Jesus vs. Satan

From "Big Truths for Young Hearts" (p. 134-135):

"Satan's power over sinners is tied directly to their guilt through sin. His hold on them is because of their sinful rebellion against God. But remove the guilt through Christ's payment for their sin, and you remove the basis for Satan's hold on them. . . . Forgiveness of sin's penalty and freedom from Satan's prison go together. Remove the guilt, and you remove the bondage. As Christ bought the former -- forgiveness of the guilt of our sin -- he won also the latter -- victory over the bondage of our sin. Praise be to our Savior for his gracious and complete forgiveness that accomplishes also this glorious and powerful deliverance from Satan's dominion, bondage, and death (Colossians 1:13-14)."

Favorites of 2009

It was our first year of blogging. Never would have thought that we would have over 100 posts. Here are my some of our favorites (in no particular order):

1. A summary to the introduction of "Shepherding a Child's Heart." Was it one of our favorites because of how central the principles of this book have been to our ministry and our parenting? Was it because it was our third post coming off the Intentional Parenting Conference? No and no. It was because this post had the most number of comments. A whopping 7! (Disclaimer: 2 of those comments were from Joey Espinosa. But 5 comments is still the highest number of comments to one post.)
2. What do you do with Santa? It was the single most widely-viewed post.
   
3. Bill White's response to the common parenting question, "How do I know when a young child is ready to accept Christ?" As we parents are feeling the burden of leading our children, we must remember that only the Holy Spirit can make this issue clear.
4. In the spring, we put together iMix's of songs we use in Preschool and Camp Grace (and updated in the fall). Finally, we had an easy (and legal) way to equip families with some regular songs that we've done in our Big Group times.
   
5. Our first posted video. Alyssa Rogers (then a 4th grader) gave a anchorwoman-style announcement about our Elementary Camp.
6. Mike & Cindy Chibbaro's thoughts on developing good communication with children. Not only was the content insightful and practical, but they gave us a bullet point list (love it!) with a one-day response time (really love it!).
7. A comparison of parenting goals from two different books -- "Shepherding a Child's Heart" (Tripp) and "Parenting by the Book" (Rosemond). I was proud of myself for reading two books at the same time and being able to make a connection between them.
   
8. Another video, this time about how NOT to raise Future Men.
9. Is it too broad of a category to say "anything under the label of Shepherding"? But, we feel we need to include this, since the book review was the original purpose of the blog. There were 26 posts under this label.
10. Thoughts on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. Would have said "Why I Celebrate Hanukkah," but technically that article was posted on the Grace Church Pastor's Blog.
    

Seeking God with $10 - Final Tally

Last month, I gave my older kids each $10, with the instructions for them to ask God about what they should do with it. (Read about it here.) Here's what they each did:

Hannah:

• $5 for Adopt-A-Child
  
• $5 to buy a Christmas gift for her friend that lives across the street (a Littlest Pet Shop monkey, since her friend "really, really likes monkeys")
  

Elijah:

• $1 for a general tithe to our church
• $6 for Adopt-A-Child (He explained, "If I didn't get anything for Christmas, I would be sad.")
  
• $1 to his piggy bank
• $2 for Osborn Mission (As part of their school curriculum, the kids have been learning about how so much of the world doesn't have access to a Bible in their native language. Our friends Philly & Elizabeth Osborn feel called by God to plant a church to a people group who have never heard the Gospel. You should check out their website.)
  

-- Joey Espinosa

The Greatest Gift

From "Big Truths for Young Hearts" (pp. 178-179):

"How can God view sinners as righteous? Answer: because they have been credited with the righteousness of Christ, a righteousness that is not their own, a righteousness that is complete and perfect. . . . [T]he ungodly person has been declared righteous by faith. . . . Justified by faith, not by works -- this is the heart of what the story of God's salvation plan is all about."

Merry Christmas, everyone!

More Christmas Traditions

Earlier this week, I shared some of our family's Christmas traditions. Here are some from Tyler Stanton's childhood.

-- Joey Espinosa

Merry Christmas - Part 2

Compare this article to yesterday's post. It's another viewpoint on the phrase "Merry Christmas." As someone who did not believe in Christ for most of my life, I can resonate with much of what Jon Acuff says. As an agnostic, I was never offended by people who said "Merry Christmas," but I always thought it was ridiculous for people to insist that their "Christian" ideas HAD to be the norm.

-- Joey Espinosa

Saying "Thank You"

One of the best instructions that we've received is that a key to parenting is being proactive. As much as possible, parents need to anticipate situations and give guidance and direction, before the children encounter those moments, as opposed to constantly living in a state of reaction. In that line, here is some parenting advice from the National Center for Biblical parenting:

"Begin now [before gifts are exchanged] to prepare your children for receiving gifts. Talk about the importance of the giver, not just the gift. . . . Play a "what if" game with children to help them anticipate how they might say thank you. . . ."

We recently got the opportunity to do this with Elijah's 6th birthday. Knowing he would receive gifts from friends and relatives, my wife played this "what if" game with him several times -- instructing him to look the giver in the eye, say "thank you," and then say something positive about the gift. And for good measure, we practiced the night before his party. For example, we asked him what he would say if he got a green Match Box car; he replied, "I really like cars and the color green." Later, as a joke, I asked him what he would say if someone gave him a baby doll. He hesitated, so I suggested he say something like, "Thank you for the doll. I'll really enjoy sharing this with my sister." He laughed at that idea.

The next day at the party, things seemed to be working well. He opened one gift and said, "Thank you. I saw this toy at the store and I really wanted it." After receiving a Sea Monkeys kit, he said, "Thank you. I never had a pet and I've always wanted one."

Much to my and my wife's amusement, he opened an apparently-not-as-desirable gift, and politely said, "Thank you. I'll really enjoy sharing this with my sister." And he did.

-- Joey Espinosa