Book review: Children In Church

I have had the privilege of receiving a pre-publication review copy of Children In Church Nurturing hearts of worship by Curt and Sandra Lovelace. This is a quick read for parents and even our 11 year old has read and gleaned from the pages of this book. You will be left with lots to ponder and prayerfully consider after reading Children In Church.

I highly recommend this book for couples before deciding to have children so that they can get on the same page, but it’s not too late to read the book with children already in the home. The scripture used throughout the book is immensely encouraging and backs up the authors views: a great reminder of how faithful our God is to His children, the Lord sees us through to the end when we follow His leading and direction.

The Lovelaces share the truth of how “others” may see us and how we may be viewed for having our children in church with us. The authors are very adept at using scripture, they do not rely on opinions or feelings, but on the inerrant word of God.

It’s REFRESHING to read a parenting book that is not full of emotional and self-esteem fluff, spiritual parenting is hard work in today‘s world. When we parent our children using God‘s Word, it may bring discomfort through conviction and the authors address how to handle this with prayer and discussion.

The Lovelaces provide advice on bring your children into church services, they share practical, tried and true tips to guide your family in enjoying worship together.

Must read pages..........

Page 29
“Are those without children beside them willing to grant charity to parents who are in the process of training their children? Are parents with children willing to grant compassion to those who need quieter surroundings?” Something to really ponder in the scope of this topic of children in the church.

Page 35 “Parents who are serious before the Lord about worshipping together in the corporate setting must understand that moving toward that goal will entail commitment, diligence, wisdom, strength, courage, determination, discipline, effort, energy, and so much more.” The authors emulate the essence of the challenges you may face stay the course and you reap the harvest.

Page 49 “Their primary goal was to present the character of Christ in this new setting…..” How to prepare kids for different social situations.

Page 61 Chapter on preparations, I’m not even going to share a quote from this chapter because you need to get the book and read it for yourself! WOW! I found that I was very lacking in this area and was very convicted of things that I do in my own life that are keeping me from being prepared for worship on Sunday mornings. An example from my own life is that we tend to stay up late on Saturday night as a family and then we are tired and grumpy on Sunday mornings as we get ready for church. If you could only read a single chapter in Children in Church, it should be chapter 5, it will transform your entire families view of worship.

Page 73
The chapter on supplies is invaluable!!

Page 113The chapter on conflicts has wonderful encouragement for when the going gets tough, we have to remember that Satan does not want our kids to grow spiritually and he will fight us tooth and nail in raising our children for the Lord. Once again Lovelace points us to God’s word for answers and guidance. Praise the Lord for an author of a modern day parenting book that uses scripture to enlighten us in our parenting journey.

Page 120 “Thus, parents who are making their way along this journey will do well to go before the Lord to see what He might reveal to them about their own attitudes, actions, expectations, and judgments.”

Children in Church
has it all folks, guidance for every step of the way in bring your children together with you as a family to worship. I highly recommend reading through the book with a highlighter and marking up the pages, because you will want to refer back to the timeless biblical truths contained within its pages.

I know from personal experience that prayer is the number one need in the area of Children in Church. We began praying about this several years ago, just my husband and I, never once mentioned it to our child. One day a few years ago our son told us that he wanted to come to worship service to hear pastor preach, we told him to pray about it and we would revisit the topic again. He came to us again and said he was ready, we reminded him that there would be no going back and forth to children’s church for the fun stuff: parties, outings, etc. He said that he was ready. We survived the looks, comments, the whispers and phone calls that we and our son received regarding our not following the rules. We are a couple of years out now and have never looked back. The conversations that we have after church regarding pastors preaching are so enlightening, before we would ask, “What did you do in class today?” We would get a one or two word answer, now we get a commentary. Needless to say having our child in church has blessed us beyond measure.

This book is a must read for lay people as well as pastors and church workers. All I can say is WOW! Children in Church has a powerful question for parents, “Why are we separating out the children from the main worship service?” Is this separation hindering spiritual growth in our families?

Head on over to http://childreninchurch.com/order/ and order a copy, get one for your pastor and your best friend at church. This is a must read.

What is going on? What are you reading?

We have been enjoying a much over due visit with my mother. She has been enjoying some time spent with friends that she has made here, attending a widow's group and visiting with her grandson and granddog. Here she is crocheting with the dog. LOL.....caught the dog yawning, she was ready to hunker down for a nap next to Grandma. The Snoopy t-shirt is from granddaughter Kimberley.

I am in the middle of reading a book for a blog review, (the author sent me a copy of the book to read and review) I'm on chapter 4 and getting a lot out of the book. It's Children In Church by Curt Lovelace and Sandra Lovelace. Our 11 year old has been reading it also and it's opening up some discussion. A few words he had to look up in the dictionary, but he is talking about how this will affect how he raises his own children. It's NEVER to early to discuss how to put things in perspective in regards to our children's future. Even now be praying for your future son-in-law or daughter-in-law that his/her parents will be raising him/her up in the fear and admonition of the Lord. More to come on this book in future days. For more info or to purchase the book Children In Church contact WWW.ChildrenInChurch.org. The book is published by Great Waters Press.

Have a wonderful Memorial Day!!
Moe

Changes for next school year?

We finished school back in April, so we are looking forward to next year. What things worked for you this year and what things would you change for next year?

We school year round and really enjoy it. We get nice breaks in October, December, February, April and May. We do the easy subjects in the summer like history and science, when we can lay under the shade trees and read. And get messy outside with science experiments!

We are working on Latin and think we might try a different program, we are using Prima Latina. Also looking at some items from the Critical Thinking Company, but not sure how to add those things in just yet. Still in the planning stages. For Bible we have switched from BJU to RBP (Regular Baptist Press)and are using the adult Sunday School materials, have been very impressed with the quality of their materials. We are also working through the book of Proverbs with several different materials (all seem to compliment each other) from www.thelearningparent.com/products.asp?pagecontrol=1&cat=29&product=21 , http://generationswithvision.com/Store/2011/06/proverbs-collection-12/ and Picture Proverbs Deluxe DVD Set from SolveFamilyProblems.com. The Picture Proverbs is a bit expensive, we got a discount on it since we saw S.M. Davis speak at a conference, but it's well worth the $$ spent and I would pay full price for it. There is nothing like hearing father/son say lets go watch a DVD and they are watching Picture Proverbs for an hour! As a family we have gotten so much out of these 3 resources.

We went through the Focus On The Family series called The Truth Project and got so much out of that, we may attend it again if it's offered, there was so much to glean from in that. Our son was only 11 when we went through the series and he was interacting with the adults during discussion time, so please don't think that our kids don't have a clue about what it going on. Treat your children knowing that they will rise to the occasion, instead of dumbing them down with little Bible stories, many kids no longer need the milk and honey, they are ready for solid Biblical food.

Do you have any curriculum items that you are interested in sharing about?

Moe

Getting It All Done........"I'm behind in our homeschool!"

I know many have contacted me to say that they are struggling with getting the school year finished up and worrying that they will never make it to the next grade level because they are behind. Remember you are NEVER behind in the homeschool, in most states we do not have to follow the public school calendar, which is a blessing since we homeschool year round. I do remember our 2nd year of homeschooling (we had homeschooled preschool and then again in the 4th grade). I would dream that our son was a big tall boy STILL in the 4th grade......lol. I could never get him out of the 4th grade in my dreams, we did tons of school and he was still a 4th grader! It was now October of the following school year and he was still a 4th grader in my dreams. lol. We did end up finishing the 4th grade right on target, but those dreams haunted me day and night.

If you think you are behind, sit down with a calendar and your student books. Look through and see exactly where you are, you've had to make some progress unless you have been laying in bed with a pillow over your head for 9 months!  LOL.  Glance through what is left, most of it could be review, look and see if there are any review items that your child really needs, if they did well on all the areas move forward, skip the review. If they struggled with factoring trees or roman numerals or multiplications tables, (or whatever math you are working on that year) take those review pages and work on them. Work on any new materials and then move on. Don't get bogged down with what the curriculum tells you needs to be done, work with your child on what he needs. I know a lot of material has tons of review days before a test, if your child has that materials down pat, move forward with the test. I usually ask if he is ready for the test and he will either say "YES" or he might say, can we work on a few more problems in the area of XYZ."  Or "Would you go over this section with me again?" So in some areas you can move through several lessons in a day. Also who says school must be M-F from 8:20am-3:00pm? Sometimes we will work on stuff in the evenings, a few math problems or some reading. Some of our best school times have been snuggled on the couch on a Sat or Sun afternoon doing spelling words or working on sentence structure. Learning is what you make of it, if you make it out to be drudgery, then the kids will see it has a hardship.

Enjoy your time with your kids, you only get 12 school years with them and that goes by pretty fast!