Thinking about Lent ...

Next Wednesday is Ash Wednesday, the start of the season of Lent. The last two years our family has done Lenten devotions and some sort of craft during the season to mark the approach of Easter. We have done the same devotions the last two years, and I was thinking that maybe we should do different ones this year to keep it fresh. But after reading through the Old Testament for the last 40 days, I have come to see the benefit of repeating stories each year as a teaching tool especially for children. Over and over you see the command to read or tell the stories of what God has done - from freeing the Israelites from Egypt retold at Passover to reading aloud the book of Ester each year at Purim.
So this year we are going to do the same devotions again. They are devotions I wrote two years ago. I posted them last year to do with your family, and I will post them again each week this year. The devotions track the life of Jesus, from his birth to his resurrection. They are stories I want my children (and Pete and I) to not only know by heart - but to hold in our hearts. I hope they will be a blessing to your family this spring as well.

** If you attend CCPC with me, Children's Ministry will be handing out copies of the devotions this Wed at the Ash Wed service and on Sunday.

Bible in 90 Days

This winter our church is offering a bible study called The Bible in 90 days. Yes, you guessed it, you read the bible in 90 days. Straight through. Cover to cover, in 90 days. As of this week, we have reached the halfway point. It has been an amazing experience so far. I had never read the entire bible before, so this has truly been a big learning experience for me. Chapter by chapter I feel like I am putting together the pieces of a giant puzzle. The bible stories I have known since I was a child are finding their place, smushed in between stories and entire books that were completely foreign to me before this year. Suddenly the big picture of God's Word is becoming so much clearer than ever before to me.

I am not the only one being amazed by the program. Over 600 people are taking the class at our church. Yes, 600! Isn't that incredible. (In case you are wondering how big our church is - we have about 1000 members) The church is offering classes almost every day of the week, so people can do their reading at home each day and then participate in a class once a week that works best for them. The great thing about being part of such a large group of people is that every where I go, I see someone else who is reading roughly the same pages of the bible that I read that day. I find myself talking about the bible with people at the grocery store, moms at kindergarten pick up, and with members of my church who I had never met before. If you walk by the copy room at church you are more likely to hear people talking about David and Bathsheba than Survivor. It has been so much fun.

The Denver Post recently ran a very nice article about our church's experience with the class. You can read it here.

What to do with all those little Valentines

Is your house overflowing with little Valentines? My girls both brought home bags of Valentines from their classmates this week. Of course they are very special and the girls want to keep them forever. I have been wondering what I can do with them and thought I would do the same thing that I did with our Christmas cards this year.

In January, I had Emily (3) paint one of the clementine wooden boxes we have piling up from the grocery store. We put all of our Christmas cards in it and each night the girls pick one out and we pray for that family. It has been a great lesson for our girls to learn and practice praying for their friends and our extended family members. This past week the girls have selected a few Christmas cards of their school friends, and I thought why not add their Valentines to the box too. I look forward to hearing the girls pray for friends and foes alike.

(I am going to put Emily's class picture in the bottom of the box to help Emily identify her classmates.)

Do you have ways that you are helping teach your children to regularly pray for thier friends or classmates? If so please share them.