Please read the Headmistress' post at the Common Room on suggestions for parents whose children will be seeing the president's address to classrooms across the nation... even if your children will be spared, I think that there are many really important things to discuss with our kids here!

"Children, should be... loved, not coddled; led, not driven, respected as
an individual... guided to walk freely on directed paths; to slay
caprice and to liberate will; to kill selfishness and to conquer self;
helped by the shining of your steady light to a vision of the
relationship between the world of nature and the world of the spirit..."

Kate Douglas Wiggin (author of Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm)
(HT to The Common Room)

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly

Ann’s writing often moves me, telling me truth in poetic words that sink deep into me, convicting me and pointing me to The Savior.
Read today’s post at A Holy Experience.
I was convicted by this phrase: “So I do it. I grab the angriest, messiest heart and hold it close.”
How often I want to push away the angriest, messiest heart in our home! How often I let that one turn me into the one who is the angriest, leaving a bigger mess that is so much harder to clean up than the one left by one littler, simpler… “take the log out of your own eye…”

We are memorizing a passage of Scripture as a family. We desperately need to renew our minds with the truth of God, I need it most of all.

Here is what we are working on.

“Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.” Colossians 3:12-16

A Bible Bookmark for our kids.

While at the Home Educators of Virginia Conference, Conrad and I learned about a great idea for a devotional aid for our kids. We learned how to make this Bible bookmark at the workshop entitled “Raising Daughters for God” by Joy Moore of Daughters4God.
All you need is a 3x5 card for each child and a Bible and concordance (or For Instruction in Righteousness, if you have it).
On the blank side, holding the card vertically write a list of people that you would like your children to pray for on a permanent or semi-permanent basis. Start with Daddy, and Mommy, then go to church leaders, teachers and perhaps other relatives, listing them one at a time. Follow these with the President and other leaders who need our prayers regularly. Lastly, add any long term prayer requests, we have added Micah.

Next, turn the card over and holding horizontally, list a character trait that you think that this child needs to work on, and perhaps a short definition. Then on the lines of the card, write out a verse or passage of Scripture that go with the character trait that you would like them to read (and memorize) each day. For help with this, here’s a link to a list of Christian character traits.

Then, if you have non-readers and they are having their quiet times each morning, you should take at least a couple of mornings a week and “do quiet time” with them. This way they are being trained in how to have personal time with the Lord, and you can help them read and pray from their book marks.