Equipping Our Kids

AGE-APPROPRIATE CHORES

Age 2 - 3

Picking up toys & books

Putting laundry in hamper

Helping clean up spills

Age 4 - 5

Setting & clearing table

Dusting

Feeding pets

Age 6 - 8

Making bed

Taking out trash & recycling

Folding & putting away clean clothes

Vacuuming & mopping

Age 9 - 12

Doing laundry

Washing dishes

Cleaning bathroom

Age 13 - 18

Mowing & weeding lawn

Preparing grocery lists

Cleaning oven & refridgerator

- Leah Gensheimer, Associate Professor of Psychology

University of Missouri, Kansas City

Heads up! Many conversations have led me to observe that few of today's parents are training their children to be productive and responsible at an early age. Sadly, we're not only giving ourselves more work to do in our already jam-packed schedules, but we are failing to equip our children to be independent, responsible adults as they venture out into the world. And as that day comes, what a sad shock for them as they begin to discover that they're not entitled to a free ride. And that no one owes them a living.

"If a man will not work, he shall not eat"
- 2 Thessalonians 3:10.

7 Big Questions for Parents:

1. Are our expectations of our children too low?

2. Are our expectations of how things need to be done too high?

3. Is it just easier to do everything ourselves (and then complain that no one lifts a finger)?

4. What's the payoff for us?

5. What's the end result for our soon-to-be adult offspring?

6. What changes need to be made in your family?

7. What's your game plan?

Contemplating What This All Means For Our Culture & The Church ~

Linda

Mid-Summer Food Drive

"Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you"
- Luke 6:38.

It's time for our 2nd food drive! We're collecting the following items for a woman in need ~

> Healthy canned, bagged, or boxed food

> Personal hygiene items (soap, shampoo, toilet paper, etc.)

> Cleaning supplies

Please drop off your donations by Wednesday, July 30th. May you be blessed as you give generously ...
Pastor Bob
Linda

Community

"We need to find a still point inside a community of faith. We need to find a home ... Finding a home is not, in the end, so much a question of finding a building, a city, a country or a place where we feel we belong. More deeply, finding a home is a question of finding another heart or a community of hearts wherein we feel at one, safe, warm, comfortable, able to be ourselves, secure enough to express both faith and affection ... There is an answer to that loneliness, a new home inside that community of faith."
~ Rohlheiser

"If you've gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if His love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care - then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. Don't push your way to the front; don't sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don't be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand. Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of Himself"
~ Philippians 2:1-5 (The Message).

With prayer that you will discover that

unique, peaceful, Christ-honoring place ~

Linda

You Are in His Hands

Since the Bible frequently uses the term, "hands" for God (over 40 times in the New Testament, e.g., Acts 11:21), what does that mean for us?

1) In the Bible, the hand is the part of the body that carries out a person's will. So, to place ourselves in Jesus's hands is to put oneself under His authority (Genesis 9:2).

2) The "hand" represents strength or power (Exodus 3:19-20). He can do more than we could ask or think.

3) Laying one's hands on a scapegoat (Leviticus 16) symbolized transferring a person's sins to the animal as the sinner, who by that act, confessed his sins to God and trusted God to forgive him. We lay our sins on Jesus as our substitute.

4) Jesus put His hands on people to heal them, to bless the children, to touch lepers, to extend the warmth and presence of God. We, likewise, touch (literally) people with His love and grace.

5) Jesus is described as seated on the right hand of God the Father - the sign of co-regency - He is equal with the Father in exercising divine power.

6) The hand of Jesus is a place of safety and security - in John 10:28, Jesus says, "no one will snatch them (believers) out of my hands". ""Snatch" here refers to a closed fist where no one can pry open the hands of Jesus to tear you from Him - not even you!

7) Jesus was known to Thomas by the nail wounds in His hands (John 20:24-28). The core of His sacrificial love is demonstrated to us by the hands of His resurected body.

8) Jesus said that he drove out demons by the "finger of God" (Luke 11:20). That power has defeated our enemy.

You are safe today in His hands; you are always in front of Him - your name is engraved in the palm of His hand (Isaiah 49:16); He is touching you and caring for you. . . . . .Who are you touching today with the hands of Jesus? Who will know that they have been touched with love by Him because they have been touched by you?

Thankfully Touched by the Master, Bob