Build Your Child's Faith

By Julie Ferwerda 

Want to give deep roots to your kids' faith? In today's culture, it is critical that we build a spiritual heritage into their lives-one that will overcome the lies assaulting them from an early age and give them a lasting passion for God. Deuteronomy 6:5-7 commands us to teach our children to love God with all their hearts by nurturing their spirits continually. Here are five methods we've used with our family over the years that will do just that.

1. Relate things in the natural world to the spiritual world, and turn the "every day" into teaching moments.

While driving on a familiar rural road one day, we saw dozens of used blue smiley-faced Wal-Mart bags-ones we had never noticed before-caught in fences, roadside bushes, and blowing across the fields. We decided to have a contest to see who could spot the most. This led to a discussion about how many lies (ones that look fun) Satan scatters around us every day that we don't even notice unless we are looking for them.

 

Is the Risk of Loving People Worth It?

By Julie Ferwerda

How can I willingly invest in people, knowing they are going to let me down, hurt me, or die? Is it worth it to set myself up for all that pain and rejection? Unless...I've had it all wrong. All the times I've waited for people to live up to my hopes and expectations--friends, kids, parents, and husband--maybe those people aren't here for me. Maybe I'm supposed to be here for them. Just maybe God put me in their lives to help them and teach them, and not to get focused on what I want or what I get out of the relationship. Maybe they're not capable of giving any more than they do, because, like me, they're operating out of empty places.