As Christian mothers we all want to raise faithful children.  I want to give you some practical tips to help you do that.  These I have learned by what has worked, not only with my children, but what I have seen in others.

Have your children in Bible class.
You should be there anyway. Yes, you should be teaching them at home but even children learn from assembling together.  I had a mother tell me one time that her child felt left out and didn’t feel included when he was at services.  I told her that there is no excuse for bad behavior on the part of the other children, but… she didn’t have him in Bible class so the other kids didn’t really know him.  That was her fault and not the fault of anyone else.

Have your children at the gathering of the saints.
PERIOD!!  We know we are to come together on the first day of the week to partake of the Lord’s supper (Acts 20:7). Hebrews 10:25 warns us to not make it a habit of forsaking the assembly. Is it your “habit” to stay home when you are tired? Is it your “habit” to miss for work? Is it your “habit” to miss for sports?
You will set the pattern for your family. You are the parent! Your children will not make “priority” decisions for their activities until they are much older. You, as one of the parents, will make the decision for your family to put God first. Stop putting school activities before the gathering of the saints! Stop putting sports before the gathering of the saints! Stop putting an occupation before the gathering of the saints! STOP PUTTING WORLDLY THINGS BEFORE GOD!

Don’t just be “Sunday morning Christians”!
Be there when the saints assemble. If your congregation meets on Sunday night, be there! If your congregation has a midweek service, be there! If there is a gospel meeting or seminar, be there! Teach them—by showing them—the importance of coming together with God’s people. If you need a reminder on how the New Testament church behaved, read Acts 2:42-47 and Acts 4:32-37.

Make your church family, family.
They may be the family that you never had. Treat them that way. Love them! Have them in your home! Do things with them! Show your children the importance of putting God’s kingdom before worldly people. By the way, this is also one way to win souls. When the world looks at the “family” relationship that you have within the church they will have a longing to be a part of that family. But you must have that relationship first.

Don’t let the world influence your thinking!
Is a 4 year old in ballet a sinful situation? No, it isn’t. But… what pattern are you setting?  Look at the clothing they wear. Is it modest, Christ-like apparel? It’s cute when she is 4, but how about when she is 14? THINK LIKE A SPIRITUAL PERSON! How does it affect the “big picture”? The “big picture” is having faithful children in the end. Sports are not a sin within themselves but our society has convinced even those within the church that it’s okay to put sporting practices and events before the gathering of the saints. Is that how you want your child to think in the “big picture”? Surely not. You can have your children learn all of the “positive aspects” of playing sports without them missing any services/ activities of the church.  THINK LIKE A SPIRITUAL PERSON IF YOU WANT YOUR CHILD TO GROW UP AND THINK LIKE ONE!

I want your children to be faithful! I want your family to be together in heaven! This small list of practical advice is just the beginning, but these SIMPLE steps will make such a HUGE difference in the lives of the people in your family! If you want to raise faithful children, you must show them how to be faithful by living it yourself!

Tami Roberts

And speaking of the babes/ It’s always “out of the mouths of babes”…

We have three with us this weekend, while Hannah is speaking at a ladies day at the good Sandyville church near Parkersburg, WV. When three are here it’s a noise competition and a general knock-down/drag out—not of people, but things. Today, I’m actually taking them to explore a nearby cave. I think the damage today will be under the earth and who will know? I think if Eliza Jane says “I a-uh-dentally” one more time, I’ll…well, I’ll probably grab her up again and tickle her. (Actually, I can no longer pick her up, which makes me very sad! But she is off the charts—both weight and height.)

So, it was 3:53 am and I was about done. I’d already been up with Ezra, who had a bad dream, when Eliza came pitter-pattering to my bedside and cried “I had a bad dweam!”

I must say here that I didn’t really believe her. I really thought that it was all those other times she’d said that and I had lifted her into my bed and snuggled her back to sleep that had driven her to imagine that her benign dreams were a little bit “bad”; bad enough to come and climb in. I lifted her up and put her between Papa and me. That cast on her right arm is “to be reckoned with” in a double bed with three people! (It is a “violet” cast and she is so proud of it.)

Eliza then whispered “I don’t think you can hear my wuhds.”

I said, :I don’t need to hear your words. We are not talking. We are going to sleep.”

Then she softly whispered “Well, God can hear my wuhds.”

I woke up then, for maybe the first time. “Oh, yes, you go ahead and talk to God. I can hear, too.”

The she whispered, “Dee-ah God, PWEASE, oh PWEASE, don’t let me have any mow-ah bad, ‘cary dreams. In Jesus’ name. Amen.”

Well, I was pricked. I had doubted the severity of her dreams. But, I did go right back to sleep (With my arm securing the otherwise unruly cast) in spite of my conscience-ache .

In the morning, I asked her if she could remember her dream.

“Oh yes. It was mama and me and somebody else. Mama spilled a bag of cookies and a whole bunch of dogs came and ate dem all up. When dey finished eating dem, dey attacked us.”

I said “Did they bite you?”

She said “Dey didn’t get us. We ran and ran and while we runned, I waked up.”

Lord, Help me to be more trusting of the innocent ones, more sympathetic and comforting in their little trials and more assured that You hear our whispers. And help me to remember that sometimes the innocent ones who need me may be bigger people, too.

Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish (Matthew 18:14).

Cindy Colley

Jude 1:3 – “Dear friends, I wanted very much to write to you concerning the salvation we share. Instead, I must write to urge you to fight for the faith delivered once and for all to God’s holy people.”

As I opened the car door to step into the parking lot, I heard the commotion. A nest high above the door of the shop I was about to enter was being fiercely protected by a tiny momma bird. Circling above her nest was a large predatory enemy on a mission to claim her egg-babies.

As this enemy-bird circled and approached, the momma fiercely guarded her fortress, fighting back with all she had. She made loud noises, flapped her wings, dive-bombed, and pursued the bird in attack-mode. Momma bird seemed unconcerned that her petite size was dwarfed by the mass of her enemy. Her sole focus was defending what was precious to her.

As the predatory bird conceded defeat and retreated, the momma bird returned to sit on her nest. With the show over, I entered the shop and my thoughts turned to the precious things in my life. What did I hold dear enough to defend? I thought about my family and to what great lengths I would go to protect them. As any momma can attest, there would be no enemy too large for my maternal attack. I would have no fear, nor would I hesitate should a threat come to any of my “baby chicks.”

Then my thoughts turned to my faith. Would I fight with the same determination for the core beliefs found in the Good News of Jesus Christ? Would I fight for goodness and kindness and love with the same vigor as I would fight for my family? Would I defend my Heavenly Father with the same fervor as I would defend those I love?

Jude, the brother of Jesus, was once an unbeliever. But Jude came to know the truth of Jesus and fiercely defended it. Jude reminded us how precious our faith is. He warned us of predators anxious to steal truth, and he called us to protect it at all costs. Yes, Jude knew spiritual warfare would attack our beliefs just as the predatory bird attacked the momma’s nest.

Whether in the workplace, within our social circles, or within the church, we will be called to be the army of God and defend His precious name. So, friend, as you clothe yourself today in God’s love, also remember to arm yourself for battle. The predator may be circling your nest ready to rob you of your precious faith.

Father God, fill us with the courage to defend your truth.

Blessings,

Rita Cochrane

“No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thorn-bushes, or grapes from briers.” (Luke 6:43-44 NIV)

My wife and I are in the process of purchasing a new house. The opportunity presented itself to buy a house just being built in a new housing scheme in a village on the edge of the countryside. To us this was our dream come true.

In purchasing a new house, we will be planning what the ground at the back of the house will be like. We want grass for our grandchildren to play on, but we also want to plant some fruit trees. There isn’t anything much better than being able to eat an apple picked off your own tree.

When we plant trees, how will we know they are apple trees? Some who are more knowledgeable than I am could probably look at the bark or the leaves and tell you what kind of tree it is. I need to look at the fruit. As Jesus put it: “each tree is recognized by its own fruit”. If we plant apple trees we expect to get apples and not figs, pears or grapes.

We also want the trees to be healthy. A good, healthy tree will produce good fruit. If the tree is not healthy it won’t produce good fruit.

When Jesus talked about fruit trees he really wasn’t talking about trees. He was using fruit trees to illustrate our lives.

“A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.” (Luke 6:45)

If we are good people – and the idea here is someone who is faithfully following God – then we will be storing up good in our heart, in our lives, and our lives will show the good that we have stored there. But if we are not good people and are storing evil in our heart then what is it that our lives will produce? They will produce evil.

Have you listened to the conversations that most people have? Sadly, not only are the words they use offensive, but what they talk about is often offensive and crude. Why do they use the language they do and talk about things that would make a sailor blush? Jesus explains it: this is what their hearts of filled with. When a person fills his life with foul language and crude stories, that is what comes out.

Have you noticed that even young children now use the same foul language? Why do they do this? Where do they learn such words? Obviously, from those around them.

What is the lesson for us from this? The question for us is: with what are we filling our lives? If we expect to have a faith-filled life, then we need to be filling it with God’s word. If we want to be able to encourage others in their walk with Jesus, we need to be filling our lives with God’s word. If we are surprised at what comes out of our mouths we need to look at what we are allowing into our lives.

Photo by Jon Galloway, October 2019.

Jon Galloway

The current generation would not do well living under the Old Testament lawGod was very strict about the behavior of children and being disobedient to parents. Some things were punishable by death.

Last week at the grocery store, a young mother went up and down the aisles with her little boy screaming. He was not hurt or in need of anything. He just continued screaming, I guess, because he wanted to scream.

I was shopping recently, and a little girl slapped her mother when she was corrected. The mother ignored the slap and continued trying to get her child to behave.

A dad often brings his little daughter, about 3, into a local coffee shop. He spends most of his time taking things away from her and putting them back on the shelf. He lets her pour out the ice from her cup of water and play in it. He never corrects her.

Children are allowed to run up and down the aisles at church, pushing people aside without regard for their safety. This is regular behavior at many churches. The parents watch, sometimes calling to them to slow down, but no consequence is delivered. Some of these same children like to squeal loudly during the worship service, sometimes to the extent it interferes with worship.

I know none of these incidences are in the law. Certainly, none of them are punishable by death. But God’s law does provide rules for parents and for children. “Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. Honor your father and mother, that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land. Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.” It is the parent’s responsibility to set the rules, and it is the children’s responsibility to obey  them.

Parents use the excuse that they will be arrested if they spank their child. Bystanders are often quick to interfere with parents punishing a child. There are, however, ways to handle these situations. Consequences need to be had for bad behavior. There are other ways, but that takes time and teaching. Sadly, many parents don’t “have the time.” They will say, “He/she will grow out of it.” If children don’t know how to obey their parents, how will they know how to obey the laws of the land?

The other side of this story is much more pleasant. I am working with four little girls getting ready for Lads to Leaders. None of them are old enough to compete, but they have the opportunity to participate just to get them comfortable in front of people.

They have practiced, learned their Scripture reading or speech, and they listen to the instructions for what they are to do, and how they are to behave. Each one comes to give me hugs. One recently brought me a coloring picture which she said she had colored just for me because I had helped her with her speech. What a joy these girls have been!

We as Christians need to open our hearts to the young ones in our congregations. Be good examples, be mentors, be encouragers. The rewards will be worth the time.

Sandra Oliver

A couple of weeks ago we had Waldo come home from college for the holidays. It was Sunday morning and Waldo never showed up for Bible class or worship service. His parents were asking, “Where’s Waldo?” They got home to find Waldo visiting with old high school friends. After the friends left, Waldo’s mother asked him if he attended services while at college and he responded with, “When I can”.

Last week I gave some practical pointers on how to make sure you are never wondering, “Where’s Waldo?” I thought this week we would continue along those same lines with more practical advice taken from the example of Waldo and his parents.

I have never asked/told my children to go to services while they were living in my house.
We raised our children going to all services of the church so it was never questioned. I had a mother tell me once that she really had a hard time getting her 11-year-old boy to get up for services because he didn’t want to go. She asked me what to do because I had an 11-year-old boy at that time. I was baffled! We had never had that problem; our children were excited to go to services. I covered this pretty well last week, but I wanted to put out there the importance of showing them faithful attendance starting when they are little.

Be in charge of whom your children are spending time with.
“Do not be deceived, bad company corrupts good morals” (1 Corinthians 15:33). You are raising soldiers for the cross so you want to train them to be around worldly people, but be in charge of those situations. Ours was the yard that the neighborhood kids gathered in. I never cared how many kids were playing there as long as they played nicely and they all knew the rules. I wanted to be in charge of what was going on with my children. Make sure you are nurturing the relationships that your children have with other children in the church. These can be lifetime friendships. But beware if as your child hits middle school and high school age and most of their friends are not from Christian homes. They WILL be influenced! Again, encourage friendships within the church. This is VERY important!!

Don’t allow your children to miss services or church activities!
Just don’t ever start it.  But…I covered this last week.  This will help keep you from ever asking, “Where’s Waldo?”

Ask yourself, “Am I raising soldiers for the cross? Am I equipping my children to be in the world but not of the world?”
Waldo went out into the world and it sounds like he forgot to put his armor on.  We know that as Christians we are to put on the armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-17). Now put that armor on your children and show them how to win souls. We do not win souls by isolating our children from the world. We MUST prepare them to go out into the world! Was there anything wrong with Waldo talking to old high school friends? Not at all. But who had the stronger influence? Was Waldo using those relationships to bring his friends to Christ? It doesn’t seem so because he was allowing them to influence him in a way that didn’t bring glory to God. You are raising your children to go out into the world—don’t forget that—but raise them to know “why” they are going: to win souls and bring glory to God.

Waldo was a soldier that got entangled in the affairs of every day life (2 Timothy 2:4).
You must teach your children how to be soldiers that remember to please the one that enlisted them. Waldo probably learned that form of “soldier life” from his parents. Again, I covered “putting God first” last week, but it must be repeated. BE A SPIRITUAL THINKER! This life is but a vapor. It doesn’t matter if your child is the fastest or the smartest or the most coordinated. Does your child, in the life that they live, bring glory to God in all that they do? Do you?

If you start now, no matter the age of your children, putting God first, you will be blessed. Your children will watch and you can show them that you are a soldier for the cross and Jesus is the one that enlisted you. Teach them by your life so that one day you don’t turn and ask, “Where’s Waldo?”

Tami Roberts

Among the initiatives that President Trump  has already signed is one that would expand the use of in-vitro fertilization, making it more available and affordable.

From whitehouse.gov:

• The Order directs policy recommendations to protect IVF access and aggressively reduce out-of-pocket and health plan costs for such treatments.   

  • The recommendations will focus on how to ensure reliable access to IVF.
  • Priority will also be placed on addressing any current policies, including those that require legislation, that exacerbate the cost of IVF treatments.

• The Order recognizes the importance of family formation and that our Nation’s public policy must make it easier for loving and longing mothers and fathers to have children. 

• tments are needed.

  • The cost can range from $12,000 to $25,000 per cycle and multiple cycles may be needed to get pregnant.  
  • IVF is often not fully covered by health insurance.
    • Only a quarter of employers report coverage of IVF for their employees.
    • Just a handful of states require some sort of coverage for IVF in state-regulated insurance plans.
    • The federal government covers IVF in a limited capacity for military personnel, veterans, and federal employees. 

• Department of Health and Human Services data reports that more than 85,000 infants were born as a result of IVF in 2021.

While the above information sounds pro-family, no initiative that continues to promote the conception of children to be discarded or placed in freezers around our nation—to be left there without a plan for their lives or futures— can be pro-family. What the initiative fails to address is that, while 85,000 babies were born through IVF in 2021, more than 238,000 patients attempted IVF in the same year. If clinics created 7 or 8 embryos (children) for each of these patients (a conservative estimate), then that would yield 1.6 to 1.9 million live embryos. With only 85,000 of these embryos being brought to term in 2021, that leaves somewhere between 1.5 million and 1.8 million embryos being created, but never brought to term. Small numbers of these “extra embryos” will be retrieved later or adopted out, but between 2004 and 2019, there were only 8500 births from adopted embryos. *

In America today, we are actually killing more babies with IVF than we are in the abortion industry!

The devil creatively weaves sin and death into initiatives that appear to be pro-family. Further, it should not be just the Catholic segment of the religious world that mounts a small opposition to the rampant use of IVF in our country today. God’s people in the church of Jesus Christ should be vocal and determined in efforts to stop the creation of embryos that will be destroyed once the strongest and “most viable” have been given the privilege of even having a “post-birth.”  

I will, almost certainly, be accused of being unsympathetic to couples who want to be loving parents. Once again, though, I cannot turn a blind eye to the deaths of a half-million per year, whose parents have conceded, prior to the procedure, their immediate or delayed deaths. It’s unconscionable, that we, as a nation, have largely given up the fight for these babies, who outnumber those whose lives are ended after they are growing in the womb in the slaughter that is the abortion industry.

*https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/257066/more-human-embryos-destroyed-through-ivf-than-abortion-every-year

Cindy Colley

Acts 8:39 “He went on his way full of joy.”

Let’s talk about joy. It is related to happiness, yet these are two different emotions. Joy goes deeper and is longer lasting than happiness. So, allow me to share one of my favorite stories of joy.

We find the account of Philip and the Eunuch in Acts 8. Philip, a devout follower of Jesus, was summoned to the desert by an angel. Surely Philip questioned how he could possibly bring glory to God in the middle of the desert. But the Great I AM had great plans for him. It was there, amid the sand, sun, and heat, Philip encountered an Ethiopian man. This man held high esteem in the court of the Queen, yet all those privileges failed to satisfy him. So, in his quest for something more meaningful, he searched scripture. When Philip joined his chariot and shared with him Jesus Christ, the Ethiopian man embraced the Good News, was baptized, and “He went on his way full of joy” (Acts 8:39).

A dry, lifeless desert seems to us an unlikely place to discover joy, yet it was the perfect spot for Jesus the Redeemer and Savior to do His work. After finding Jesus, the Ethiopian man continued on rejoicing and no doubt anxious to share the Good News of Christ. Imagine how the second leg of his long, hot journey far surpassed its beginning, because now he knew the Savior. The Ethiopian entered the desert searching and left the desert filled and refreshed; a most unlikely response to desert life.

Do we sometimes find ourselves in the desert places of life – places that leave us dry and famished and desperately seeking to be refreshed by the living water of Jesus? Perhaps we have forgotten the peace and comfort of true joy that awaits us when we re-connect with the Savior. Amid hardship, pain, and difficulties, the priceless gift of Jesus provides us deep joy. And, just like the Ethiopian of long ago, we, too, can rejoice even in the dry, desert places.

Father God, we praise you for the joy you sent into our lives when you gave us your Son.

Blessings,

Rita Cochrane

The story of Elijah and the prophets of Baal is a familiar one. What follows is not so familiar.

With the 450 prophets of Baal dead, and the people of Israel declaring, “The Lord, he is the God; the Lord, he is the God”, Elijah thinks he has performed well. Ahab returned home, and there he related to Jezebel what had happened. Had Jezebel been open to the truth, she would have denounced her idols and turned to God. Had Ahab realized that the idols he had allowed in his kingdom were false gods, he would have “cleaned house” and declared Jehovah God the true God. Neither turned from their evil ways.

Jezebel responded by sending word to Elijah that by the next day she would take his life or die. Elijah reacted by running away. This was understandable since his life was in danger.

Out of Ahab’s jurisdiction, he lay exhausted under a juniper tree. He slept there until an angel woke him and gave him a cake and water. A second time an angel woke him and told him to eat, because he was going on a long journey.

His journey took him 40 days and 40 nights, and he found himself in a cave where the Lord appeared to him and asked him what he was doing there. He answered that he had done what he could to change the people of Israel. He had torn down the altars of their false gods, killed the prophets of Baal, and “I, even I only, am left.”

Elijah was a sad, desperate man who wanted God’s people to be faithful and serve only Him. It took a strong wind, and earthquake, and a fire to get his full attention. But it was the still small voice that brought him to his senses.

God asked him a second time what he was doing there, and Elijah answered him the same way, including the statement that he was the only one left who served the God of heaven.

It seems that Elijah was frightened by Jezebel’s threat and ran away because he was afraid to die. Maybe he was; but I believe there was more to it than that. I believe he was discouraged. He thought his powerful illustration of God’s power would have convinced the people to turn to God. It did for some for a short time, but obviously Jezebel brought them back under her control. He truly believed only he, from the thousands of God’s chosen people, was faithful to God. God had to tell him that there were 7,000 that had not bowed to Baal or kissed the statue of Baal.

God let him know he still had work to do, and He sent Elijah back to anoint a king of Syria, a king of Israel, and to anoint his successor. Spending some time alone with the Lord made him realize God was not done with him. He still had things to do before he left the earth.

There are things we can learn from this Old Testament story. First, when we are discouraged, we should talk to God about it. Elijah didn’t ask God before he ran away, and that might have saved him from a very long journey.

Second, we won’t always find God in places of power. It is the still, small voice that we find the answers we seek. It is in the quiet time with God that we can remove the doubts and fears we feel and allow God to speak to us through His Word.

Third, we are never alone. There will always be those who continue to serve God. There will always be access to the Bible, and the church will never be destroyed. God gives us that promise.

Lastly, as long as there is breath in us, we have a job to do for the Lord. We may need to search for a way to serve God when we are sick or unable to do the things we used to do. Maybe we can only be an influence to those around us; but God will let us know when He is done with us, just like He did with Elijah.

Even in Elijah’s last hours on this earth, He served God. When Elisha asked for a portion of Elijah’s spirit, Elijah told him that would be up to God. His faith had grown. His attitude had changed, and he continues to serve as an example of faithfulness to us today.

Sandra Oliver