What’s your Bible story? It’s a question I ask often when I speak to Christian educators or lead a Ladies Retreat. It’s a beautiful thing to watch someone’s countenance change from ‘here’ to ‘then’ as he or she tells the story of their Bible. It’s a stroll down their spiritual memory lane. Listening to the ‘who’, the ‘where’, the ‘when’ and your heart can jump straight into your throat.

Just a couple of weeks ago, I broke down and bought a new bible. I wrestled with letting go of the current one, but when chunks of Genesis rested in 2 Kings, and pages from Matthew are folded into the creases of Mark, it had to be done.

In 1968, I was 7 years old and my world was round. My parents gave me a Bible that fit perfectly under my arm as I rushed to Sunday School. It was a red-letter King James Bible with a zipper closure. This was my Starter Bible. Every name was marked and spaced phonetically so even this first-born-overachiever wouldn’t stumble if she read aloud the story of Melchizedec. In those days we could earn star stickers on a huge chart for memorizing Bible verses. So all the SHORT bible verses are underlined throughout. Think: “Jesus wept.” This little, black Bible is all that I have of my childhood. As a junior in high school, our home burned down. To the ground. Everything was lost. Everything except our Corning Ware dishes and our Bibles. In every one of my siblings’ bedrooms and my own, the only things rescued…the only things recovered…the only items with no ash…were each of our Bibles. I can still turn the pages at times and the smells of that day return.

In 1991, after resigning from serving as the Assistant Vice President of Investments at a bank in south Louisiana, I found myself standing on the stage of our local church being introduced as the new Kindergarten teacher and Teaching Supervisor at Comite Christian Academy celebrating with God for providing a way that I could earn a living and do more than just feed and clothe my kids at night. As I was being introduced, I prayed, “Lord! It doesn’t get any better than this. I am so excited about what you are going to do in our lives.” When Bob called home that night, he shared we’d been transferred to Connecticut. The memory is so vivid even today.

We moved to New England in November. I couldn’t find red beans, Rotel tomatoes, Duke’s mayonnaise, nor grits. No one spoke like me. My neighbors were polite, but hardly friendly. It snowed our second day and didn’t melt until the following April. I’d never been so cold in all my life. I was lost, and lonely. Bob and the kids gave to me a hardback, red-letter New International Version Life Application Bible for my 31st birthday. This is my Young Mom & Wife Bible. The black print was God’s history with His people. If the print was red, “Jesus said.” And if the print was blue, it was God’s history with me. There is a lot of blue print. Marked up especially around Proverbs 31, 23rd Psalm, Ephesians and everywhere else a young mom and wife would go for comfort, help, encouragement, joy, and vocabulary of love and purpose. On the inside cover is a picture of #1 Son and Baby Girl just after they were baptized.

By 2001, we had been moved by Bob’s company to the Atlanta area. Our kids were in upper elementary school. We bought a home, and began serving in a church just around the corner. We’d both gone on our Emmaus Walks the year before and Bible study was part of the rhythm of our lives. I was teaching weekday preschool, beginning to present trainings and workshops all over North Georgia. My hardback Bible was in pieces and I eagerly saved my coupons and picked up a thumb-indexed, red-letter, NIV, Life Application Bible from the local Christian bookstore. One of my students gave to me a Bible cover that I still use to this day reminding me of my calling and the huge responsibility to consider myself a teacher. This is my Warrior’s Bible. There is more written in blue ink here than any other. My faith files are clear with post it notes and added material to help me bring God’s story to life for me and mine and others.

This is the Bible I soaked in tears as the Lord and I fought through spiritual warfare, when He resurrected dead places in my heart and taught me to forgive. We endured seasons of sifting and wrestling, I claimed my call, I prayed, I taught, I fought, I hid, empty nested, and our children chose their partners for life.

Baby Girl tells me this new Bible is my New Beginnings Bible. Only time will tell of the season to come. A red-letter, NIV (1984), Life Application Bible because it’s the Bible that is the same translation as our student Bibles at our church. It’s hard enough to learn God’s vocabulary when the congruency is off in teaching.  My Warrior’s Bible was filled with years of Bible study teachings from a whole host of teachers, commentators, and personal experiences. It is so familiar. I can picture certain scriptures on the left top corner, or ‘in the middle of the page somewhere in John.’ As much as I miss turning the page to find familiarity, I am touched by a fresh word impressed upon me from a clean page with only His words and not my own. At least for now. When I turn the page I can be sure that Genesis is in the beginning and Revelation ends in the back of the book with “Amen.” And that’s a good thing.

What’s your Bible Story? Do your students know your Bible Story? When’s the last time you shared your Bible Story?

“Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in Your law.” Psalm 119:18
(This post was originally published in December 2015)

It was in a conversation among the leaders of our denominational conference that the first Clergy Family Day Away with the Bishop came to be. Camp Glisson was booked, invitations were sent, and a precious band of children’s ministry champions brainstormed what could be offered the children while the clergy and their spouses gathered for a bit of chapel life and face time with the Bishop.

Bishop Sue Haupert-Johnson was appointed the Bishop of the North Georgia Conference just over a year ago. She is known for her accessibility and her comfort in participating in small group. Oh, she shines in the large group, too, because she’s a fabulous communicator. But it’s in these small groups where you walk way feeling you’ve been heard, you’ve been encouraged, and you have a new friend and champion for what matters most: making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. She shared in our district Meet & Greet that when she retires, she’ll go back to teaching children’s Sunday school. Yes!

The plans for the day included small group time, a large group photo, lunch, a sharing by the Bishop with the children with a children’s Q&A, then the families could stay on campus to hike, swim in the huge pool with a cooler filled with freeze pops, play in the falls, family choice. With all this planned, the real action happened on the ball field.

While the clergy and their spouses enjoyed small group time with the Bishop at the beginning of the day, Ministry With Children colleagues led children in ‘get to know you’ games for preschoolers, early elementary, and upper elementary. There was a nursery provided for the little-littles led by a local church’s nursery staff in an adjacent building.

I had the preschoolers. The brainstorming team were geniuses to include games with balloons, pool noodles, foam sticker picture frames, hula hoops and laundry baskets.  One KidMin champion and her husband brought most of the supplies after arriving home from a week’s vacation at 1am that very morning. The other KidMin champion traveled more than two hours, with the first hour before dawn to extend extravagant hospitality to these families. I had a helper in a first-born 4-year-old and brought small, white bags to go on a nature hike for treasures. We each gathered a rock, a stick, a leaf, and a nut. If we found more than one of each, we shared with those who didn’t have any. We called each other by our names, we made new friends, and none of the games were done as originally intended, because playing with preschoolers has no rules except to laugh, to succeed, to be kind, to be together. We did it all!

It was a precious gift to serve these families in play with their littles. It was a precious gift to hear the Bishop share with them that they, too, are in the family business of sharing the love of Jesus. It was a precious gift to join the team to provide an environment where clergy families can be encouraged, be heard, be served, and make personal family connections beyond professional connections.

We closed our preschooler’s play time with a hula hoop and pool noodle dance party because dancing is what preschoolers do best. Sharing the love of Christ Jesus through play is what WE do best. I’m sure all these clergy families had a billion (probably not a billion, but this is how kidmin people talk) other things to do, but they chose to connect with the families of their peers professionally AND personally. And I am so glad I was invited to play in the sandbox….with their kids…watching squirrels…gathering treasures…laughing…in the sun…on a beautiful Saturday morning…in North Georgia.

“For the sake of my family and friends, I will say, ‘Peace be within you.'” Psalm 122:8

Serving at a local church with multiple buildings on the same campus, I can see first hand that parents can get easily frustrated if it takes 15 minutes to drop off all the littles all over campus before Mom and Dad can get where they need to be on Sunday mornings, especially if they are serving. This is why we opened a Kid’s Welcome Center for K5-5th grade. Every event, even Sunday school, will give parents a one-stop location to sign in their children and see their children immediately engaged in games and ‘friendship stations’ to begin the day/event. It also helps our church greeters to direct guest families to one location. And the benefits continue.

Adults engage in fellowship and community over coffee. Little people do the same over a shared game. If their hands are busy, their minds are calm. At the end of each week, the Welcome Center is set up with various ‘friendship stations’ so little people can play together. Playing together builds a sense of belonging. Learning to play together well builds connection to our peers and other members of the family of faith. Only a game can encourage even the shyest kids to talk and participate.

We add something new each month and even make a snack station with a water dispenser for those who are hungry and didn’t have time to eat. The first stop is a table at the entrance where students write their own name tags and this gives me the perfect opportunity to introduce myself, engage them in some chitchat with students and parents/grandparents, AND learn their names.

The bonus is for our parents who so faithfully lead a Sunday school class as a small group leader. They can register and drop off their littles, then head to their classroom to review the upcoming lesson or adjust the supplies that are provided…in peace. When Sunday school is scheduled to begin, the small group leader returns to the Welcome Center to gather their students to escort to their classroom. When Sunday school is over, the students are returned to the Welcome Center so the small group leader can tidy their spaces (we all share space with other ministries with children) and return unused supplies to their class carts. All I need to do is look down the hallway to see if their class roller carts are outside their doors to know if all the classes are finished.

If you look closely, there is usually a parent or even a Sunday school teacher in the mix…chatting and building with Lego bricks, setting up the Giant Jenga game again, or just touching base with a student who offered up a prayer request last week. The Welcome Center system has worked well and serves as an opportunity to extend extravagant hospitality and a sense of belonging. What other systems are you using to make for a smoother Sunday morning for your families?

“Welcome is the beginning of worship, for in welcoming one another, we welcome the divine ‘shekinah’, the holy presence of God that is in each person.” (Bath Church, Hospitality Team Letter)

The annual Children’s Ministry fall retreat for 3rd-6th graders for the North Georgia Annual Conference takes over two weekends at the beautiful Camp Glisson in Dahlonega, Georgia. Accepting a new position so soon before the scheduled weekends made it impossible for me to meet, greet, promote, and secure all the details to bring students from my new local church, yet I was invited by Rev. Debby Fox, the generous colleague who coordinates this fabulous event, to come and help. I jumped at the invitation with a resounding YES!

Even with atrocious traffic issues due to heavy hurricane evacuations from neighboring states, every driver approached the registration stop on campus with a smile and anxious anticipation of what the weekend would hold. The energy was contagious and carried into the first worship service after claiming bunks and cabins.

The ALIVE Retreat was planned to teach the liturgical worship calendar, introduce students to worship vocabulary, visual elements, various audio elements, and entirely developmentally appropriate. The incredibly gifted Chuck Bell prepared four worship experiences with 3rd-6th graders in mind and invites his very talented daughters to serve in leadership roles. It is impossible to explain the impact of their roles in the eyes and hearts of their peers. Overhearing a student say, “Hey! I could do that, too,” starts dreams and hopes early.

“If Sunday School was the place where people were built up in the faith, then camp was where they made their decisions about following the Lord.” Henrietta Mears

A District Superintendent was the teaching pastor for the first ALIVE weekend who took puppetry to a whole new level with this age group. The District Superintendent of the Atlanta-Marietta District has liturgical puppets and he had the students and adults riveted to the antics of his puppet friends. He was SO good! His teaching was SO good! He was SO funny! Overhearing a student share, “I saw His lips move, but he let that puppet roast him,” means this creative DS hit the mark.

• The students did not linger in the back, but were in the front ready to experience the teaching and worship completely.
• The food was fabulous and this year’s participants ate all of it. They probably didn’t need the gallon-sized Ziploc bags that were handed out to ‘save the chicken strips’ for later.
• The artwork and camper guide was beautiful and personally engaging. The drawstring backpack was perfect to carry essentials all over camp.
• The cooler weather did not make it too cold to swim.
• Some adults realized jumping from the platform would have gotten them further than trying to zip line into the water. Age is a crazy thing!
• The students learned to communicate with our great God with breath prayers…and were all-in every time I saw them pass the prayer nets.
• The students sang the songs, rang the bells, and participated fully.
• The Children’s Leaders were gracious to one another and loved on each other’s kids.
• The young adult leaders, ELI and RELI (Experiential Leadership Institute) student leaders rallied the students to play well, to play with, and to enjoy a sense of belonging that only ‘play’ can offer.

Something special takes place within us that firms up our understanding of how we are a connected body of believers when we participate in a fall retreat at a location that is part of and equips us to pass on our heritage of faith. Sharing sacred moments in sacred spaces makes for a faith that is deeply memorable and incredibly sticky. You can read about the previous retreats here and here.

“Camping programs are high yield. Taking people away from their regular life for a few days, and offering them a season of activity, intense focus without distractions, peer-to-peer interaction and Bible influence is perhaps one of the greatest investments in people’s lives.” Henrietta Mears

I did get to love on students of years’ past who remembered me and students from my previous local church. I about squeezed and hugged them until their eyes popped out of their heads. One young man was experiencing an away retreat for the first time after hearing his brother come home the last two years with stories. His fabulous Dad was a chaperone. Oh to be a fly on the wall when the younger brother and Dad returned home to share their stories with the older brother. Oh the stories…the testimonies…the memories.

“Let the redeemed of the Lord tell their story.” Psalm 107:2

A dear friend gifted to me a new book on prayer. This book is not for a quick sit-down, but rather a guide for some lingering before the Lord. This dear friend so knows my heart’s desire. The Book of Everyday Prayer: Liturgies for Personal Devotion, written by Jeremy Steele, is a delight for this prayer-vocabulary-challenged gal.

Jeremy Steele is a husband, father of four, and the teaching pastor at Christ United Methodist Church in Mobile, Alabama. He confesses on his blog that sometimes he doesn’t always know what to pray. A fellow sojourner, indeed. Like me, he is fascinated with the ancient prayer texts and song lyrics that help us come before a gracious God with a heart unsure of what to say, when to say, and how long to listen. From his own words, “The book… is for everyone who, like me, needs more than what comes off the top of their head.  It’s for the teen, young adult and adult who are ready to claim old hymns, beautiful Bible verses and a new word or two as their own prayers.”

The seven-day read-along guides offer prayers at different times of the day: dawn, morning, midday, afternoon, evening, and midnight. Each prayer opens with a Call to Prayer followed by a Confession, Invitation, Refrain, Scripture passage reading, the repeated Refrain, a Psalm/Song Lyric, the repeated Refrain, The Lord’s Prayer, a Prayer for Today, ending with a Concluding Prayer covering about three printed pages. I particularly like the text of Confession and Invitation. I know I don’t spend enough time inviting the Lord into the conversation and I sure don’t spend enough time in confessing before the Lord. The words bring me to pause, to breathe, to listen, to linger before the Lord.

At this point in my life, I find myself waking up a bit earlier and really enjoying the lingering in my prayer chair in the morning. I also find myself aware of a need to come before the Lord at other times of the day and this has proven to be the perfect tool.

Various prayer practices are also outlined in the book, but a special section is dedicated to prayers for occasions such as ‘cleaning a room’, ‘when a friend moves away’, ‘getting a new thing’, and even ‘coffee’ (I will insert ‘tea’ here). I’m not kidding! The prayers for situations of gain and loss as well as relationships are authentic and some may put a smile on your face. I think the Lord likes it when we come to Him with a smile…in prayer…for ‘working’, for ‘friendships’, even ‘video games’. Really, I’m not kidding…there is a prayer for video games and it’s fabulous!

The book is published by The Youth Cartel and is available here.

“Almighty and all-loving God. I thank you for the new friendships that are emerging in my life right now, and I thank you for the gift of all the friends that you have blessed me with in the past. I thank you for how growing closer to people helps me grow closer to you, and I thank you for the opportunities that friendship give to be a support and be supported by others.” ~ Jeremy Steele, The Book of Everyday Prayer, (page 183)

Less than a month ago, I accepted a full-time position with a new local church in ministry with children kindergarten through fifth-grade. The church is new to me on the ‘day to day’, but I have long known their generosity, their heart for service, and their reputation of training up leaders for more than 15 years from those who serve within the Emmaus community there. Good people, indeed!

The senior pastor asked me this very question the first time I met with him and a representative from the Staff Parish Relations Committee. One of our challenges as local church staff is to guard and prepare for ourselves that which we encourage for the congregation we serve. We have to creatively prepare for opportunities to engage in worship, corporate worship. As followers of Christ, we, too, are called to follow the directive by the author of Hebrews to ‘not forsake gathering together.’

“Then I (the apostle John) looked and heard, the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand (THAT’s community!). They encircled the throne and the living creature and the elders (serving a God of order.) In a loud voice they sang (singing is still a part): Worthy is the Lamb (Jesus) who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!” Revelation 5:11-12 NIV

This was revealed to John of how Jesus will be worshiped in Heaven. I am SO visual, it gives me a great picture of what it means to worship our great God.

How can we worship Him today in power? I have power over my emotions, my disposition, and setting my own priorities. I have the power to set aside one day a week as my Sabbath. Fridays are my Sabbath.

How can I worship Him today in wealth? With my money. Returning to Him which was His in the first place is an act of trust and obedience. Giving is the act of returning a tithe (10% of my increase). Since I am no longer in services when the plate is passed, I have now set it up for my bank to issue and mail the tithe.

How can I worship Him today in wisdom? With my mind. Romans 12:2 reads, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Jesus understood that any authentic transformation will happen for all of us in our minds first. When I am regularly in The Word, learning the language and vocabulary of God, transformation takes place. This one is seriously on me. If I claim I am not hearing from God…If I state that ‘I don’t get fed at church’… If I hold on to the idea that my personal preferences for Sunday morning worship determines if I worship or not… I am SO out of sync with what God intended worship to be.

How can I worship Him today in strength? With my body. I KNOW my triggers. Peanut M&Ms are my Judas sin…you know, sin that comes at you looking like a friend, kissing you on the cheek, then turning on you. I may not be able to scale a 10 foot wall, but taking care of my body is worship. Thank you, Fitbit, for the accountability help.

How can I worship Him today in honor? With my deeds. I honor our great God when I bake a cake, write a note, make a phone call, send an encouraging text, share a casserole (this is how we really share love in the south, right?), bring a flower, go above and beyond in my work, drop off a 24-pack of toilet paper when my neighbor has house guests due to a funeral or a wedding. How and when I serve should bring Him honor.

How can I worship Him today in glory? With expressions of hope, encouragement, and forgiving well.  Glory has a weight to it, a leaning-in quality. Ephesians 4:32 reads, “Be ye kind, one to another, tenderhearted, and forgiving one another, just as in Christ God forgave you.” So I give Him glory when I extend the same forgiveness He gives me. This is when worship doesn’t come easy. Yet He invites us to ‘lean in’ through prayer.

How can I worship Him today in praise? With my words and my speech. My words can heal or hurt, my countenance when sharing those words can help or hinder. My heart is heard by my words and how they are shared.

Worship is not where I go or the type of songs sung, it’s how we are to live. Not once a week, but every single day. I listen to sermons by podcast, sing to my favorite worship songs on my cellphone at the top of my lungs and in sign, attend other worship experiences that take place other than on Sunday mornings, and give online. I take bible study in small group, share life and accept accountability in a weekly Emmaus Reunion Group, and have my personal ‘quiet time’ (which is sometimes FAR from quiet) with the LORD each morning. Oh, and in my new position, I sing and dance before the LORD with little people every Sunday morning. How wonderful that our Great God has offered us the tools to serve AND the tools to worship the One and Only whose abundant love has ruined me for the typical, the ordinary, the mediocre.

“Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs.” Psalm 100:2

Ever have a situation that takes up WAY too much space in your head? It not only stays in your head, but lays heavy on your soul? And the situation is much more personal, because you are directly involved? It takes place in your world, in your house, in your backyard, on your turf. I used to filter my response with, “If I am still troubled to the same degree as when it happened, or even more so, after three days, then I need to do something about it.”

It’s been three days and I’m still twisted.

Those of us involved in ministry with children in the local church are spunky, creative, and nurturing. We also submit to the authority over us, keeping our heads down and doing the work. We typically avoid ever drawing so much attention to ourselves that we become targets. We are well-informed and can quickly read a room for safety because we are usually followed by little people and harm will not come to our own ‘on our watch.’ It’s kinda like the gift the LORD gives and grows in Moms and Dads to expand our peripheral vision to a complete 360 when it comes to our kids. We are easily influenced by those with credentials seemingly a tad better than we perceive our own because we wish to serve at our best. We don’t push back and we keep the peace although we are ferociously protective of the kids in our charge and our fellow servant leaders.

There are strategies we can learn to engage in these critical conversations well. When our natural response is to freeze, fight, or flight, Rev. Dr. Scott Hughes, Director of Adult Discipleship at UMC Discipleship Ministries, has been blogging and sharing around the country equipping folks to lean into these critical conversations with courage. Scott and I collaborated on what that engagement could look like for those who minister with children at a learning event last weekend. In the book Crucial Conversations we can learn to prepare for that conversation using the acronym STATE providing an ‘easy way to introduce risky information and defuse emotion, making it possible to keep a conversation on track.’ (Crucial Conversations)

S – Share your facts…this was my expectation, but this is what I saw happen; address the gap between expectation and reality.
T – Tell your story…this is how you felt and what you are now having to do as a result of the gap between expectation and reality.
A – Ask for other’s paths…ask questions for clarity and understanding with the goal of creating an environment of safety making him/her feel his/her opinion matters.
T – Talk tentative…presenting your story as a story and not as fact; refrain from pre-judging motives
E – Encourage testing…perhaps asking, “Do you have an alternative explanation for the discrepancy?”

Well, it’s been three days and I am just as twisted as I was when the situation took place. The expectation was one thing, the reality was something altogether different. My tribe was affected and I feel responsible. Ugh! I know the ‘whats’. I can use the STATE method to prepare and stay in my lane. The challenge now is ‘when and to whom?’  I covet your prayers…

“Be strong and courageous, and do the work. Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord God, my God, is with you. He will not fail you or forsake you until all the work for the service of the temple of the Lord is finished.” 1 Chronicles 28:20

Chantal and I became quick friends during my family’s time in New England. I had accepted Christ as my savior at 10 years old at VBS, but she made Him Lord of her life as an adult. She was on the disciple-of-Jesus express train and I jumped on with all I had. We sharpened one another as iron sharpens iron in the Lord’s army as wives, mothers of little people, and weekday preschool teachers. One evening a week from 8-9pm we would call one another to share prayer requests and then pray our hearts out over the phone. At the top of our prayer lists were to become the Godly wives our Creator called us to be and that our children, all under 7 years old at the time, would love the Lord with all their hearts, souls, and minds at an early age. We fasted one day each week for God’s call on the lives of our children, even to pray for their future spouses. Yet even with all of our intentionality I felt limited in my prayer vocabulary, until I picked up a copy of Stormie Omartian’s The Power of a Praying Parent. Thirty chapters with thirty prayers at the end of each chapter along with scripture. Whatever day of the calendar month, that’s the chapter I would pray for my children. That was 1993.

Godly parents desire to be faithful to pray for their children. I’m thinking today’s parents are just as challenged as I was in prayer vocabulary. I have always encouraged parental prayers as part of a parent’s spiritual discipline, and The Power of a Praying Parent was the best resource I’ve ever used. Though I started this prayer practice when my littles were under the age of 7, it was when they were in middle and high school these chapters were especially helpful: Praying Through A Child’s Room, Learning To Speak Life, and Avoiding Addictions. A fruitful resource indeed and in paperback still available today.

“Having raised children from birth to adulthood, I’ve come to realize that one of the main things our children will take with them when they leave our realm of influence is their faith. If we can be sure they have strong faith in God and His Word, and the love of God in their hearts, then we can know they are set for eternity. Our prayers can play a big part in helping them achieve that.” Stormie Omartian, The Power of a Praying Parent (p. 204)

While listening to the podcast , The Kid’s Ministry Collective I heard of a new book Bible Praying For Parents and immediately ordered two copies. Keith Ferrin and Judy Fetzer collaborated to publish a book of prayers straight from the Holy Bible. Mrs. Fetzer collected these 365 prayers and sent them to herself and others through her blog www.mamahenprays.wordpress.com. Y’all this book provides more than just a book of prayers.

Bible Praying For Parents is a great tool for brief, breath prayers for our kids for every day of the year. The book also includes a section for Bible praying by categories such as anger, anxiety, family relationships, temptation, and more. And if that wasn’t worth the $14.99 price of the book, the back section is entitled: Bible Blessings.

Forty-three blessings are listed in the order they are found in the Bible. Blessings to speak over your children at night, as they head out the door, while eating a meal, or wherever you wish to speak God’s Word and truth so they know the power and mystery of the One who loves them even more than you.

“From 2 Thessalonians 3:5 Blessing: ____________, may the Lord direct your heart into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance.” (p 293)

Hand in hand through childhood

When we read the Bible we learn God’s vocabulary and of His history and plan for His people. When we pray God’s vocabulary over our children, we hear His heart for our own, and our children hear His voice. This new resource should be beside every prayer chair on the planet because this I know: No one will pray for our kids like we will. Lord, may we be found faithful to do so regularly and well.

“A Godly Mother guides our steps…nurtures our growth, encourages our Spirit, molds our character, commits our lives to the One she’s been raising us for.” Julee Lynn Boren 1971-1998

Need to know if you are on the right path? Need to know if the vision for your ministry is in line with the plans, vision, and mission with the church you serve? Need to join the conversation of informing yourself and others of where the Spirit is headed in your organization? Need to let the leadership know what in the world you’re doing and how long it takes to do it? Offer regular and periodic evaluations!

If you are not doing a job well, I’d hope you’d hear about it very early in the ‘running down that road’ process. But what if you don’t hear anything…neither encouraging nor critical?

What if you are in a constant state of evaluation, but your organization doesn’t offer a time for you to share the passion, dream, successes, and challenges across a table that got you the job in the first place? And who knows your goals? Your professional, your personal, your ministry goals? Do a regular self-evaluation!

There is something about putting such information on paper that offers accountability and gives clarity for a season, a ministry, an event. I so need this since I’m thinking about next Sunday, next year, and five years down the road all at the same time!

The idea behind self evaluation is that our judgment of what we think we are doing and what we actually are doing is not always the same. This is why it is so important to perform regular self evaluation. – Stanley C. Loewen, Health Guidance For Better Health

A colleague in my district children’s ministry networking group shared a list of five items she was being asked to respond to for this very purpose. With this list of questions we can easily and quickly put onto paper our response to offer focus, reflection, and even measure results. I do it every six months.

1. High points of your responsibilities

A job description outlines the bare minimums. A responsibility description outlines the much-less-cumbersome-to-outline responsibilities of the role one serves on the leadership team. Some responsibilities are seasonal. Some responsibilities have a greater impact on others on the team. This lets me outline a few of those things that are a priority and what I love which gives me energy and fosters the greatest creativity.

2. Three goals

Where do I want to see the ministry go this year? Though there is lots to do, what are the most important things to keep before my eyes, my heart, and my passions? These will offer clarity for what is actually in my bucket, the dogs in my hunt, and the runway on which to land my plane with deadlines.

“If all I do is tasks, I leave a ton of value on the table for creativity and initiation of doing things better.” – Seth Godin

3.  How am I taking care of myself?

What do I have in place over the next six months to maintaining healthy boundaries? From my most recent self-eval: Check and set my weekly schedule, Emmaus Reunion group weekly meeting, Blog writing, Partnering with CEF, Children’s Ministry Connection, District KidMin Networking Teams by my attendance.

4.  Who is on my ministry team?

Put onto paper 5-7 of the names of my inner circle, my go-tos, my champions, and who I can intentionally invest in over the next six months.

“Do for one what you wish you could do for everybody.” – Andy Stanley

5.  What can my pastor do to help or empower me?

This keeps me realistic in my expectations, helpful to the whole team, and gives me the vocabulary to have courageous conversations with my team leader. When I meet with him/her I am not rambling for what I need this week and something different next week. It keeps me focused for a bit of dreaming without being a high-maintenance team member. It does the ministry no good to confuse my organizational team leader when it appears I am all willy-nilly in the needs of the ministry. I limit this to a list of only three items. One item is always something to pray for me.

“Self-evaluation and assessment should be a major part of our lives as believers.” Sunday Adelaja

Self-evaluation helps remind me of my why. It helps me see what is most important in the coming six months so I am not easily distracted by the busy stuff on the calendar. It offers evidence of meeting measurable goals. It gives clarity in how and what to best communicate to my team sold out for Jesus and little people. It lets me know who to invest in.

We certainly don’t serve the Lord for pats on the back, but everyone needs to know regularly they are doing a good or great job. If we know the importance of volunteer appreciation and practice it with words of affirmation, small tokens of appreciation, notes of encouragement, birthday celebrations, and the occasional afternoon tea at the local coffee house, wouldn’t we also wish to hear and experience these same practices as staff members? If you are not getting it, then prayerfully release the expectation of someone doing it for you. Take yourself to lunch and celebrate your ministry through self-evaluation!

“God is within her, she will not fall; God will help her at break of day.” Psalm 46:5

Children, on average, laugh 200 times per day. Adults laugh 15 to 18 times a day. Serving and leading little people can give you the chance to make up your laughter deficit. We tend to think of humor as part of our genetic makeup, like brown eyes and blond hair, but a healthy sense of humor is a learned quality that is developed well in early childhood. Paul E McGhee, Ph.D. shares in Understanding and Promoting the Development of Children’s Humor, “Humor is a form of play. It is intellectual play or play with ideas.” A healthy sense of humor builds vocabulary, supports creative thinking, fosters social interaction skills, and promotes life skills necessary to cope with stress and hardships throughout the adolescent and adult years.

Early on, infants respond to physical stimuli like blowing raspberries or playing peek-a-boo. They enjoy silly faces and sounds and especially the faces of those they love. In the toddler years, visual humor is very funny. Making faces, putting on a silly hat, or using an ordinary item in an extraordinary way will have toddlers laughing out loud. When my grandson pushes the bubble mower, he is serious about mowing the yard, floor, or rug and he’ll hardly laugh. But empty the bucket of bristle blocks onto the floor and place the empty bucket on his head and he’ll run through the house squealing with delight. KidsHealth.org reports, “Anything that disrupts a pattern or expectation is funny to a toddler.” That explains how a diaper placed on your head, Daddy’s shoes worn by a preschooler, or knocking yourself on the head with a pillow and pretending to fall over will amuse your little one.

Other fun games you can play that will build a healthy sense of humor in a preschooler is Ring Around the Rosey, This Little Piggy, or Row, Roy, Row your….Car. Changing the lyrics of familiar songs will also make them laugh. As a preschooler’s vocabulary increases, so will opportunities to laugh.

Preschoolers are eager to show off new ways to be playful and they look to you for the proper response. One of the best ways to teach a healthy sense of humor is to be playful yourself. Be willing to be silly, wear odd hats, sing familiar songs with odd lyrics, and laugh along with them. Laugh well and laugh loud.

So the next time a bucket is emptied on the floor and your preschooler treats an object differently from its original purpose, be ready to laugh with your preschooler. You just might have a future stand-up comedian in your presence or a kid who can deal with whatever life throws at him/her in the most healthy response. So what should be your response? Full on belly laugh. Be a laughter encourager. Life skills, indeed.

“She is clothed in strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come.” Proverbs 31: 25