Welcome to spring!

Messy, wet and bursting with new life! Spring is definitely my favourite season.  Family life can still be a bit hectic – especially with the wet weather! We want to help out with some great resources for your heart, head and family!

Faith in Kids run a really helpful podcast for parents.  They’ve covered a whole number of topics from: gender, gaming, prayer, neuro-diverse families and more.  Recently they did a whole series thinking through the stages our kids are at – what that means for life, faith and church.  I’ve found some of these really helpful – I hope you do too…

5 – 7 year olds

8 – 11 year olds

11 – 14 year olds

How do you feel about this subject – does it freak you out?  Does it make you angry or sad?

What is God’s design for gender?  Could I or you set out Gods’ compelling vision for gender? If you’re feeling a bit like this 😧, you’re not alone.  Here is one of the best introductions to the subject I’ve heard. Listening thrilled my heart for what God has in mind when he made women and men…

We try to do our Bible times at breakfast. When one of our crew is bouncing off the sofa – another has spilled their cereal all over the floor and one’s moaning for you to get them toast (well that’s just my house 😂).  So why bother – why do we try?  Here’s three thing’s I’ve noticed as we’ve invested in reading the Bible and praying together:

1.  You can see results over the long term, not day to day.  Our kids might not get every story, they may miss what you think is a wow moment, but over time they’ve seen what God is doing with his people, what God’s like – how He’s a loving father, how he’s just and fair, how he shows grace to undeserving people – like us.

2. God will speak into your everyday.  We’ve been having an issue with one of our children sneaking things and then trying to cover it up.  We confronted them about this.  A day after and we’re reading the story of Joseph’s brothers in Genesis, covering up after selling their brother into slavery.  It became clear God was speaking to this child of ours directly through His word, an exciting thing to be part of.

3.  Praying into our everyday shows our kids God is living and active. Our kids mostly pray quite generic prayers – thank you for Freddie, please help school go well.  Every now and again we encounter a situation in life which we follow up – a friend is having trouble moving house, someone is getting bullied at school, our pen-pal in Burkina-Faso is facing war.  As they pray into the specific we then go back and see how God is working in our world today.  It draws back the curtain to show how our Sovereign God is active, meaning our relationship with him doesn’t have to be distant – but personal and present.

If you’ve never had a Bible and pray time or you’re looking for something fresh – here’s some great resources that will lead you up to Easter as a family…  (we’ve got copies of the first two at Church in next few weeks – so grab yours there).

If you’ve got any questions/suggestions of your own (why not pop them in our WhatsApp Group) or send them direct to me…

God bless

Andy (andy.laws@sladechrurch.org)