Second Baptist Baytown

Last Sunday, I had the privilege to teach a class to parents on “Blessing your children.”  This may seem a little foreign to some, but it is all throughout the Bible.  As parents and grandparents, we take care of our children when they are sick by taking them to the doctor or giving them medicine.  We make sure our children are in enrolled in school and get a good education. We even make them do their homework and projects.  We clothe them and feed them each day.   But when it comes to their spiritual well-being, do we see our responsibilities as parents the same?  Do we, daily, take care of their spiritual upbringing?

When I read the scriptures in the Old Testament, I read how God blessed his people and how fathers in the OT blessed their children.  Abraham, Noah, Isaac, and many more gave blessings to their children.  A blessing is a prayer over your child (ren).  Your blessing can be scripture that you read or a prayer about a certain attribute that you would like your child to develop.  It can be at the dinner table, when your child goes to bed, before you send them out for the day, or in your quiet time. 

Why should we bless our children?  If not us, then who?  Who is going to ask God to bless our children?  Who is going to pray a blessing over them? It should be our job as parents.  We should ask for patience, courage, contentment, health, a future spouse, safety, and so many more things for our children.  I have attached a monthly guide that someone passed on to me in my small group.  Let me encourage you to print it out and use it as guide.  There are also verses below that you can use to pray over your child/ grandchild or for your child / grandchild as a blessing.  If your child is grown, you can still pray blessings over them.  My parents to this day pray for me and I can feel the power of their prayer in my life as I make decisions and go through difficult situations.  And I thank God for godly parents who care enough about me to take time to pray for me as I go through life. 

‘May the Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; may the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.  Numbers 6:24-26

Matthew 5:14,16

Ephesians 3:17-19

Galatians 2:20

2 Thessalonians 2:16-17

Get an excel spreadsheet Prayers for Your Children here

We hear and say the word hope a lot. I hope you have a great day. Hope the test results are good. Hope your meeting with the boss goes well. Hope you feel better soon. Hope the baby will start sleeping through the night.

We hope for things both big and small every day. But really hope in its truest and most life-giving form is what God (and now His church) has always uniquely offered the world.

That’s because throughout all of time, God has been revealing Himself as the one true God. He keeps His promises at all times and the Bible clearly says that God works all things out for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. His faithfulness is eternal. And His mercies are new every morning. (Romans 8:28)

Even back in the Garden of Eden after sin entered the world and all hope seemed lost, God promised a way of rescue. He set a plan in motion. By sending His Son, Jesus, God fulfilled that promise not only through Jesus’ life, but through His death and resurrection. As Jesus ascended back to His Father, He made two more promises to give us continued hope—that the Holy Spirit would come and that Jesus Himself would one day return and make all things right.

As humans, we are often limited in what we can see and understand. We don’t always know how things will turn out. We can easily lose hope just by turning on the TV or dealing with challenging situations in a broken world. But we can believe and take hope in a God who keeps His promises. His history of faithfulness helps us to trust Him no matter what. We can have hope that heaven is real and that restoration is now and coming. This is real hope that we can cling to even when life is difficult and we just don’t understand. The people around us are desperate for this kind of hope too.

This month, let’s think about how:

(1) We can have hope because of what God has done. 

(2) We respond with hope, as we actively trust God and His plan.

(3) God uses the hope in us to influence our families, friends, and neighbors.

Remember: A virtue is something God does in us to change the world around us. 

This week, we’re discovering: That we are part of the never-ending Story that God is still telling. This month, leading up to and after we celebrate Easter, is the perfect time to talk about believing that something good can come out of something bad. We’ll look at five different Bible stories focusing on Jesus and some of the people who knew Him best.

Our theme this month is Puzzled: Believing There’s a Bigger Picture. In all of our lives, there are times when we just see one piece of what’s going on and it can be hard to picture something good coming out of it. So our monthly memory verse reminds us: “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33b, NIV

©2012 Orange. All rights reserved. • www.WhatIsOrange.org

 Adapted by Ruth Charlson/Second Baytown

I’m sure we have all wanted to scream at the top of our lungs or say the meanest thing possible when we want to get even.  We all have felt angry at sometime in our lives because it is part of our human nature.  It is hard for us to think before we react sometimes.  Self-control is a virtue that has to be learned anddoes not come naturally for many of us.  The Bible advises us to have self-control.  And at times, that is very hard for all of us, especially me. 

The good news is that God doesn’t ask us to do anything on our own.  God promises to help us. In Galatians 5: 22-23, the fruit of the spirit is given and self-control is the last one mentioned.  When we have God in our lives, He’s present every hour of every day, ready to help us take control of our thoughts, words, and actions.

Each month, we focus on a new virtue in the 1^st – 3^rd grade kid’s church during the 11:00 service.  During January, our topic is self-control – choosing to do what you should do, not what you want to do.  We are studying verses from Proverbs, a book full of wise and visual verses to challenge our thinking.   Solomon, the writer, could have asked God for anything.  He chose wisdom and because of it, God blessed him in many other ways.

Our teaching team in kid’s church has been trying to help the kids learn that when they want to say mean things to other kids or their parents, or throw a tantrum because they didn’t get their way, or give in to peer pressure, that they need to pause and ask God for wisdom and help.  (It wouldn’t hurt some of us adults to do that as well)  We are also talking about listening to God’s wisdom so we can make the best choice for the future instead of just reacting based on how we feel in the moment. 

The verse we have encourage them to memorize is James 1:19 "My dear brothers and sisters, pay attention to what I say.  Everyone should be quick to listen.  But they should be slow to speak. They should be slow to get angry.” 

Some other verses to look up are: Proverbs 25:28- God can give you the power to control yourself, Proverbs 16:32- Pause before you lose your temper, Proverbs  12:18- Select your words carefully,  Proverbs 25:16- Know when to stop, & 2 Peter 1:3.

January is a great month to start new habits and put away old ones.  Maybe this is a habit that we can work on together with our kids.  Imagine how your relationship with the people around you and with your kids could change if you were able to press pause, think, and pray before you reacted in anger. Game on!

James 1:17 says, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights.” So, we know that God is the Giver of all good things. But we also know that God’s generosity has a purpose.

God gives generously to us so that we may be generous toward others. The Bible says, “You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.” 2 Corinthians 9:11, NIV In other words, God gives generously to us so we will have time, emotional energy, patience, and a wealth of resources to give to others. Then, when we are generous with all we have been given, others will see us and be thankful to God.

So many times we think that our ability to be generous is connected to our riches. We are afraid to give because we don’t know if we have enough, and we think generosity is for those who have more than we do to give. But the cool thing about generosity is that we’re not generous because we are rich, we are rich because we are generous. When we choose to give generously to others, we are blessed with everything that really matters in life.

This month, let’s think about how:

(1) We can show generosity because of what God has done.

(2) God instills generosity in us as we respond to His goodness.

(3) God uses generosity in us to influence our families, friends, and neighbors.

Remember: A virtue is something God does in us to change the world around us.

©2011 Orange. All rights reserved. • www.WhatIsOrange.org