Happy New Year! I hope you have enjoyed celebrating this Christmas season and are looking forward to a new decade. For some, the excitement of a new year comes from the hope that the good things they have experienced will continue. For others, it comes from the possibility that as difficult and painful as the last year may have been, the possibility for change and the hope of something new exists. Either way, my prayer is that you will experience the mercy and grace of Jesus fresh in this next year.
As I think about the last year in general, I’m grateful for the opportunities you continually give me, my team, and our church to get to know and invest in your kids. I am in my 11th year here at Faith and I’m continually amazed by the ways God has blessed our church with a community of people who love each other and love following Jesus together. So thank you and your family for being a part of that.
In particular, I wanted to take a minute to express my gratitude for Joanna Morgan and her 6 years of service to our church with students. The end of this year marks the end of her time working with students at Faith as she and Cody prepare to welcome their second child into the family. Joanna has been a great partner in ministry over these years and an incredible blessing to our church. I am confident that our students are better for having had the chance to spend time with her and she will be missed. Personally, I am really thankful for her friendship and the way she has made my job more enjoyable- and made me look a lot more competent than I actually am :) The next time you see Joanna, please take a minute to thank her for all that she has invested in the kingdom through our church.
And now…on to the blog. The blog is a little longer this week to make up for missing last week and with the anticipation that I may not be back into the swing of things by next week :) There is a little bit of looking back to Christmas, considering the technology we’ve given our kids this year, and a look ahead to the habits that, by God’s grace, we may be able to grow in this year for our good and to the glory of Jesus.
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What Christmas Gives Our Post-Christian Culture
Even as we move on from the Christmas season, we don’t want to forget this “good news of great joy” and how it impacts our everyday lives. This is a great reflection on the meaning of love that we talk about at Christmas. Maybe even as you put the decorations away with your family, you can take time to talk about these things again as a family to continue in the worship and wonder of our Savior together.
Click here to read the article by Sinclair Ferguson.
Helping Kids Experience Emmanuel- Even When They’re Anxious
Anxiety is a topic that comes up a lot these days, particularly with the generation that our kids are apart of. This article starts by making an important distinction between anxious feelings and anxiety disorder, which is a helpful place for us to start as we help our kids examine what’s going on inside them. And for those who are experiencing anxious feelings, the author provides some good talking points and steps to take that would be helpful for us to walk through with our kids that are wrestling with these anxious feelings. I love the quote at the beginning of the article. And Christmas is an important reminder of what we need to remember most in the midst of our worry and fear- Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us.
Click here to read the article by Kat Armas.
Please Don’t Give Them Porn For Christmas
This is an older article [possibly even one I’ve posted before] but I think it gives us some important goals to tackle as we give different types of technology to our kids. He talks about some statistics in the article, and I’ve read a few other articles recently that are probably too graphic use in this blog but reveal the depravity and predation that exist online. These are important reminders that we can’t be passive as parents in this technological age. We have to train them, prepare them, do what we can to protect them, and pray for God’s wisdom and courage to navigate these areas well with our kids.
Click here to read the article by Tim Challies.
How to Prioritize Reading
As we begin a new decade, and you think about the things you want to prioritze more in your life, and help your kids learn to prioritize, this article takes a great look at howe and why to add reading to the list. As Christians, we are people of a book [The Bible] which means that reading is vital to our growth as believers [and vital for our kids to grow in as well]. But it also means that we are made to have our minds engaged and our imaginations captured by reading. Now, I realize, some people naturally enjoy reading more than others. But this article has some great ideas for how to build a greater capacity for reading.
Besides this article, there is a great reading challenge that Tim Challies does every year that some friends and I have used as a guide. It has different levels for different people but it has been helpful as well. You can find the 2019 Reading Challenge here.
Click here to read the article by Tony Reinke.
5 Ways to Flourish in Journaling
Pastor Nathan gave a challenge at the end of his sermon last Sunday to journal in 2020 as a way to practice prayer and grow towards Jesus. Here is an article with some basic how-to’s and encouragement for those who have never journaled before or struggled to, but want to create a habit of it for practicing their faith this year.
Click here to read the article by David Mathis.
Help! I Want to Read the Bible But I Find It Boring
Pastor Nathan also gave a challenge to read through the Bible this year. This can be a hard thing for us and our kids. The best thing we can do to help our kids read the Bible more is to let them see us reading it more. But what do we do when we consistently give in to the endless stream of seemingly more compelling distractions. This article has some great insight to help us and our kids. And it’s also written by a teenager which might encourage our kids to know there are students who love to read their Bibles and talk about it.
Click here to read the article by Katherine Forster.
PODCAST: 4 Things Christians Must Reclaim
The more I read and listen to Rebecca McLaughlin, the more I am thankful for her voice and the things I am learning from her about how to communicate the gospel in our day. She is an intellectual that has spent a lot of time on the most prestigious college campuses in America and the UK. She has a way of answering the questions our current culture has about our faith in a simple and winsome way. Her book Confronting Christianity: 12 Hard Questions For the World’s Largest Religion is excellent. This talk is a great summary of her book and is an important resource as we strive to explain the wisdom and beauty of our faith to our kids, and the skeptics around us, who are asking good questions about how Christianity is good for them, and the world.
Click here to hear the talk by Rebecca McLaughlin.
