Little Sarah will be at the party. She's four years old. She came up to me at the Christmas Eve service to tell me she had asked Jesus to forgive her sins and that she was going to love and follow Jesus the rest of her life. Her proud parents and have been a part of our church family for the last four years. Her mom is one of our preschool storytellers who later told me later the details of Sarah's decision to follow Christ.

On November 30, Sarah's mom had been on the computer and got up to check on her. She found Sarah in the other room with a princess dress on. Sarah told her mom, "I am dancing for God, and I have decided to follow Jesus all the days of my life. And when I get older, I am going to be bathtized."

Her mom asked, "Did you ask Jesus to forgive your sins and thank Jesus for letting you live in Heaven forever?" Sarah put out her hands saying, "Stay close, Mama." Sarah ran to her room, dropped to her knees, then thanked Jesus for forgiving her sins. She continued dancing and said, "I need to dance for Jesus, Mama. Take a picture, so I will always remember this day."

Has your child experienced the rejoicing dance? Let us rejoice with your child. Our Kingdom Kids party is for the family of any child who became a Christ follower sometime during 2007 (or previous years if you have missed our annual celebration) See the ad on this page for more details.

Perhaps as you read this, you are thinking, "I don't know how to help my child become a Christ follower." If you would like to know how to guide your child in this decision, contact me at baldrich@pulpitrock.com. I would love to be a part of preparing you as you ask the Holy Spirit to lead your child into a personal relationship with Jesus.

Click to view the Kingdom Kids ad

This is Ericka’s story: We moved into our neighborhood in November 2006 and right away had numerous children at our house to play every day. At times our front yard would have 8-10 kids running around during the warm winter and spring days. As summer approached, my husband and I wondered what we should do with so many kids once school let out. Since many of the children are under the care of their grandmothers, our actual neighbors, I felt strongly that I should feed them once a week during the summer. So we decided we would do front yard picnics on Fridays for July, but we ended up starting in June.

For six weeks, we fed our neighbors hot dogs, chips, and fruit salad, except one week when a neighbor bought pizza for everyone. Every Friday my son, Hunter, would start knocking on doors to invite neighbors over. It was very exciting for him to meet new people, and we had an average of twelve new friends each week running in our grass and splashing in our kiddie pool until two in the afternoon.

From the very beginning, I prayed to God for money for the food I was providing. One Thursday, after praying for help with the next day’s picnic, I called my sister to go shopping with me. When she came to pick me up she told me our dad was giving us money to buy whatever we needed, up to $50. Neither one of them had any idea I needed money. God is extremely faithful.

Our family has really created strong relationships with our neighbors since this past summer. Three of the neighbor grandkids come to AWANA with us at PRC. Our neighbors trust us and rely on us to help them when they need it. We have heard and seen a lot of brokenness in their life stories and are able to pray for their needs. We are looking forward to having picnics again this summer.

And I thought, "What? Their kids won't have a Christmas tree? We don't need their money. We can afford to buy our own tree." I began to feel like the Grinch. I felt responsible for the very depressing Christmas these children would experience. I could picture the kids mourning over the place in their home where a tree would traditionally be placed. Where would they put their presents?

But if we refused this gift of money, it would appear we were not grateful or that we were questioning their parental decision to not have a tree. So we took the money and bought the tree. We decorated the tree. And when I looked at the tree, I was depressed. This should not be our tree.

I wondered if I would ever be able to model such sacrificial giving to my children.
And I wondered if I would ask my children to join me in making such a sacrifice.
But then again, God asked a sacrifice of His child. God gave the ultimate sacrificial gift. And He asked His child to join Him in making this sacrifice. And we received the gift of Christmas.

Now I'm not suggesting that you give up your Christmas tree. (Honestly, I'm not sure I could do it.) But consider having a family conversation about what a sacrificial gift might look like for your own family this Christmas.

The Johnsons had that conversation, and they experienced one of the greatest Christmas seasons ever. After all, when it comes to Christmas, isn't it all about sacrificial giving?

By the way, please don't sacrifice any Christmas trees my way.

There are a lot of parental control programs available to parents. But I would highly recommend “Noah’s Internet” from the National Center for Biblical Parenting. Noah’s Internet is an Internet Safety Browser for children up to twelve years of age.

Why do I like this program? While many "control programs" try to filter out bad sites, there is such a rapid increase of unacceptable sites that it is hard for filtering software to keep up.

Noah's Internet is different. It includes about 10,000 pre-approved sites. Parents may easily add others of their choice. The program has a child-friendly interface for safe exploration of the web. It also has parental control panels that you can access from any computer.

One of the most fun parts of Noah's Internet is Noah himself. He can read your children’s email to them, speak encouraging words, and remind them about chores, Bible trivia, or notes from parents.

Language filters protect your children from giving out their personal information, name, phone number, or home address. This program can work on all of your computers for $39 a year.

Protect your kids and at the same time use a program that will allow you to interact with your kids while they are on the internet. For more details on Noah's Internet, visit their website.

Children want to know. They are inquisitive by nature. Are you prepared to answer your child when he asks:

"Did God know Adam and Eve were going to sin?"

"What does God look like?"

"Why did I have a bad dream when I prayed before I went to sleep?"

"How can God be three persons and one person at the same time?"

"Why doesn't God just forgive everyone?"

"Why do you get mad at me if you have Jesus in your heart?"

"Would God send nice people to hell if they are not Christians?"

"What are demons?"

"What does my angel do?"

"Why does God let wars happen?"

"Why do we go to church if God is everywhere?"

"Why do people get baptized?"

"When is Jesus coming back?"

Do you need some help answering these questions? Our Children's Ministry is not just about teaching kids. It's about training parents. That's why we invite you to attend your child's class with him.

By experiencing the same lessons, you will understand the spiritual truths he is learning and get answers for the questions your child will ask you. Come learn with your kids!

I have been reading the book, Teaching Your Child How to Pray by Rick Osborne. He says, "Teaching our children to pray will equip them to face everything life has to offer...Teaching them to pray will put them in touch with the
Father who not only wants the best for them but who knows what that best is and has the power and resources to deliver."

So, if the Father has the ultimate plan for your child, if He has the power to develop your child's character, if He can equip your child with everything he needs to face life, if He can help your child to mature and grow through a relationship based on prayer, then why is it that less than 10% of the families who attend church pray together other than at meals?

If you need help knowing how to develop a life-changing prayer life for your child, you may want to get Osborne's book (available at any Christian bookstore). Rick Osborne teaches some of the "how-tos" of helping your child experience the presence of God. And who knows--it might even bring new life to your own personal prayer life.

But every child needs to understand where we are leading him. His heart has to be in the right place, as well as his actions. Children cannot be expected to extrapolate deeper meaning behind your requests. A clearer statement would be, "I need you to pick up your things because the family room belongs to the whole family, and we respect everyone's right to have a clean space."

Giving a child the reason why you are expecting good behavior will help him follow through well because he will see the bigger picture. If we continually demand obedience without explanation, the child will be doing the right action, but his heart may not be obeying because he does not fully understand.

Though there are times we may expect obedience without explanation, the more we can help a child understand why we desire acceptable behavior, the less he will end up following blindly. Give your child insight into the reasons why he must obey, and he will connect that lesson with the right behavior.

We shouldn't be surprised when that same behavior shows up again. After all, if we only focus on the negative behavior, how will our child know what right behavior is expected? Children need to understand and practice right behavior.

When a child pushes his brother to get out of his way, we yell, "Don't do that! If you push your brother again, you'll have a time out. Tell your brother you're sorry." Of course, we are all too familiar with this scenario and are not surprised when it happens again.

We don't get far when we focus on negative behavior. Help your child understand the appropriate behavior. "Next time you're upset, show me how you will ask him to move…" When a child has the opportunity to practice acceptable behavior, we're more likely to see his negative behavior change.

Give yourself and your child a break this summer. Take a moment to help your child practice the acceptable right behavior. It will go a long way in training your child to respond appropriately when the next conflict arises.

Summer can be a great time to do the things that never get done during the school year. As parents, we come up with plans for the family to vacation, visit museums, go to amusement parks, ride bikes, clean out the closets... but don't forget the opportunities that are here this summer for your kids to connect with that friend who needs to know Christ. What can you do to help your child reach out to his friend?

One great way for your child and his friend to have fun playing together in a context where the love of God is made clear, is to come to "Hanging With My Friends…Summer Sports/Arts Camp." See the two announcements about this event in June's edition of our ekidz newsletter. One announcement has the dates and times for your kids and the other is for those of you who have a talent you can share with others.

I hope you will take advantage of our camp to help your child share God’s love to those who do not know Him.

Bonnie

But today, we are much more concerned about protecting our children. We want to protect our kids from physical dangers, personal traumas, and emotional crisis. Some children experience the pain of their parents’ divorce or the fear of a parent fighting in the war. Other children may be fighting a serious illness.

When children are surrounded by painful experiences, our tendency as parents is to try to compensate by being more lenient with our children--especially when it comes to discipline.

We do not want to add any more perceived negative experiences in their lives, so we let up on the discipline and we don’t deal with unacceptable behavior.

Because extra care and love is needed by children who have suffered loss in their lives, it may seem easy to just give in to a child’s demands. However, the over-lenient parent is not helping but essentially hurting the child. Yes, as parents we need to provide additional love, but at the same time we need to continue to be firm. By setting limits a child will have a greater sense of security.

Checking the condition of your child’s heart is a good place to start. If you find your child in stressful situations, don’t say, “I’ll go easy on him.” Instead, shower him with love and set firm limits. Giving him consistent discipline will assure him that there is control in his present world that seems out of control.

May Jesus give you wisdom as you parent your kids through tough times.

Bonnie Aldrich

This tip was taken from the CD series called Single Parenting: Brining hope and practical help to single, blended and reconstructed families by Dr. Scott Turansky and Joanne Miller, RN, BSN.

You may have heard the phrase “parent driven” as it refers to our Children’s Ministry. The focus is for parents to become proactive about their children’s spiritual development here at Pulpit Rock Church. But we want to help you in this process. What if we could help your children to develop character more like Jesus, not because you told them to, but because they wanted to? Rejoicing in Right Choices is a 3-week PRC preschool program taking place in April that will focus on 3 Christian Character qualities based on the fruits of the spirit in Galatians 5 and character qualities in Colossians 3. Read more about it in the article posted in this newsletter.

Dr. Bryan Davidson is a parent of four very active, beautiful children here at PRC and he is a Clinical Psychologist. He has noticed many benefits of using past Rejoicing in Right Choices programs. First, he says, the child was changing from “don’t do this, don’t do that” to focusing on positive attitudes and actions on his own. Second, he says, the parents changed from reacting to the normal daily routine to identifying and affirming virtuous behaviors and attitudes.*

The Christian walk is not about a system of dos and don’t,” Dr. Davidson says, “but about rejoicing in the positive aspects of a walk with God.” So, look for Rejoicing in Right Choices in your preschool child’s room in the coming weeks.

*Egeler, Kathy. ”A work in Progress: one parent’s response.” Christian Early Education. September, 2006 vol. 8, issue 1.

Actually we got a little carried away and the back yard began to look like summer. We laughed hard. We played hard. We were having our own party--our own celebration. And I think snow is all about celebrating!

We were celebrating fun. We were celebrating God’s gift of creation in the snow. We were celebrating the gift of family.

And to think I almost said to my grandson, “Honey I’m going to sit here by the warm fire place, and I’ll watch you play through the window.” I am so glad I didn’t miss out on the celebration.

How easy it is to let our comfort or our long “to do” list rule our days. When we put everything aside to love our kids, they sense their value to us and ultimately to their heavenly Father. I encourage you to find some time to celebrate with your kids. You don’t need a holiday--celebrate the snow--or even a cup of hot chocolate together by the fireplace. Don’t miss today’s chance for a celebration.

Praying for the celebration of your children,

Bonnie

I saw these children and others smile as the sage opened his scroll and read their names. These were the children dressed as princes and princesses who attended our Kingdom Kids Celebration. These were the children who became Christ followers in 2006. These were the children who will hear their names read from the Lamb's Book of Life when they stand before God. These children will spend eternity in heaven.

Every January we host a Kingdom Kids Celebration to honor the children who have decided (sometime during the previous year) to become Christ followers.

Important events are celebrated in a family. As a church family, we love to celebrate together the most important decision a child will ever make.

When the Lord returns and He opens the Book of Life to read the names of those who have trusted in Him, will your child’s name be read?

How can your help prepare your child to have a personal relationship with God?

1. Pray for your child. You do not want to push your child into making a decision to follow Christ. Pray that your child will listen to the conviction of the Spirit of God.
2. Make sure your child understands what he needs to do to be a Christ follower:
   • Admit he is a sinner. (Romans 3:23)
   • Believe Jesus loves him and died for his sin. (John 3:16)
   • Confess his sin to God. (1 John 1:9)
3. Look for opportunities to talk with your child about his sin and about Christ’s forgiveness. Be sensitive to when the Holy Spirit may be talking to him.

One more thing… if your child responds by confessing his sin to God and making a decision to be a Christ follower, will you let me know? We will definitely celebrate in January 2008, but I would like to share this joy with your child right away.

Praying with you for the salvation of your children,

Bonnie

We quickly entered the room where Brandon was being loved by his mom and dad and big brother Luke. I will never forget that visual picture. It’s now the picture on my screensaver. It’s the picture of a miracle.

The family (including all four grandparents) held hands to pray and thank God for this new life. Big brother Luke (age 3) said, “I will pway first…Thank you God for my bwudder bwandon (Brother Brandon). Thank you fow the nuwses and doctows that helped him get out of Mommy’s tummy…and that he will love Jesus like I love Jesus. Amen.”

I love Luke’s words, “That he will love Jesus like I love Jesus.” What a prayer—genuine and simple, yet profound. As Luke prayed, I sensed a smile on the face of God. For me, it was almost a holy moment. Don’t get me wrong. Luke definitely has his unholy moments. (We’re waiting for the terrible twos to end before he is four!)

But I am reminded of the need to teach our kids how to be holy in today’s world. Chip Ingram, president of Walk through the Bible, is the one who taught me that. Actually, Chip Ingrim has a lot to say on raising kids today. I think he is one of the greatest experts on child rearing, discipline, positive reinforcement, self image…everything from birth through teens.

This is why I am excited that we are offering Chip Ingram’s “Effective Parenting in a Defective World" six-week video series that will begin Sunday January 21, 2007. I encourage you to check out the details and meet me there.

• How is Christmas looking for us?
• Have we opened up our Bibles yet and read the Christmas story?
• Have we personalized and journaled the meaning of the Christmas story for us?
• Have we stopped to ask God with whom we might share the Christmas message?
• Have we stopped to thank God for the gift of His son for our sins?
• Have we talked about Jesus as much as we have talked about Santa Claus?
• Have we reached out with a gift- not for our friends- but for a needy person whom God loves and died for?
• Have we placed the nativity scenes around the house where conversation takes place?

The key to helping our children get the right perspective lies is our attitude as adults. Children take their cues primarily from those things that are of greatest interest to the adults in their lives. This year, let’s give our kids a new definition of “It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas.”