we can get these two things verses into our children's spirits they will know that God has made them special and has a marvelous plan for their lives.

* Every time you touch a child out of kindness you impart a blessing - Touch heals.

* The Five Love Languages of Kids - Read it!

These are all things that I worked on last year and am trying to work on again this year. I have more that I'll post later. I think this is enough to ponder on. :-)

A good life!

Yesterday was a great day! I have been trying really hard to keep up on my schedule, housework, school, church, and life in general. I've been reading a lot of great books lately on marriage, parenting, ministry, etc. and they are a great reminder of what the important things in life are. A few that I'd recommend highly are:

Raising Godly Tomatoes by L. Elizabeth Krueger
It is mostly for parents of younger children. It talks about how important it is to keep young children by you while you train them in the ways of the Lord. There is a lot of great tools in this book. www.raisinggodlytomatoes.com

Help Mate by Debbie Pearl
Wow, what a powerful message to women about how to be a godly wife! All I can say is READ IT. :-)

My crazy imperfect Christian family: living out your faith with those who know you best by Glenn Stanton
I've really enjoyed this book. It covers a broad range of topics from forgiveness, raising godly kids, getting along with your spouse even in the rough times, and more. Glenn works for focus on the family and is very candid about his families imperfections but also about the hope that comes through Jesus to raise our kids up in a solid Christian home.

Just a few of the books that I'm reading and enjoying right now.