Monday, July 30, 2012

Happy Birthday Baby!!!!!

It is not yet my "little" girl's birthday but while I had a second I thought I'd come to my blog and do my annual changing of the title. :)   If you look at the address you can see that I started this blog when she was only 4 years old.  It has been a magical, exciting, crazy, sparkly journey and I wouldn't trade a moment of it - although truth be told I would add my deployed husband into the time he missed if I could redo it and had any control over it.   But wow, what a great child.  I am truly blessed.

I'm sure I'll be posting more this week - you know, birthday activities will ensue tomorrow.  But felt a need to say an early happy birthday to my baby.  

Love you sweetie!  Stay sweet and grow in the  Lord.  His light is in you, let it shine!  Love you, love you, love you.  Mama

Saturday, July 14, 2012

Bible Study with an almost 11 year old.

Katie and I are doing a 5 minute a day Bible Reading program that covers the New Testament in a year.  A few weeks ago, since she has been wanting to do the readings by herself, I decided to add on an accountability factor.  Now when we do our readings we have to highlight at least one thing from each chapter that either 1) we can apply to our own lives, 2) we don't fully understand or 3) just our favorite part of the chapter.

We've been doing this for a couple weeks now and I've learned something.  I've always asked Katie if  understood what she read and she's always said yes - with a few exceptions.  But I've always wondered because I know there are times when I will read something and not fully understand it.  Over the course of this week, however, while Katie has been explaining certain Bible passages to me I've realized that now only does she "get it" but I think there are times when she may "get it" better than I do.

Both examples I have are from Luke since that is the book we're currently reading.  Why Jesus would not allow demons to say who he was came up in conversation.  Now, I've actually researched this before and have read that the timing wasn't right, He did not want a creature that was known to lie to be telling people who He was, that he wanted to show that the had conquered the demon and not have it look like he had made some kind of agreement with them.  When Katie brought this up her reasoning was that if everyone heard the demons proclaiming that this was the Son of God then everyone would believe it and he wouldn't have been crucified and died for us.   On this point I think she was off, BUT I loved to see how her mind worked.

The second example is almost embarrassing for me to admit.  We both had the parable of the barren fig tree (Luke 13:6-9) highlighted, but for different reasons.

Here are the verses:
  
Parable of the Barren Fig Tree
Then Jesus told this story: “A man planted a fig tree in his garden and came again and again to see if there was any fruit on it, but he was always disappointed. Finally, he said to his gardener, ‘I’ve waited three years, and there hasn’t been a single fig! Cut it down. It’s just taking up space in the garden.’
“The gardener answered, ‘Sir, give it one more chance. Leave it another year, and I’ll give it special attention and plenty of fertilizer. If we get figs next year, fine. If not, then you can cut it down.’”

 My note said to look this up in a commentary.  She had highlighted it as something we can remember for our own lives.  I had forgotten to look it up before our conversation, so the fact that she had it highlighted - and for that reason - made me stop in my tracks and pull out paper and pen.  She explained to me that the man who planted the fig tree was God, the fig tree was us and the gardener was Jesus.  The fig tree not producing fruit is our sin because when we obey God we produce good fruit.  At this point I looked at my daughter and thought to myself "Well, duh.   How did I not see that?"   There's a reason that Christ said "I tell you the truth, unless you turn from your sins and become like little children, you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven."  Matthew 18:3   Katie keeps proving this to me and I hope its something that will continue on throughout her life.

By the way, I did double check the Parable of the Barren Fig Tree in a commentary and with the exception of the fig tree being Israel - which if you apply the verse to our times IS us - she was spot on.

Friday, February 10, 2012

The Prophet, the Shepherd & the Star - Book Review

I am amazed and touched by the books by Jenny Cote - starting with the Ark, the Reed and the Firecloud, continuing through the Dreamer, the Schemer and the Robe to this newest book, The Prophet, the Shepherd & the Star. What a wonderful way to bring the Word of God to children in such depth and in such a way that they will thoroughly enjoy learning. Of course, it's important to explain to them the differences between the Word and the fictional parts of the book if they aren't already aware, but worth the effort! I was greatly impressed with this last book and the way it explained the prophecies. Bringing the words of the prophets to children in a way they can understand how the prophecies are linked is genius! I have suggested this book to everyone I know with a child in the proper age range for the reading level. My daughter loved all the books. I would love to see some Bible school curriculum evolve from these books. I can't wait for the next one to be released!

Conversations with Katie

Katie:     Life is really hard now.

Me (trying not to giggle):      As opposed to when?

Katie:     When I was a kid.

Me (turning blue holding breath while trying not to giggle):  And when was that?

Katie:     When I was four. I could just go out and play and not have to worry about anything...

Wait, what's that I see?  I can make something out in the distance.... Oh! It's a rude awakening!  Yep, thought so. LOL