Christmas is just a few days away!!

During Advent, the student leadership team and I had the privilege of leading the church in Advent devotionals each week.  I am so proud of the kids who were willing to get up in front of the whole church and read.

At our last meeting, the kids helped me put together a video/slideshow for our final devotional.  The kids were awesome and totally got into this project. They were a joy to work with and I am thankful for them!! This week we are celebrating Jesus our Restorer.  Now, I’m not sure that’s a word… but the point is that Jesus came to RESTORE us, totally and completely.  I have been blessed to be set free from the chains which had paralyzed me in fear and self-protection. Only through coming to the feet of Jesus and giving up everything to Him have I found that freedom.

As you watch the video, think about the things that hold you back from bringing God glory in ministry and the things that keep relationships at arms length.  Ask God for freedom from those things.  He will bring it.

Matthew 1:21 says,

And you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.

Merry Christmas!

Changed Forever from Liz Griggs on Vimeo.

As a church, we’re really only one full week into our Season of Seeking Him, but those of you doing the study and Bible Quest before you hear the sermon will be looking for Week 3 starting tomorrow.  So, here it is!

Seeking Him for Kids – Week 3

I know God is at work in our church – I can see it in our leadership and the people I interact with.  I know He is at work in me – to be honest, there were times this week I was feeling emotionally winded from all the things God is working with me on.  I also have great desire to see God at work in our kids… in my kids!

How do we keep track of the spiritual state of our kids’ hearts? Weekly (or daily) evaluation of their behavior?  Their willingness to pray at dinner or bedtime?  Making sure they have the right answers on their Bible Quest? Pushing them to have the most verses memorized? Conversations about what Christ is doing in my life and theirs?  If you’re wondering when I’m going to give you the right answer, it’s not going to happen.

I can in no way for sure know the state of my daughter’s heart, but I can see the fruit and the work of the Holy Spirit.  He is moving in my daughter and speaking to her heart and it is amazing!  More and more these days I find myself asking, “What am I teaching her?” In words to her, to myself, to my husband, to God, to the annoying driver in front of me…I am teaching her.  In my actions towards her, my husband, others… I am teaching her.

This week my 7-year-old said something that floored me – and she said it twice!  Sunday morning in church, she was trying to figure out what to do during our time of worship and personal reflection.  I suggested to her that she should do what the adults were doing and listen to what God had to say to her.  The whiny, defiant response back was, “But, Mom, I’m just a kid!”  Ack!  Where did she learn that?  I took that moment to tell her the same Jesus that lives in my heart lives in hers, too, and she can hear Him.  She came away from that service with some very awesome notes of encouragement written to friends as well as some truths about her and God written and drawn in pictures.  These were things not said from the pulpit or by the worship leader.  I haven’t told her this yet, but I am convinced that was the Lord speaking to her heart.

Later in the week, we were trying to work through some hurt feelings she had, but there was so much fit throwing, it was hard to get anywhere.  I again encouraged her to ask God to search her heart (Psalm 139) and He would show her what was going on.  Again, she reacted harshly with the words, “But, Mom, I can’t! I’m just a kid!”  I again said, “No! God can speak to you.”  There was a continuation of the emotional upheaval she had been displaying and then it just stopped.  She said in a calm voice, “Oh Mom, I didn’t know what it was before, but now I do.  I am angry because I haven’t forgiven those kids.”  I don’t know if I could count on one hand the number of adults I’ve heard say something like that. WOW! I was stunned, amazed, thankful, in shock, speechless, crying, … you get the picture.  We prayed later that night to forgive those who had hurt her.  Then she prayed and asked Jesus forgiveness for yelling at me in anger (her words, not mine).  Now I was asking, where did she learn this stuff?? And how do I encourage it?  I’m not sure.  I know I don’t remember teaching it.  But, I do know one thing for sure:

My daughter, who is “just a kid”, was spoken to by the living God.

I don’t know where she got the lie that because she’s a kid, she can’t hear from God. But, we’re breaking through that with truth!

Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.        ~ 1 Timothy 4:12

I am now praying that God would give me a heart of forgiveness like He has given my daughter.  I’m praying that for our whole church.  And this is just the first week!  I can’t wait to see what God has in store for our church and our families!  I’m holding onto His promise that those who seek will find!

Tomorrow, our pastor will be preaching on the first week of our Season of Seeking Him study.

In our family, we are choosing to do the study during the week in preparation for Sunday’s sermon and Sunday school classes.

So this week, my husband and I did the studies each morning from the first chapter of the book (Revival), and our 7-year-old worked on her Bible Quest.  I’m anticipating the Lord using this in our lives to unify us as a family and draw us closer to Him.  It’s not like He’s hiding from us as we seek Him.  He wants to be found!  The Bible promises that those who seek will find.  So, we’re counting on our faithful God who keeps His promises.

As we have been preparing for this series, I’ve been thinking a lot about how to do the fasting as a family.  My husband and I have talked about what we want to do personally, but I think it will be important to prep our kids for what’s ahead.

I’ve been thinking in particular of the electronic media fast that coming up the first week of September.  Considering we are a family who tend to fill our days with e-mail, youtube, facebook, xBox, Netflix, Wii, blogging, computer games, smart phones, etc., etc., etc….. it’s probably safe to bet cutting out all of that will be a huge shock for my kids (not to mention me!).  I know that it will be important for them to understand this is a time to look for God, not sit and pout because we can’t play Lego Star Wars.  Have any of you had success with this?  What has worked? What hasn’t?

Join me in praying for the Lord to not only reveal Himself to us during the next 3 months, but also to our kids!

Here is the kids’ study for Week 2 – Seeking Him.

I recently was privileged to attend a celebration for a friend who has spent 50 years in education.  She spent time as a teacher and principal in public schools, then was a children’s pastor for a church and then spent the last decade or so as the principal of a Christian school.  She is one amazing lady, and the love of Jesus shines through her to EVERYONE around!

As I was sitting there listening to colleagues, family members, former students, current students, and parents of students, I was struck by what a gift it was for her to hear the legacy she has left behind her.  I can only hope to make as great of an impact as she has in her 50 years in education.

As teachers (Sunday school or other), we rarely get to hear the impact we make.  Often times, it’s because the impact doesn’t really show itself until the kids are long-gone from our classes.  But, sometimes, I think people just forget to say it.  I know I often forget to tell people how thankful I am for them.  Then I get embarrassed that I haven’t said it and it seems so out-of-date or even irrelevant.

I’ll tell you one thing I know for sure.  It is never irrelevant or out-of-date to tell someone you are thankful for them or how they have blessed you and/or your family.

Today, I read this blog post from Randy Alcorn about finding out 30 years after her death, the impact his mom made on a family.  It made me want to share it with you.

Please take just a few seconds this week to tell the teachers (especially Sunday school) how they have impacted you and your kids!  You will be blessing them greatly!

I was chatting with a couple of the moms from our church yesterday as one of our toddlers was melting down… we started talking about our mom anthems.

They mentioned that they really like the song “This is the Stuff” by Francesca Battistelli.  I hadn’t heard it before, so I went searching this morning.  You can listen to the song for free on her website here.  Here’s the video with the lyrics.

I love this because as moms neck-deep in the little (or big) annoying things of life, sometimes we lose the perspective that all of this stuff is what God uses to mold us and shape us and make us like Him.  In Philippians, Paul commands us to “Rejoice in the Lord always.” Then he really emphasizes it with “I will say it again: Rejoice!”  We say to our kids in the midst of complaint that the Bible tells us to be thankful in everything (which is true), but I know I forget to do that when I’m cleaning up the 8th potty-training accident of the day or am leaving the grocery store – and the cart full of groceries – while I carry a screaming, thrashing toddler out to the car.

There is a song I just love to listen to when God has stopped me in the midst of the craziness to quietly say to my heart, “Even this is sacred.” “Sacred” from the Overdressed album by Caedmon’s Call gets me every time.  The lyrics shoot right to my heart like a laser beam:

My cup runneth over
and I worry about the stain.
Teach me to run to You
like they run to me for every little thing.

When I forget to drink from you,
I can feel the banks harden.
Lord, make me like a stream
to feed the garden.

Could it be that everything is sacred?
And all this time
everything I’ve dreamed of
has been right before my eyes?

What are some songs that draw you back to God when things get overwhelming?

Well, once all the excitement and ready-made ideas of Advent and Christmas were finished, I got writer’s block (blogger’s block?).  Not because I didn’t have any ideas or things were not happening in my family or at our church… but because I’m a perfectionist.  I am the first born of 6 children, and I bleed first-born responsibility and perfectionism issues.  Usually I deal with that by faking my way through and getting as close to perfect as I possibly can.  (Maybe then you all won’t realize my glaring imperfections.)  In recent months, I’ve taken to apologizing for my imperfections (my failures) by telling people I really was trying to appear perfect and have now gone and messed it all up.  Tongue-in-cheek, but really I’m hoping they are amused enough to not notice how I’ve messed up and in turn hate me for it.

So, I started this blog with great aspirations of it being a resource for parents in our church, and promptly realized I have little-to-nothing to offer.  I’m limping along attempting to parent my 6 and 3 year old daughters the best that I can, shepherding their hearts and teaching them to love Jesus and love others.  (It would be nice if they also learned to read, write and do arithmetic, make their beds, clean their rooms, wipe their own bottoms, make their own sandwiches, pour milk without spilling, be contributing members of society, etc, etc… but I could be asking too much.)

Each time in the last month I wanted to blog, I couldn’t do it.  I was afraid of rambling about nothing helpful, and being wrong or appearing foolish or *gasp* imperfect.  As the children’s director at our church, I should have all my stuff together, my parenting should be perfect, and I should have all the answers to every problem, right?   The truth is that I am a hack at just about everything God has called me to do.  The only reason anything I attempt succeeds is because God with His gift of grace has called me, empowered me, guided me and cleaned up the mess that I would have made of things.  PRAISE THE LORD FOR HIS GRACE!

I don’t really get into the whole new year’s resolutions thing, but I do try to listen to what God wants to work with me on.  This year it’s faithfulness.  Let me be clear: I know nothing about faithfulness.  I am the least diligent person I know.  (Seriously, just come to my house unannounced… you’ll see.)  I’m pretty sure the only reason I finish anything is my issues with perfection.  Praise God that He has spent 2 years working with me on obedience; I can now see His desire for my faithfulness in that obedience.  But, because God is just that awesome, it’s not just my faithfulness He wants.  He is revealing His faithfulness to me, as well.

I’m not usually one for bearing my soul on the internet, but yesterday a friend challenged me on pretending like everything is okay.  So, today, I am trusting in God’s faithfulness and this is what you are getting.  I’m also trying to follow through on what I think God is calling me to do. Faithfulness.

I have recently been reading in Philippians.  I am claiming this passage, praying it and praising God for it. Phil 3:12-14.

¹² Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. ¹³ Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, ¹⁴ I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Today, I was searching the internet for biblical parenting blogs and twitter accounts and resources for you and for me.  I came across two articles that spoke to my heart.

This article by Chris Spradlin lists 10 ways to connect with your kids’ hearts.  For me, I think connecting with my daughters’ hearts is my primary role.  Behavior modification and consequences will only get me to adolescence if I’m lucky.  But making my girls’ hearts the top priority will last forever.  (You can check out more of Sprad’s parenting journey at his blog, epicparent.tv.)

After a year of sad circumstances and difficult decisions, I also found this article by Mark Merrill of Family First helpful.  It is about helping your kids grieve.  I appreciate that although divorce and death are two of the hardest things to explain to our kids, they are not the only things kids grieve about.  It is so important to give our kids the space and also the guidance to work through their feelings about everything including a friend moving away or a failed test at school.  Listening to our kids is the key to this, I believe.  And not just listening to their words, but also the heart that is behind those words.  Helping our children identify and name the feelings will give them more tools to deal with them as they grow up.

Okay, this is the last thing.  I need your help.  Do any of you have any parenting or family websites, blogs, twitter feeds, facebook pages that help you out?  Or at least entertain you as you walk along each day muddling through parenthood?  The internet is huge, and my ability to use it well is limited at best.  So, if we all pool our resources, I think we could come up with a pretty extensive list of helpful sites.  So, can you comment here with where to find the sites you like?

Today, I am praying for you – that you are blessed with God’s grace in a tangible way.

It’s CHRISTMAS time!!!!!!!  It’s hard to believe that Christmas is this week.  I’m not ready… can we have 5, maybe 6, weeks of Advent?  I haven’t done enough anticipating.

Okay, I’m back to reality. Now everyone is done with school and the traveling starts.  We will have family come and stay with us… and I’m excited!  Our activities are mostly done and I’m hoping to spend a little more time with my family this week getting ready for the coming of the Christ child.

Here is the devotion for this 4th week of Advent:

(Light all four of the colored candles, three purple and one pink.)  As you light the previous candles, have your family review what each candle stands for and see if they can tell you something of significance about that candle.

The fourth week’s candle is the Angels’ candle.

Read Luke 8:14-20 as a family.

(Depending on your children’s ages, you could also look at Luke 1, Matthew 1:18-24 and Matthew 2:13-23.  If your children are younger, please read these passages for yourself and marvel at the amazing work of God that first Christmas.)

This fourth candle reminds us of the angels and the hope we have in Christ.  When we light it, we anticipate Christ’s second coming.  We remember His first coming… a helpless baby – God of the universe, humbling Himself to conquer sin and death, save mankind and restore our relationship with Him.  Now we anticipate when He will come again… riding on the clouds – with a loud command and the trumpet call of God to raise the dead and judge all (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18).

We are commanded in Scripture to be ready because we do not know when this will happen… except that it will happen suddenly. (Check out Matthew 24:36-44.)

How do you keep yourself ready so you are not caught unawares?  One way to do that is to make Jesus the most important and exciting thing we talk about.  So, start talking about how awesome He is with your kids.  In my life I have found that when it comes to Jesus (or even a friend or family member) the more I talk about how incredible I think He is and the amazing things He has done or taught me, the more I fall in love with Him and anticipate Him coming back.

So, talk with your family about what you love about Jesus.  (The easy answer is to say that He died for your sins… but why is that so important to you?)  Ask for explanation.  Your kids may not be able to articulate their underlying motivations, and that’s okay!  Just don’t let it stop when they’ve answered the question.  Use it as a jumping off point to start a conversation.  Enjoy hearing what your kids love about your Savior… I know they will love hearing why you love Him so much.

Merry Christmas!!

As we begin this third week of Advent, many of us have Christmas parties, school projects, class parties, teachers’ gifts, baking, shopping, etc., etc. on our list of to-do’s. I know I am looking forward to a break from school where my daughter will be home all day long!  We can really get into more Christmas preparations and spending lots and lots of time as a family.  Celebrating Advent has been a really good time to not let us forget that we are to be preparing for the coming of the Christ child, not just a bunch of parties.  I have enjoyed our times of singing as a family as well as the great discussions I’ve had with my daughter.

Here is this week’s devotion:

(Light the first and second purple candles and now also light the pink candle.)  On this third week of Advent, we also light the Shepherd’s candle.

Read Luke 2:8-20.

When we light this third candle, we understand that, like the shepherds, we can come to Christ, believing He is who He says He is, and tell everyone of the things He has done.  After being told by angels what had happened, then seeing it for themselves, the shepherds could not contain themselves.  They went around telling everyone what they had seen and what they now knew.

Sing “Angels We Have Heard on High” as a family.

My thoughts on shepherds…
This evening, I had the privilege of attending a huge Christmas production at a church in Tucson.  They had a live nativity that was put together as a choir beautifully sang about Emmanuel, God with us, and worshiping Christ the King.  It was incredibly moving, but as I was driving home, I was pondering why it moved me so much.  Was it just the music?  I know that have a soft spot for good choral music.  Then I started thinking about the shepherds.  Much like choosing the lowliest of towns to have the King of Kings enter the world (see last week’s post), God also chose some of the lowliest people to welcome His Son.  I pictured in my head this ragamuffin group of stinky sheep-herders sitting around picking their teeth, listening to the bleating of sheep and each other’s snores when God’s messenger appears to them and gives them the calling of a lifetime.  “Go to Bethlehem, find a baby wrapped in rags, in a feeding trough, in an animal shelter.  Seriously.  This baby is God’s Son, the Messiah, Christ the Lord.”  Then the most amazing choir ever heard bursts from the heavens singing the glory of God.  This is the kind of calling you do not ignore, so they get up and go to Bethlehem and check it out.  They discover it’s all true and they go and praise God, giving Him glory, telling everyone what they had seen and heard.  They were a little excited… and who wouldn’t be in that situation???

Then I had this thought:  The first people called to worship Christ the Messiah were a bunch of stinky animal herders.  In order to obey their calling, the lowly came and made themselves lower by bowing to a baby… a BABY!! lying in the dirty feeding trough of an animal.  And then they went out telling people how awesome God is!  There was no Pharisaical attitude of being the ones called.  No! This was about God, come in human form, fulfilling the promises He had been making for centuries.  I was reminded of a prayer that a dear friend and mentor recently wrote:

O my God, Your word fulfill.
I surrender.  Do as You will.
Break what must be broken.
Kill what needs to die.
Be my Resurrection and my Life.
I go low, beneath You hand.
Kneeling is the only way to stand.
I am Yours.

As God calls us in our own lives, how do we respond?  Do we respond my making ourselves low?  Or do we demand of God “What’s in it for me?”  Do we recognize our own stinky, sheep-herderness and yet make ourselves low under God’s humble throne?  Jesus didn’t come with trumpet fanfare to regally ascend to an ornate throne of earthly power and wealth and might.  He came humbly to a carpenter family, to an animal-trough throne in a rinky-dink town, to a bunch of stinky shepherds as a completely helpless baby… and He calls us to humble ourselves and follow Him.

THIS is why I love Christmas.

Advent is quickly approaching. (It starts on Sunday, November 28th.)  I have been hoping to really get our church involved in readying our hearts for the coming of Christ, especially the Sunday School classes and families.  So, prepare yourselves because this blog is about to become HQ for the Advent Crusader.

“Who is this Advent Crusader?” you say.

Well, it’s the new nickname I’ve coined for myself.  It might not catch on, but I will at least entertain myself for a few weeks.  Seriously, though, I didn’t realize that it is not the norm for people in evangelical Christian churches to celebrate Advent (the coming of the Christ child).  It was something my family did every year.  So, my quest has been laid out for me: to teach our families about Advent and give them some resources for how they might celebrate it with their families.

We want to bring Christ-centered meaning back to Christmas.  We want to put a time in each day during this season where we take a deep breath, sit down with our kids and remember that Christmas means that God, Creator of the Universe, came to Earth as a tiny, helpless Baby to forever restore mankind’s relationship with Him.
…because that was how God had it planned all along.
…because He promised it from the creation of the world.
…because He loves us so much that we were worth His one and only Son.
God sent us His Son… Emmanuel, which means “God with us”.  Okay, how can that NOT make you excited about Christmas??? (I can barely type because I’m shaking with excitement and my eyes are welling up with tears!)

So, this morning in her quest to get the Body of Christ excited about the Christmas season, the Advent Crusader (heretofore to be known as the AC), met with the ladies of Moms Connect.  This was a joyous adventure which included yummy food, lots of laughter and great community (all power-ups for the AC).  The ladies shared ideas for Advent that had worked in their families, and hopefully many hearts were sparked to pursue their own Advent celebrations.

One mom talked about story books that her family has read that help them to prepare for the coming of the Baby Jesus.  She said that all her kids enjoy them (preschoolers up through teens).  Here are the links for the three books she mentioned:

Jotham’s Journey

Bartholomew’s Passage

Tabitha’s Travels

Thanks for the suggestion!  Please, everyone, feel free to comment and share what your family has done to celebrate Advent.  We can all benefit!

There will be much more Advent stuff coming on the blog and on my Twitter feed @fcovkids!  So, keep on coming back!  The AC will return!! [insert gleeful, yet slightly mischievous, laugh]

After years of having the to-blog-or-not-to-blog discussion, the moment of truth has finally arrived! (Thanks for being a part of it!)

Through many discussions and much prayer, I feel like I finally know why I want to blog.  I have always thought that, as a parent and children’s director in our generation, a blog would be a great way to communicate with the families I minister to.  I just couldn’t quite come up with a clear purpose.

You see, although getting out information about programs and events is important, that wasn’t enough.  It needed meat.  Over the last year (or so), God has really been impressing on me the need to minister to the family unit.  We are really good at segregated ministry (men, women, children, youth, singles, singles with children, seniors, young marrieds, college… need I go on?), but we miss out on something amazing when we stop ministering to the family. It is our job as parents to disciple our children, but that doesn’t mean that we stop ministering to one another.  There has to be a way to care for each member of the family, while ministering to that family so it is intact and functioning the way that God designed.

Being a mom of small children, I understand the need (yes, NEED) to be mentored and equipped and encouraged to raise our children in godly homes, to love Jesus and to love others.  It is not easy!!  Yet, so many of us are trying to figure things out on our own, succeeding and failing by trial and error.  God has stirred my heart for our families, particularly the parents, of our church.  We can accept this responsibility that God has given us and do it well.  By the power of the Holy Spirit in us, and the unity of the Body of Christ, we can be the disciplers of our children!

So, now that my little soapbox is done, here’s the purpose that I have finally come up with for this blog… for Faith Quest Children’s Ministries… for the families of our church.

1) Information about our programs and events. You can download the latest Bible Quest.  You can access our calendar of events.  You will get updates about who won Orange Day or when an offering project is ending.  You can find out what all our confounded abbreviations mean.  All that stuff is important and this is a fun way to get it out to you!

2) Resources for parents. You will find ideas for engaging your family in spiritual discussions and activities, ideas for having fun as a family and resources that you can use to help you feel equipped for discipling your children.

3) My thoughts on parenting. I’m parenting right alongside you.  Sometimes I have victories and sometimes defeats.  Often times God teaches me something through my own children that is amazing, convicting, encouraging… you name it!  I want to share those with you.

4) Your thoughts on discipling  and parenting your children. Please join in the discussion.  This blog by no means is to become “Sermons by Liz”.  We function best when we work together as the Body of Christ (1 Cor 12:12-27). I’ll just provide the platform.  Let’s work together to encourage and challenge one another (Heb 10:23-25).

I’m excited to see how God uses this to grow us each into His likeness, to make us fall more in love with Him and to guide and mold us as we raise our precious children.

Watch for advent and Christmas activities for families in the coming days!  You can subscribe to the RSS feed for this blog.  Also, you can follow @fcovkids on Twitter.