This Week in Faith 10-17-19
/Fall Festival THIS Sunday!- I hope you are planning to join us this Sunday from 5-7PM at the church for our biggest event of the year. We are really excited and can’t wait to see you there. And there’s still time to invite a friend or neighbor and their family. Stop right now and take a minute to pray about who you might ask and bring with you to this great event so they can enjoy a great afternoon with their family while they get to know our church family, as well.
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How to Pray When You’re Fighting With Your Spouse
One of the best gifts we can give our kids is a strong marriage. But, like parenting, marriage isn’t easy. It is the joining of two sinful people into one home where their sinfulness is often turned towards each other. The gospel reminds us that we are both more sinful than we thought and at the same time, more loved than we could imagine. And it’s this undeserved mercy and grace form God that gives us the ability to offer undeserved mercy and grace to our spouse, especially in the midst of the most painful and challenging moments. Paul Tripp uses the Lord’s Prayer to help teach us to pray for our marriages. I want to be more dependent on prayer in my marriage and my hope is that this will help.
Click here to read the article by Paul David Tripp.
Surprisingly Useful Advice on Friendship
As my kids get older, friendship seems to be the root of their biggest joys and greatest heartaches. It is really hard to find the balance of wanting to help your kids learn how to navigate the challenges of relationships but not just stepping in to rescue them when they are going through painful seasons. I want my kids to be good friends, have good friends, and be quick to welcome new people as friends. But I also know their ability to do all of that begins with deepening their friendship with God. This article is a good reminder for us about what’s most important for thriving friendships. It might be a good place to start with your next conversation with your child in the midst of their friendship crisis.
Click here to read the article by Laura Denny.
Teens Find Circumventing Apple’s Parental Controls Is Child’s Play
Helping our kids use technology to the glory of God includes making the most of practical safeguards available to us and leading our kids to Jesus so he trains their hearts to want to honor him. This article is a reminder that the best security measures we can take can’t prevent our kids’ sinful hearts from finding what their heart wants most. Now, this doesn’t mean that we don’t make wise parenting decisions about technology with our kids and use everything available to us to help. But it also means that we don’t settle for just that. We pray for them. We talk to them. We point them to the gospel so they understand the sweetness of obedience and the forgiveness of the cross that motivates them to repent when they’ve messed up. This article isn’t to discourage you but to remind you that there are no substitutes for active engagement with our kids.
Click here to rad the article by Reed Albergotti.
Why Teens Must Read the Bible For Themselves
This is something that we want to begin building in our kids from an early age. The goal of reading the Bible with our kids is to get them to the point where they can read the Bible without us. Kids owning their faith is fueled by them being able to practice the means of grace on their own. It’s what we are trying to help them do in student ministry and hopefully this two and half minute video will help encourage you to focus on the same in your house.
