Vanessa is a regular contributor to Impress Your Kids. She is a stay-at-home mom to an energetic three-year-old, Juliet. They spend their days together reading books, attempting crafts, and occasionally beating tree trunks with large sticks. You can read more about their adventures at Silly Eagle Books

My first child was born to us almost 4 years ago and as new parents, we have been trying our best to impress her with God’s love and His Word. We’ve never parented a child before, so a lot of what we do is trial and error.

Prayer is one of those things that we, as adults who were both raised in Christian homes, take for granted. I mean, we can’t remember a time when we didn’t know how to pray! But faced with this new little creature, we realized it was something we needed to model for her and to teach her–it was something we couldn’t afford to just hope she picked up along the way. We needed to be intentional about it.

But how do you teach a baby to pray? We had no idea. The best we could come up with was just praying aloud with her every night before we tucked her into bed. Mostly, she just cooed and gurgled and swatted at the ceiling fan pull.

When she started talking, we tried to get her to repeat what we were saying. But if you’ve ever tried to get a toddler to do something on command, you know that this is a losing endeavor. The chatty, talkative child who rambled on and on all day long would suddenly become a mute once prayer time rolled around.

No big deal. We just continued to pray with her and hoped that she would be soaking it in.

Most of our prayers focused on THANKFULNESS and OTHERS. We thanked God for our daughter and all the blessings in our life and we prayed for our family members who were sick or friends in need. We prayed for our Compassion children and missionaries we support.

We NEVER prayed for ourselves. Not that we didn’t ask God for help daily with parenting and jobs and life, but what I mean is we never did it in front of our daughter. Our prayers in front of her were always outward focused. She never heard us humbly ask God to give us grace and strength and help.

Never, that is, until one day in January.

The background story is that Ben and I had been struggling with infertility for the past 6 years. Even though we had a healthy, happy child, she had taken quite a long time to come to us. Miscarriage and many years of (seemingly) unanswered prayers finally resulted in our beautiful baby girl.

We always hoped God would send us another child and had been trying to conceive for 2 years at this point. But with my history, we (and by we, I mean mostly ME–Ben had far more faith than I did!)  didn’t have much hope that I’d give birth to another child. So, after many months of praying, we had applied for a domestic infant adoption program and were waiting to be accepted.

I should also mention that while we both were still praying for God to bring us another child (whether by giving birth to one or adoption), we had stopped praying for this together. It was just too painful. We didn’t have the strength to do it anymore.

That changed one evening when I had the thought, “Juliet is 3. We might as well get her involved in this prayer. It’s going to be her sibling, after all.” So as we were all praying together before bed, I said, “Please send Juliet a sibling. A little brother or sister for her to love and grow up with.” Ben joined in with, “Please send us a baby, Lord. A baby brother or sister for Juliet…”

And then a little voice piped in (you know, the one who had been inexplicably silent for the past two years?) “Yeah! Yeah! I want a baby! I want a baby! I want a baby in my belly!”

Her tiny prayer brought tears to my eyes, of course, and from then on, she never failed to pray enthusiastically for “her baby”.  Every night, she would ask God with total faith to send her a baby. I prayed too, but in my heart, I thought we were praying for our adopted child. I think she might have been the only one in the room who truly believed God could send a baby to us the old-fashioned way.

Four weeks later, we found out that I was pregnant. To say that we were shocked is an understatement. We were overjoyed, but just dumbfounded because we had lost all hope of this ever happening.

Even as we told our family, I could see the disbelief in their eyes and hear it in their voices, “Really?!” they would say. “REALLY?” It was just something all of us never thought we would see. (Again, I should clarify that I was the one who thought I’d never see it. Most of my family and friends were faithfully praying for this and undoubtably did not give up hope, however, they WERE surprised.)

But there was one little person who didn’t respond to the news with an incredulous “Really?” When we told Juliet the big news, she was excited, but not with that air of disbelief that the rest of us had. This answer to prayer was something she had expected. She had asked her Father for something and He had answered–what was there to be incredulous about?

Her faith humbled me and reminded me that while I am teaching my child, I have a lot to  learn from her as well. It also reminded me that even when we don’t feel like God hears our prayers, He is fully aware of everything–our deepest pains and our most desperate needs.

So in my quest to impress my child, she ended up impressing me! (Isn’t that a continuing lesson we learn as parents?)  I’ll never forget those few weeks that she prayed for a sibling and how joyful and grateful we were when God answered her and our prayers in, what was to us, a most miraculous way.

I have almost no recollection of our nightly prayers over the past 3.5 years in regards to what was said and what we prayed for, however, those few weeks of Juliet asking God to send her a baby brother or sister are burned into my heart and memory forever. I can hear her little voice, see her eyes scrunched closed and her tiny hands clasped together, and feel that closeness we all shared together as we knelt by her bed.

I have to admit that, even though I know I shouldn’t be surprised, I still look at my pregnant belly with disbelief from time to time. I look in the mirror and think, “Really? Is that really me?” It’s so easy to fall back to my former mindset of “that sort of thing happens to OTHER people–not to me.”

But I’m working to have a more child-like faith. To trust in my Father and expect that He will answer me. Not that I’ll always get what I want, but that I can trust Him to give me what I truly need. And I’m thankful for these two special daughters that He’s entrusted to me, and am looking forward to learning more from them and with them in the years to come.

Sunday mornings.

I know how it is.

You have to wake up a little earlier. You iron dress shirts, find matching hair bows, tug on tights and make sure breakfast doesn’t get on any of it. Then you race to the car and pull into your church’s parking lot 2 minutes before service starts. You run to the children’s department–check in all the kids at different doors. After prying your youngest off your leg you schlep into service while they are singing the last song and then attempt to stay awake during announcements and a sermon about being a witness while on the job. But it’s not even over yet. You pick up your kids from their class (where they’ve been loaded up with red kool-aid and goldfish crackers) buckle them into a hot carseat while they scream for their macaroni art baby Moses craft. You stop at a restaurant and remember how Sunday lunches used to be a relaxing time with family and friends. Instead of the crazy whine-fest it is. You drive home and 5 minutes before you get home, your kids fall asleep effectively ruining any naptime.

Or is that just me?

I know why people don’t take their kids to church. I get why parents only show up to church every 3 or 4 weeks with kids in tow. It’s hectic, it messes up naps and meals and sometimes, well, it just doesn’t seem worth it. So, is it?

Why should we drag our kids to church faithfully each week? How do we even do it?

Here are some of my thoughts as a former children’s pastor, a life-long church goer and a mom:

1. Consistency

As with anything consistency is key. The more we offer green beans and squash on their plate, the more apt they are to try it. The more often we follow through with discipline, the more often our kids will respond. The more we take our kids to church the more they will love it and keep it as a discipline in their lives.

I hear parents say, “But she cries when I put her in the nursery.” or “But he doesn’t know any of the other kids!” These problems are both solved with consistency.

2. Memories

My best memories are from church events and activities. I’ve been on missions trips, to camps, homeless shelters, laser tag and roller skating rinks. I’ve cooked food, scrubbed floors and painted walls. I’ve sung in plays, served breakfast and made props. I’ve also giggled under covers, been on double dates and bridesmaids in weddings. All of these things were in the context of, because of, or with people from my home church. A church that made an effort to provide memories and experiences that were safe, encouraging and most importantly, centered on Jesus.

3. Servanthood

I am best friends with the same girls I met at church when I was 4 years old, in 3rd grade and later in 6th grade. Why have we been friends so long? We’re not very similar. We don’t live too near each other. We have kids at different ages. We went to different schools. What makes us stick together for so long?

Ministry. Our parents were involved at church. They were the ones that built stages for our Christmas programs. They were elders. They were camp counselors and Sunday School teachers. With that example, we had nothing else to do except follow in their footsteps. Which is why we spent afterschool, weekends and summers doing all those things I mentioned above.

When your children see you teaching a class (yes, even if that means you have to get there early, or stay an extra service), bringing food for a special event or hosting a small group at your house—what do you think they are going to want to do? Get involved. Do the same. Copy you.

4. Love Your Church

If your kids see you hating your church–complaining about the music, criticizing the teaching and barely tolerating the people–they will do the same. Find a church you can love. And they will do the same.

Church isn’t the end-all, be-all. Just bringing your kid to church every week doesn’t ensure their eternal salvation anymore than setting foot in a gym makes you fit. But if you make the real Body of Christ central to your life you will see your children join it and work as part of it.

If you haven’t been to church lately, I encourage you to go this weekend! If you don’t have a church home and don’t know where to go, please email me! and I’ll do everything I can to help you find a Bible-teaching church in your area.

:: :: ::

So let’s do it—full of belief, confident that we’re presentable inside and out. Let’s keep a firm grip on the promises that keep us going. He always keeps his word. Let’s see how inventive we can be in encouraging love and helping out, not avoiding worshiping together as some do but spurring each other on, especially as we see the big Day approaching.
Hebrews 10:24-25 (MSG)

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Like my pirate hat? I know, I look good as a pirate. The kids and I got dressed up (and yes, even my husband, too) for a special pirate-y treasure hunt AND some fun teaching about God’s Word. Head over to the MOB Society (that’s Moms of Boys, for the uninitiated) to see the adventure on which we set sail! Aye, Aye!

And if you’re here from the MOB Society–welcome! Poke around and see what we’re all about. We’d love to connect with you on twitter, facebook, your feedreader or even in your inbox! Every day we write about resources, adventures, crafts and more that will help you impress God’s Word on the hearts of your kids! We’d love for you to join us!

Vanessa is a regular contributor to Impress Your Kids. She is a stay-at-home mom to an energetic three-year-old, Juliet. They spend their days together reading books, attempting crafts, and occasionally beating tree trunks with large sticks. You can read more about their adventures at Silly Eagle Books

Amanda asked me if I had any good camp books to share with you this week, and the only ones I could think of were these songbooks that we found a few months ago. I love using songbooks instead of story books from time to time and was thrilled to discover these Camp Song books at our library.

I spent many a summer at camp learning all those classic songs like Found a Peanut, Bringing Home a Baby Bumblebee, and Make New Friends. Juliet had a blast learning these song and I had fun reliving my camp days. There’s something about songs that really bring back memories, isn’t there?

While I’m not interested in getting a real campfire going, we had some imaginary play by making our own pretend campfire in our living room. You can read more about how we made it using scraps of paper, river rocks, and twigs on Silly Eagle Books. It was fun and easy and the kitty cat LOVED it. It was the perfect place to sit next to and sing our camp songs together.

We also made some pretend paper marshmallows, but next time I think we’ll use the real ones. They’re more fun to eat!

What camps songs do you remember from your childhood?

When I was a Children’s Pastor I was in charge of ministering to all kids birth through 8th grade (I’ll let that sink in a little…). We were at a brand new church and were planning all the curriculum and structures of the services. And doing so on minimal budget and with few volunteers.

Regardless, I was adamant that our babies and toddlers would have a lesson in their class. I did not want our babies to spend their first days in church without hearing about God! So, I found an amazing curriculum that involved songs, fingerplays, parachute play and puppets but all fit into a small bag! One fun mom could slip out of the adult service and spend 10 minutes in the nursery singing with the kids and using the props out of the bag. It was fantastic!

Recently, my mom gave Asa and me a gift that is the exact same idea as the curriculum but for kids’ bedtime! I’ve only done it about 4 or 5 days but already Asa loves it! In fact, he loves it so much he cries when I’m done singing!

It’s called Baby Bedtime Blessings from First Steps in Worship* and everything you need comes in a medium sized bag. There is a little handheld mirror, a brush, a Bible story book, an stuffed dog toy, a rubber duck, a plastic fish, plastic flower and a blanket.

There is also a little spiral bound book with about 3 songs per prop/toy. The songs are just original words to classic songs like “I’m a Little Teapot” and “Farmer in the Dell”. All you have to do is pick up the book, find the prop needed and start singing the songs. Just follow along in the book and in 15 minutes you’ll have gone through all the props and finished with a lullabye and prayer!

Here are a few pictures of Asa and me before bed last night. I don’t usually post this many pictures but I want you to see how well he is responding to this. He LOVES it! He even knows which toy is coming up next and puts the toy he’s holding back in the bag so he can take the next toy!

Singing the first songs with a mirror. The songs focus on how God knows and loves the child.

Asa brushing my hair during the “brush brush brush your hair” song.

“I love to read the Bible, read the Bible, read it everyday…” to the tune of  “I’ve Got the Joy…”

“God made duckies, quack, quack, quack” to the tune of “Mary Had a Little Lamb”. This is his fave!

Asa hugging and kissing the baby. The songs are about God, Mommy and Daddy loving the child.

Asa folding his hands and closing his eyes during the last song & prayer!!

I completely recommend this resource! It’s easy, fun and Asa loves it! Included in the bag is a demo video and a list of scriptures to go with each song. As Asa pays attention more (and I memorize the songs), I’ll be able to say some of these scriptures to him.

If you didn’t want to invest in this whole kit, you could do the same thing on your own. Just grab a bag, a few props and sing some songs—sing “Jesus loves me” while looking in a mirror, “The B-I-B-L-E” while holding a Bible, “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands” while holding  a mini globe ball or whatever else you could think up! (I found a huge list of Christian kids’ songs and lyrics to get your brain going.) It’s such a fun bedtime routine and a great way to get God’s Word into your kids!

*First Steps in Worship also carries nursery/preschool/children’s church “curriculum” bags but I have not used these…but they might be worth checking out if you are involved in your church’s nursery department.

linked to We are THAT Family’s WFMW

baby crib photo by mrs. hilksom

My husband was out of town for three days this week. He went skiing with some of his family and friends. It wasn’t that hard on me. I like alone time, my kids go to bed early and the kids were exceptionally well-behaved. But when they heard Daddy open the front door, it was an all out stampede.

They jumped into his arms giggling, chattering and kissing and hugging.

I just said hello, grabbed my camera and started memorizing.

I am so thankful that God put two daddies in my life (my daddy and my husband) to show me and my children a small glimmer of what God the Father is like.

And I’m so thankful to our Heavenly Father who lavishes us with love.

How great is the love the Father has given us so freely!
Now we can be called children of God. 1 John 3:1

So you are no longer slaves, but God’s children; and since you are his children,
he has made you also heirs. Galatians 4:7

A father is tender and kind to his children. Psalm 103:13

We’ve been praying with Juliet ever since she was a tiny baby. Every night before she goes to bed, all three of us get together and have a family prayer time. And although, we have made a habit out of this, the actual process we go through has evolved over the years.

When she was an infant, Ben would hold her in his arms and we would stand together and pray with her before placing her in her crib at night. Our prayers would always be about her and about how grateful we were to God for sending her into our lives.

As she began to understand and speak herself, we added praying for others to our prayer time–for our family members, friends, and Compassion children.

To help her get involved in the praying, I decided to borrow an idea from Ben’s family and also from some missionary friends of ours.

Ben grew up with the tradition of placing all the Christmas cards his family received into a basket and then choosing one card at every mealtime. The family would then pray specifically for the family on the Christmas card. Our missionary friends do something similar. They have family photos of all of their supporters and then choose one a day to pray for. My friend Kristi tells me that her kids really connect to the photos and are able to pray more specifically when they can see who they are praying for.

I wanted to make our prayer time more concrete for Juliet and also give her a way to feel like she was part of the process, so I searched for a box that would be our “prayer box.”

It’s an old cigar box that I had picked up awhile back and didn’t know what to do with it. It said “Julieta”, so I couldn’t resist! I thought it was beautiful and it is the perfect size for holding pictures.

Inside, you can see we keep photos of our family members, friends, and Compassion children. Every night, Juliet reaches in selects who we are praying for and then holds it in her hands as we pray. She LOVES it!

We have a lot of Christmas cards in the box and also a few birth announcements. For our family members, I tried to print out pictures of them with Juliet in the picture as well. This always makes her smile when she sees herself with Mimi or Poppy or one of her cousins.

Lately, our process has changed again. Instead of drawing a picture from the prayer box, we simply ask Juliet who we should pray for tonight. Each night, she comes up with someone new! She has grown out of the prayer box–as she no longer needs a visual cue to help her decide who to pray for. And she has even begun to chime in and add her own thoughts to our prayers!

And even though I am kind of sad to see it fall into disuse, I am happy to see my daughter growing and able to take an active role in our nightly prayer time. And I’m sure I’ll be able to find another use for that beautiful box.

What about you? How do you get your children to pray with you? Do you have any family routines or traditions?

I usually don’t listen to Christmas music until AFTER Thanksgiving. Sometimes I’ll let my Christmas-y husband play a new Christmas CD during Thanksgiving dinner. But I usually try to hold off on Christmas stuff as long as possible.

Until this year.

This nativity scene was on sale AND I had a coupon for 33% off.

I don’t care if it’s cheesy or sacrilegious. I love it.

(check out our store to get your own play nativity set!)

Last night we did our first family devotional time. OK, it wasn’t exactly a devotional. But it was a family activity. And it was about Jesus. So, I’m going to call it a devotional.

We sat down together and read The Pumpkin Patch Parable by Liz Curtis Higgs. Then we acted it out. Here’s how it went:

First we picked out a beautiful pumpkin from the pumpkin patch grocery store. Then we washed it off and opened it up! (Psalm 51:10)

Then we cleaned him out–all the hidden, dirty things inside! (Ezekiel 11:18-20)

We gave our pumpkin a new face! (2 Corinthians 3:18)

Finally, our pumpkin was lit from the inside and shining for the whole world to see!
(Matthew 5:16)

The Pumpkin Patch Parable tells this same story in more details and gives scriptures every step of the way. The scriptures and the story point to the miracle that Jesus does in our lives–he chooses us, washes us off, takes away all our dirty sin, gives us a new heart, a smile on our face and a light to shine to the world! It’s a beautiful picture and a long-standing object lesson that we are able to see for  weeks to come! Lydia and I were chanting, “Let your light shine! Matthew 5:16!” the whole time we were looking at our shining new pumpkin. It made quite an impression!

I know this is a blatant rip-off of the Halloween Jack-o-Lantern. Liz Curtis Higgs describes it as redeeming something that God created–a pumpkin. And can I say something else? God knew. God knew people would use the pumpkin as something scary. And that his creation would be a symbol for a mostly evil holiday. And I think he put this symbolism together for this very purpose–to redeem it and remind us how He has redeemed us!

This is an excellent book with sweet pictures and a very profound message. I encourage you to get this book even if you don’t do the carving of a pumpkin together. It will help your kids associate a pumpkin (or jack-o-lantern) with God’s love instead of with Halloween!

See my review of Liz Curtis Higg’s The Pine Tree Parable! One of my FAVORITE Christmas books!

Elias and Donovan are almost exactly 2 years apart – the same difference as between me and my younger brother.  Even at ages 3.5+ and 20 months, they are already deep into a love/hate relationship with each other – and doing the same things my brother and I used to do to each other.

5 ways to annoy your brother:

1. Have something (anything) that he doesn’t have. It doesn’t matter what it is, but if you just pick it up, he wants it.

2. Touch him. ’nuff said.

3. Be sitting on Momma’s lap. Apparently, this gets to both of my boys equally.

4. Try to take his current favorite car.  Oh my – it’s like the sky is falling when this happens.

5. Try to hug or kiss him. If he’s not in the right mood, it’s the worst thing ever.

5 ways to love your brother:

1. Share. Anything – toys, food, couch space… and it always makes my heart melt.

2. Read him a book. He’s only 20 months old – he has no idea that you can’t read!  In his eyes, you can do no wrong!

3. Just let him be with you. My mom told me over and over that my little brother just wanted to be with me.  It’s fascinating to watch Donovan gravitate to wherever Elias is – following him room to room, doing whatever big brother does – just to be near him.  And when Elias lets him, it’s a huge sign of love.

4. Laugh together. Oh, I love hearing the boys laugh their little belly laughs together… knowing that they are loving each other at that moment.

5. Hug and kiss him. When he is in the right mood, the love that is shown is fabulous!

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