If you want LOTS of great ideas for kids get yourselves on Pinterest. It's visual but the links will send you back to the source. People "pin" pics from sites they like. I wasn't all that interested in yet another virtual distraction but it really is a gold mine for ideas.

My first impression was that it was about materialism and consumerism but it doesn't have to be. I started making boards for things I care about and it wasn't about consumerism (for me).

I recently saw a teacher's board FULL of kid ideas, crafts, books. Very very cool!!

Check it out. You can probably also use it as yet another source for networking if you haven't already!

Mother's Day is over for this year, so this is late.

A family member sent me a USA "history of Mother's Day" forward.

This site tells about carnations as the flower for Mother's Day. For all the decades I spent in church on Mother's Day I don't think I ever say a presentation of red carnations for living mothers and white carnations for those deceased. Each family could bring a vase of carnations representing the mothers in their families. Or wear a carnation! It could be quite beautiful. If your people are going to number in the hundreds looking for red and white carnations the day before Mother's Day you might want to pick a florist and order ahead.

Do it for fathers, too! Wear a rose! Red if your father is alive, white if he's deceased. If you want to honor more than one father (or mother), common these days, wear two!!

Maybe you've already done something like that. With all your CM networking, is there a gathering place for holiday ideas? Consider a Pinterest board of holiday CM/Family Ministry ideas!

My verse for last night. My sister, by the grace of God, is very very good at this: " . . . comfort the feeble-minded, support the weak, be patient toward all men. . ." I Thess 5:14  (KJV21) The link is for the whole chapter. Interesting to read it in context.

Visited a church with my daughter the other day. Their youth group had a lock-in to raise money for kids overseas. They each had a specific individual with a real life challenge. One had to support their family. One was blind or lame. For the weekend one of the kids here took on that burden as they went about their lock-in activities. One had to support his  or her family and wore a heavy back pack all weekend. One wore a blind fold for a blind individual. One was lame. Opportunities for teens to grow empathy. There are probably ways to incorporate something similar into the activities of pre-adolescent and grade school kids. Maybe there's someone closer to home, in the neighborhood, or at school.

A very challenging activity would be (for families on a week when school is on vacation ) to eat like a family some where else. Go without electricity. Spend the day (or a week) without using gasoline. Live on $25 or $50 (for a week). What happens to worship if you turn off the electricity? How about the sermon? Think of a list of cultural challenges. Pick one.

We take our cultural/material existence, our health, transportation, food sources, water, the natural world - most of what we have, for granted. We have lots to be thankful for.

Some of you really enjoyed it when I was reading and commenting on books. If you're interested, Ken has some book commentary at Children's Ministry Today and Tomorrow. He's currently actively involved in children's ministry.