A Bolder Witness

"For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.  Be not though therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner:  but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God; Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began." 1 Tim. 1:7-9

As I've been studying the beginning of Ephesians 3 this week this scripture, also written by Paul, has been on my heart.  Paul was called by God to deliver an unpopular, politically incorrect message.  A message that as he said had once been a mystery but had been revealed to him through the Spirit.  (Eph. 3:4-5)  The message was "That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs and of the same body and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel." Ephesians 3:6

The Jews certainly did not want to hear this!  They had referred to the Gentiles as "dogs" and certainly didn't see them as their "fellowheirs".  Even though it wasn't easy for them to hear, did that keep Paul from spreading God's truth?  No-not even when he was thrown into prison for it!  Instead he continued  proclaiming the message from prison!  Why? 

"Wherein I suffer trouble, as an evil doer, even unto bonds; but the word of God is not bound.  Therefore, I endure all things for the elect's sakes, that they may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory." 2 Timothy 2:9-10

How I long to be a bolder witness as Paul was!  There are SO many things accepted by today's society that are wrong!  Why?  Because my Bible and the Spirit tells me so!  But do I stand up and speak the truth or do I just shy away from it to avoid "hurting someone's feelings" or for fear of what they'll think about me?  It's my prayer that next time I'm faced with this I'll be a little more like Paul!  Instead of fear, I'll have the spirit of power, love and sound mind and not be ashamed of the testimony of the Lord!

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God's Valentine Gift for You

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life."  John 3:16




Happy Valentine's Day!!  Just thought I'd share one of my favorite Valentine's poems with you all as a reminder of the greatest love of all!


 God’s Valentine Gift 

God's Valentine gift of love to us

Was not a bunch of flowers;

It wasn't candy, or a book

To while away the hours.

His gift was to become a man,

So He could freely give

His sacrificial love for us,

So you and I could live.

He gave us sweet salvation, and

Instruction, good and true --

To love our friends and enemies

And love our Savior, too.

So as we give our Valentines,

Let's thank our Lord and King;

The reason we have love to give

Is that he gave everything.

By Joanna Fuchs    

Tot School: Jesus Loves Me/Valentine's Day

We've been talking all about love in Tot School these two weeks!  Since I didn't post last week, I thought I'd just do one post combining what we did last week and what we're planning to do this week.  Our theme last week was "Jesus Loves Me" and this week we are doing "Valentine's Day".

Table Time:

1. Memory Verse - 1 John 4:9 - Made a heart collage with the memory verse
2. Jesus Loves Me - Mini Book
3. Jesus Loves Me Coloring Sheet
4. Make Valentine Cards
5. Sweetheart Candy Color Sort-Simply took a papertowel and drew circles to let her sort by color.  We attempted to use some small tongs but she quickly got frustrated with those and just picked them up!
6. Made Chocolate Play-doh (Use your favorite play-dough recipe and add cocoa)- Used heart cookie cutters and created valentine chocolates to put in a box
7. Heart Size Sequence
8. Tracing Sheets

Floor Time:

1. Jesus Loves Me Puzzle
2. Tea Tray - practiced pouring beans from teapot to cups
3. Valentine Tea Party - practiced setting table, pouring from teapot, etc.
4. Blocks
5. Kitchen

Music:

1. Jesus Loves the Little Children
2. O How I Love Jesus
3. Will You Be My Valentine
4. Jesus Loves Me with additional verse "I Love Jesus"

I love Jesus, does He know?
Have I ever told Him so?
Jesus likes to hear me say,
That I love Him every day!

Yes, I love Jesus!
Yes, I love Jesus!
Yes, I love Jesus!
Because He First Loved Me!

Snacks:

1. Heart Sugar Cookies
2. For our Tea Party - PB & J Heart shaped sandwiches, Valentine Cupcakes, Strawberry Kool-aide

Books:

Jesus Loves Me by Laura Logan
God Gave Us Love by Lisa T. Bergren
Will You Be My Valentine by Dr. Holly
The Biggest Valentine Ever by Steven Kroll
A Heart Full of Love (Tag Junior Book)

Mixing up our Chocolate Playdough

Jesus Loves Me Coloring Sheet with watercolors

Making Heart Sugar Cookies (Yes, we are still in our PJs)

Sweetheart Color Sort

Additional Valentine Links:

1+1+1=1 Valentine's Day
Joyful Learning - Valentine Tea (And Other) Activities
Homeschool Creations Valentine Early Learning Printables
Confessions of a Homeschooler - Jesus Loves Me Lapbook
Over the Big Moon Valentine Pre-K Pack

Valentine's Day-Our Simple Way



Curt and I in our carriage on our wedding day!

 

"Happy marriages begin when we marry the ones we love, and they blossom when we love the ones we marry."

— Tom Mullen

Some people don't believe in Valentine's Day.  They say you should show your Valentine you love them everyday.  (I call them Valentine Scrooges.)  Yes, in an ideal world you should and in ways we do.  But in reality, I think it's wonderful to have one day to do something special for your spouse.  Why not use Valentine's to do something extra special?  Why not break out the fine china or plan a special evening?  And I'm not talking about just going out to eat, really put some time and effort into creating a custom evening for just the two of you. 


We usually celebrate fairly simply (I know you're surprised right?).  I'm not a jewelry/flower kind of girl.  My husband knows the real way to my heart-chocolate covered strawberries ;)  The first year we were married I came home from work and he'd made chocolate covered strawberries himself with white and milk chocolate.  He'd arranged them in a heart on the table with a card and single rose.  I loved it and I guess he thought-"Why mess up a good thing?" So chocolate covered strawberries have kind of been a tradition since then.  I don't always get them the same way or even on Valentine's Day but somewhere around there he'll dip them himself and leave them somewhere, usually along with a little something else (card, flowers, DVD, book, etc). 

My gift to him is to prepare a dinner for us.  Most years I go all out and plan it somewhere special with music, lighting, etc..  For example, one year we got in the car and I didn't tell him where we were going but we went to the beach area at Lake Guntersville and had a picnic.  I had a special CD of "our songs" made, candlelight, etc.  Another year I transformed our backyard at the time.  It was a small, fenced in area and I hung lights all around the fence, white tablecloth, etc.

Like I said nothing that costs too much-it's really more about the extra effort and time spent with each other.  Sure, he could just stop and buy me something but to me it means so much more knowing he took the time to hand dip each of those chocolate strawberries!

Now I'm trying to come up with something for this year.  Maybe just a picnic under the stars in our own backyard?  Any ideas?  Just curious how do you and your Valentine celebrate?

I'm Drinking From My Saucer

"I'm drinking from my saucer cause my cup has overflowed." 

-John McCay

I have been very blessed and my saucer has truly overflowed with some very special ladies from our church.  This weekend we had an opportunity to show a  little gratitude to some of them that have meant so much in my life.  They have been such an inspiration and strength to me, many from the time I was just a little girl until now.  My Mom, sister, and I had talked a couple months ago about doing something special around Valentine's Day for these ladies.  My great-grandparents came from England and my grandmother was raised on hot tea.  She always had hot tea with her meals.  For quite awhile, Mom had been buying tea cups, saucers, teapots, etc. at yard sales and thrift stores with plans on having a tea party with her family.  Then we decided since she already had most of the stuff why not host a tea party for the ladies at church.

This was the first thing just the three of us have ever hosted and we had such a good time just planning it all-going to thrift stores to find a few more teacups, discussing place settings, decorations, the menu, and what we were going to wear!  We had a blast and created some wonderful memories together!



My sister, Mom, and Me all wearing something special that was my grandmother's



Mom having a trial run before everyone arrived :)

For decorations we used a lot of pink tulle, pearls, roses, and a few angels. Nearly everything we used we either already had or found at a thrift or antique store.  A lot of it (like the candle holders) didn't even necessarily match but Mom cleaned them up and then sprayed them with a light pink spray paint so that they did! 

A picture of one table

It was an afternoon tea so we just kept our menu simple: cake squares and tea cakes (by Mandy Makes Cakes), chicken salad sandwiches (The Cupboard), strawberries, grapes, chocolate candy, tea (English breakfast, peppermint, peach, blueberry, wild berry) and water. 

Here's one picture of some of the ladies...almost a table full of past and present Sunday School teachers and pastors' wives. 

We had a wonderful, relaxing time!  It was the perfect way to celebrate Valentine's Day with some special ladies whom we dearly love!  I actually enjoyed drinking hot tea more than I thought I would and think I may do it a little more often!

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Tot School: Brown Bear, Brown Bear

This week we've been reading Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See? by Bill Martin, Jr. and Eric Carle  I actually purchased this book a couple of years ago from Kohl's.  For those of you who may not know or do not have a Kohl's in your area, Kohl's has a program called Kohl's Cares.  Every few months they will feature classic hardback children's books by a certain author and a stuffed animal that goes along with it for $5 a piece!!!  Not only is it a great deal but it's also a great cause.  100% of the proceeds goes back to kids.  This month the featured author is Eric Carle.  The last couple of years in March they have offered Dr. Seuss!  So you may want to keep a check on it!

I think this has possibly been "Miss Priss'" favorite book yet.  Especially after doing Polar Bear last week she had learned the rhythm and words to the book and loved "reading" it herself!  It is also perfect for her age level and a great way to review colors.  There are TONS of activities to do on this book.  In fact, I'm hoping we can go back and do some more later.  I found all of our activities linked to A to Z Teacher Stuff but I'll try to link each individual activity too.

Table Time:

1. Created a Paper Plate Brown Bear Mask.  We then used it to retell the story and to play I Spy.
2. Created a Yellow Duck Necklace.  After reading the book several times I let her choose which animal she wanted to create.  We colored it and then added yellow beads to each side.
3. Painted a brown bear with pudding paint.  Then we got to eat some of the pudding! Yum!
4. Brown Bear Candy Sort - Actually made to use M&Ms but we had colored Tic Tacs and Reese Pieces so we used those.  She LOVED this activity.
5. Color Word Flip Book - Before we even put this book together, we used just the cards to match the colors.  You could also use them to play Memory.  Then we assembled the book and she could flip and match it that way.

Floor Time:

1. I Spy - With and without our Brown Bear Mask
2. Color Hunt - She would draw out a crayon and then see what else she could find in the room that matched the color.

Music:

1. Brown Bear, Brown Bear Turn Around (Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear Turn Around)

Matching our Candy according to Color

"Miss Priss" with her Brown Bear Mask and Yellow Duck necklace

Book and Bear from Kohls

Painting Brown Bear With Pudding (just a little on her chin :)

 

 Addiontal Links/Resources:

http://www.dltk-teach.com/books/brownbear/index.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdHCYgO9zh8 - Author Bill Martin reading Brown Bear
http://www.eric-carle.com/bb-bb.html
http://totallytots.blogspot.com/2010/09/once-upon-book-brown-bear-brown-bear.html
http://www.1plus1plus1equals1.com/BrowBearBrownBear.html

And I could go on and on....Have fun with this one!!

Amazing Grace: My Story

But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)  Ephesians 2:4-5

This week in Ephesians I have been taken back to a time when I was 7 years old.  A time when even though I was a sinner God still loved me and showed me mercy and grace.  A time when (as my Daddy says) it became personal to me.  God was no longer just  Abraham, David and PaPaw's God-but through Christ he became MY God! 

I'm thankful that I can look back 24 years later and still be amazed!  There are so many things we get excited about and want to share with others.  God's grace should definitely be one...so here's my experience of grace...

My parents always took me to church as a little girl.  If the church doors were open then we were there!  I'm thankful for the church I went (and still go to) where the truth and the whole truth was (is) preached, including hell. I'd never done anything incredibly bad yet by nature I was a sinner (Ephesians 1:3) and just as guilty as anyone else.  Soon conviction set up and I was terrified of dying and going to hell.  I can remember asking my Daddy to wait until I went to sleep before he did.  One night he even took me outside and we walked around the house as he showed me there was nothing to be afraid of outside.  However, it wasn't what was on the outside I was afraid of it was what I DIDN'T have on the inside!  I was living dead.

Then on Sunday, January 17, 1988, we were having a wonderful service with testifying and then the church was singing a song and fellow shipping.  I remember looking around and wishing I had that joy and peace all of them were talking and singing about! 

Our pastor came to me and honestly I don't even remember what he did or said-I know what he DIDN'T do-he didn't drag me to the altar, tell me what to pray or just to sign a card.  All I really remember is him coming to me and then I went to the altar on my own free will.  I don't even remember the exact prayer I prayed but I do remember the feeling when I came up from the altar.  It's impossible to put it into words.  You'll never know until it happens to you-until it becomes personal to you.  But just to name a few-free, peaceful, joyful, loved, and accepted!  I had received God's amazing GIFT of salvation. 

Paul also says in Romans:

For he that is dead is freed from sin.  Now if we be dead with Christ we believe that we shall also live with him; Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him.  For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.  Romans 6:7-10

I who was once dead to sin became alive in Christ!  How about you? Has it became personal to you?  Do you have an experience with death and then God's grace to share?

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