Are you keeping up?

I don't consider myself techno-savy but I have family members working with kids, teens and families. Sent this to them. Forgot about you!

I assume that if you're an active parent or if you're currently working with children or teens, you keep up on this kind of info. Check this out.

Sidebar: I am not condoning the sites or the advertising and I apologize in advance. I have no desire to offend. But the app info is important. You can be the Navy seal rushing in to retrieve valuable information.

Who is the enemy? Would you recognize the spirit if you were face to face?

More important, can your kids recognize and differentiate between "friend" and "foe"? Do they have the strength and courage to say "Yes" to friend and "No" to foe? How do we train them?

End of Sidebar.

Here's the app info:

Scary apps that you need to know about. For parents, guardians, teachers, anyone with children using computers or smart phones who are in your care...

This site, as well. This one is a bit more tame.

Easter

Not putting much on paper these days but I found myself thinking about a post that someone posted a few years ago asking a question about violence in the scriptures and children's ministry. Watching the Anthony Quinn movie, Barabbas, tonight with my parents brought it back to mind. So many of the stories of scripture happened in such violent times. The history of the church after Christ's crucifixion, too. I always found it interesting, the details that the scriptures include and the details they leave out. Our life experiences give depth of meaning to God's stories. Our missing life experiences leave holes in others. Maybe it's God's way of keeping us "childlike." God managed to mix concreteness and unanswered questions because. The scriptures seem clear about not adding to or taking away from the inspired Word of God - violent or not. The Living Word of God came to earth, suffered, died a gruesome death, and still spared us so many of the gory details. Yet for those who suffer and know war and persecution and life experiences that sear souls, their understanding of what Christ did is more intimate than it is for those of us who don't. And the Holy Spirit counsels. We can only listen and shudder and understand that we don't understand except by faith. So God left spaces in His Word, quiet places, where we can ponder what God includes and what He leaves out. And we choose to trust Him even when we don't understand the way Jesus' family and friends and disciples has to trust their Maker and wonder why. The things that are revealed belong to us and the things that remain hidden belong to God (its somewhere in the Word) and that's the way it is. We ponder, we pray, with humble, grateful hearts and minds and spirits. Happy Resurrection Day! Give thanks for your kids and all they've been given and consider all we have to be thankful for...

 "Wise men still seek him!"

Epiphany! http://www.textweek.com/epiphany.htm

"the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom"

Bible Gateway: "the fear of the Lord" 

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"wise as serpents and innocent as doves."

Probably the makings for a whole curriculum but here is one article.

[NY times article on sexual predators who target children] This is about men and boys but it applies to either gender as predator or victim.

If you're a parent, if you work with children, if your older kids babysit, etc, etc ... this is an important read ...  Not to make you paranoid ...  but to make us ever-vigilant. It's not strangers we need to worry about.
 
It's too obvious to say "take note when relationships become secretive or inappropriate" unless you're too busy to notice.

Stay involved and vigilant.

Keep listening.  Ask questions.

No secrets! We used to tell our kids the only secret from mom & dad is a Christmas or birthday present.

This may sound at odds with what many Christian parents believe - but teach your children to say, "No!" There's a time and a place for it. If your child never says "No," or can't say no when they need to - worry!

Know your kids. Know where they are, who they're with - even as teachers - know where every child is, who they're with and what they're doing - every moment that they're in your care.  I like open public spaces. I like classroom and office doors with windows.
 
I know that in this day and age most churches have policies in place to protect children. Bravo! Nobody wants a witch hunt or to keep kids from rich friendships with trustworthy teens and adults of in the extended family of a faith community but, sad to say, there are sheep and there are wolves.

Teachers have a responsibility to either give parents (and children) information they need or to point them to those who can; not to be paranoid but to be "wise as serpents and innocent as doves."

Christmas Thoughts

Do you have a real live manger scene to visit this season? Maybe at your own church. Maybe at a neighboring church?

How about a barn full of farm animals with all the smells and textures, out in the cold...

If the sky is clear this week, look up into the sky after dark and check out the stars...

If you live near a desert or a big salt lake, check out the moon, if it's still in the sky...

Do you wander from house to house singing Christmas carols? Does it make you think of the angels?

Do folks sleeping on the street make you think of shepherds?

Do unwed mothers remind you of Mary?

Do new babies remind you of Jesus?

Do you find yourself without something that you think you need to celebrate the season, like a place to spend the night?

Break away from traditional thought. Ponder the stories.

Think about the folks who were there when Christ Jesus arrived on this earth, who do they make you think about today: city folk, country folk, animals, rich, poor, celestial, the impatient, the generous...anybody else?

Venite adoramus!