Are you a Poloroid or Etch A Sketch Christian? / Mrs Kay Souther

  

 Mrs Kay Souther

Pastor's Wife

Gateway Baptist Church

Blacksburg, VA

       I'm probably really showing my age here, but does anyone remember the Polaroid One-Step cameras? If you don't, take a minute to Google it, we'll wait...okay, now you get the picture! Hahaha...No pun intended. Anyway, the "Polaroids" of the old days were big and bulky and seemed to be a short-lived fad. The "one-step" style cameras are making a comeback now with a more sleek shape and are also available in several fashionable colors!
     Now what about an Etch-a-Sketch?? A classic toy that's been around for years, and made wildly popular once again, because of the highly rated Disney/Pixar Toy Story movies.  There are two white knobs on the front of the toy that can be turned clockwise or counter-clockwise, separately or simultaneously, and with these movements, pictures are created.
     Well, back to the Polaroid, you snap an image and the camera "spits" out a picture, but it's dark, there's nothing on it! Then you begin to shake the picture and slowly but surely, the image is revealed.  The Etch-a-Sketch is a different story...a simple bump or shake can be the ruination of hours of tedious work.
     So let's think about this, ladies. Both objects can accomplish nothing on their own; Secondly, they have to be placed into the hands of someone who knows how to use them for the object to be successfully operated; and lastly, at some point in time, both will be shaken.
      But let's look at what happens after that happens. I stated earlier, when the picture is shaken, a transformation occurs and a clear image is revealed. When the Etch-a-Sketch is shaken, hours of work can be lost in an instant. Ladies, which one are you?
     Hard times, financial hardships, temptation and other various heartaches ARE going to come our way.  These heartaches can shake us at our very core. Trials can attempt to destroy who we are, what we've been taught, what we believe and what the Lord has accomplished in our lives. For our faith to become strong, it HAS to be shaken! Ladies, we "wear so many hats" every single day of our lives and maintaining peace and strength during a "shaky time" can be challenging. Take heart! Be encouraged! Ladies, read and claim these two verses.
      Isaiah 26:3,4 promises "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. Trust ye in the Lord for ever; for in the Lord JEHOVAH is everlasting strength:"
Lord, thank You for Your promise of peace and strength. No matter what comes into our lives, please help us to keep our focus on You, and thank You for the promise of everlasting strength for us to be able to accomplish this through You. Amen.

Teaching Your Children To Work / Mrs Charity Brown

Mrs Charity Brown

Pastor's Wife

Marion Avenue Baptist Church

Washington, IA

 

 

TEACHING YOUR CHILDREN TO WORK: 

I've often heard my father in law, Dr. Larry Brown, make the statement 'I would rather my daughter marry a cussing or smoking man than to have her marry a lazy man!' Please don't misunderstand this comment - we are certainly not advocates of profanity or tobacco, in ANY way, shape nor form! :-) if you know us, you know that to be true! Yet I couldn't agree more with this comment! 

My husband has now pastored for over 4 yrs - a relatively short amount of time. But we have seen the  INCREDIBLE Value of having a great work ethic in people's lives on a weekly basis!! It is so refreshing and motivating to see the character and fortitude instilled in them to work hard, to love their work and to keep on working even when you don't 'feel like it.' Because it's quite apparent that if they have this kind of work ethic, that same character and discipline spills over into every area of their life! 

I recently read an article on this topic that changed my life. It was written by a lady I'm honored to call one of 'my closest friends.' She and her family attend our church. She is a homeschooling mother of ten children - several of whom are late teens/early 20's. Her children embody EVERYTHING that I would want my children to become! Their Christ-like spirit, their genuine passion for The Lord, their unselfish service to God and for others, their incredible work ethic, their love and respect for their parents and siblings...all these attributes that I see portrayed in their lives attest to the fact that their mother is quite an amazing wife and mother. Her children are certainly 'rising up to call her blessed' just like we read of the virtuous lady in Prov. 31. When ladies like this speak up on key issues of child-rearing, I can assure you that my ears perk up and I take notes!! Here is what I read that is motivating and inspiring me to teach my four little children to work!

 

What the Bible has to say about work: 

“It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.” Lamentations 3:27

“For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat.”  II Thessalonians 3:10

“Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.” I Corinthians 10:31

1. Teach your children when they are young.  Any child capable of dumping a basket of toys is certainly able to pick them up again.  Now some cheerful words and a parent’s  helping hand will do much to make your training more effective.  Buy a little broom and dustpan so your child can work beside you as you sweep the floor.  Most children love water-let them slosh as they rinse the dishes.  Setting the table and clearing the dishwasher are  great chores to teach your 3 or 4 year old that they must work before they eat. 
2. Be consistent in what you expect your children to do.   At our house, most of the boys started feeding the calves when they were about 6 years old.  Within months, I could see that this responsibility had a very positive effect. Having a chore that needs to be done twice a day at a specific time, rain or shine, cold or hot, whether we had guests or not, regardless of their desire to feed the calves by the appointed time, had a way of maturing them in all of life. This responsibility taught them that they could do a job in spite of their feelings. So you don’t live on a farm?  Then get creative-assign a child to prepare breakfast or dinner everyday, have them do a quick bathroom cleanup every morning before breakfast, run a paper route, or buy chickens or calves to feed.  Before we milked cows, we bought some calves and chickens for the sole purpose to provide work for our young children (6-7 yrs old).  We never actually kept good records but I am quite sure we lost money on these “projects” but that didn’t matter.  If need be, I would volunteer my children to mow an elderly person’s yard or remove the snow from their sidewalk for free just so they would have some work to do.  You could also turn your garage into a small mechanic shop or woodworking shop.  By all means, plant a garden!  This is an excellent way to teach your children the rewards of hard work.  
3. Teach them to work without pay.  We have never given our children an allowance.(GASP!) BTW, one of our sons just added his definition of an allowance-”Allowing your child to be lazy”.  And I didn’t even ask for that!!  We will not judge you if you give your children an allowance; this is simply the way we raised our 10 children.   So everyday chores such as cooking, laundry, cleaning, garden work, feeding calves, etc. were always done without pay.  We did, however; offer them additional work for a small or sometimes larger monetary reward.  At our house this might be loading out hogs (not for the faint at heart!), doing the early morning  milking (4:00 a.m.), trapping mice (what a nice relief for a mother who doesn’t enjoy living with mice or removing their dead bodies), painting a fence, doing an extraordinarily nasty cleaning job, digging thistles or dandelions, and more. 
4. Reward work.  While this may seem like a contradiction to the previous point, it isn’t. Actually, my children told me this is something that helped them learn to enjoy work.  On a hot, summer day I might tell them that I will set up the sprinkler after they weed and mulch the potatoes.  Or I will give them a list of garden chores to do on a Monday and Tuesday then take them swimming on Wednesday. We have also watched a movie while folding laundry or listened to a story on cd while making salsa or canning pears. Let them learn that there are rewards for a job well done. 
5. If they complain about not liking a job, be sure they know that the job will be their responsibility until they can do it cheerfully on a daily/weekly basis.  An example of that is Allison who used to dislike dusting in particular and cleaning in general.  In spite of her aversion to this chore, she was assigned weekly cleaning jobs which stayed the same for many years.  She will tell you that now she finds fulfillment in completing even difficult and some rather disagreeable jobs that she has encountered as an adult. We have had different jobs given to our younger children like clearing the dishwasher, taking out a bucket of scraps to the compost pile, and setting the table.  I have assured them that the chore will not be given to a younger sibling until they can consistently do it cheerfully.  Many times I have seen a 6 year old begin to find joy in a simple job which was done day after day.
6. Promise them that there will be many times in life that they will have to do something they don’t like to do. Does anyone need further explanation on this?
7. Remind them, when necessary, of the verse “He who eats must work”.  Be creative in how you apply this verse to real life situations.  A son told me that he thinks this was the first verse he learned!  I thought it was Psalm 23.  At the very least, you can make a child go without desert.

My desire is that your heart has been challenged and motivated by these seven points, just as I have been! It's not always easy, by any means, to do these things! But hey, who said being a mom is easy?! :-)  I hope you'll take these to heart and put them somewhere, if you have children, where they'll serve as a daily reminder of How we, as mothers, can instill a work ethic into our children! 

How I Keep Smiling! / Mrs Shannon Stiff

 

Shannon Stiff

Pastor's Wife

Lighthouse Baptist Church

Flint, MI

 

 

How I keep smiling after the trials I’ve been through!

 

My name is Shannon and I was raised in a Christian home.  My dad was a Pastor for over 30 years.  I have had a wonderful life, but there have been many trials that have come my way.  For example when I was newly married I got a call one evening that my brother and sister and sister in law had been in a major car accident.  We rushed over to my parents house and my sister said my mom and dad had rushed out to the scene when they heard the sirens so close to their house and upon arrival realized it was their son and daughter in the accident.  We waited for what seemed an eternity and then my mom and dad came home.  They said Stacey didn’t survive.  They watched as they pulled Stacey out of the car.  My dad had seen enough deer killed with their limp bodies that he knew Stacey was dead immediately when seeing her.  Stacey had just turned 14 years old.  My brother made it and he was very badly beat up and my sister in law had to be air lifted to a major hospital in another city.  She had many complications for years after.  She barely survived herself.  That accident was so tragic for our family.  It took my mom and dad many years to feel like they could smile again after that.  I remember crying everyday for six months after that accident. 

 

Then just a few years later  I was driving down Highway 5 and a lady who was high on Meth swerved over into my lane and hit me head on at 70 miles per hour.  My one and two year olds were in the car with me.   They were both in car seats, but my two year old broke her ankle and had a scratch on her liver.  My tough one year old was fine.   I on the other hand had a broken femur, fractured ribs and a collapsed lung.  They took me to a different hospital than my kids.  I was immediately knocked out when we crashed and I awoke to a nice neighbor calming my kids until the ambulances arrived.   On the way to the hospital I overheard EMT’s saying how they didn’t think I was going to make it.  I remembered having a peace in my heart that I was going to go to heaven.   Well, my dad gets the call that we have been in this accident and runs down to tell my husband about the accident.  They were both at the church working at the time.  They all rush to the car and go to both of the hospitals to see how we were doing.  I can’t even imagine what my mom and dad were thinking after already losing a child.  I was in intensive care for a week and in the hospital total for two weeks.  I had to learn to walk again.  I limped for six months after that and had to use a walker.  I was in my twenties.  How embarrassing!   We all recovered, but what an ordeal.

 

Then just about three years ago.  We heard the news that rocked me and my family’s world.  My dad had committed some sins throughout his ministry that caught up with him and he forfeited the ministry.  What a shock!  That  was the hardest thing me and my family has ever gone through.  So, I guess you could say that I have been through a lot. 

My goal has always been to keep a good attitude in everything!  I learned through all of this to lift my God up and Praise Him continuously!   Here are some things that have helped me get through  these tough times.

 

1.  I read my Bible and pray mostly everyday!  I say mostly everyday, because I am human and honest.  Hebrews 4:12  For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

2.  I laugh as much as I possibly can! Proverbs 17:22  A merry heart doth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.

3.  I realize God works everything out for our own good! Romans 8:28  And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose.                                                       

4.  I praise God all throughout my day everyday!  Psalm 86:12 I will praise thee, O Lord my God, with all my heart: and I will glorify the name for evermore.

5. I choose to dwell on good things only and work on solutions to problems.  Phil. 4:8   Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.

6.  I will not worry about problems and I will only pray about them.    Phil. 4:6  Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made know unto God.   

         

I hope this helps someone who may be going through something tough right now.  The Lord will get you through it.  Remember God is our strength and refuge.  God loves you and I very much and wants to help us in our time of need!   Have a great day ladies!