This is How We Pray for Our Children

A year or so ago, I came across a post by the parents of one of my very good friends. In this post, her parents - missions workers and church planters in Cambodia for many years - shared a list of requests and ways in which they have prayed for their children (and grandchildren and great-grandchildren) for the past 30 years. With their permission, I am gladly sharing this with you.

 (Email us for a downloadable PDF copy of this list on 4x6 cards)

THIS IS HOW WE PRAY FOR OUR CHILDREN

by JD & Kim Crowley

For around 30 years Kim and I have prayed for our children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and their spouses (often during a time of fasting and prayer during the Tuesday or Wednesday lunch hour). Besides praying for individual requests as needs arose, we have prayed the same general requests below, week after week, year after year—and we’re constantly amazed how God faithfully answers. The more we pray, the more we receive. God has given us enough faith to believe him to answer these requests to the fourth generation, that is, our great-grandchildren. For the generations beyond that, it’s up to our kids to continue this tradition.

Faith

Grant them a heart of repentance from sin

Give them faith in Christ from an early age

Fill them with your Holy Spirit, and the fruit of the Spirit

Lead them to be baptized into your church

Make them members of a strong church with godly elders

Give them spiritual gifts for use in the church, and help them faithfully use them

Lead them always to increase in holiness

Keep them within the orthodox faith of Christ and the apostles.

Protect them from false teachers and false teaching

Make them fruitful proclaimers of the gospel, filled with love for all

Make them humbly committed to daily prayer

Give them hunger for daily Bible reading

Fill them with love and forbearance toward others

Help them endure trials with faith and joy

Help them guard their conscience

May their lives be like the sun that rises stronger and stronger until the full of day

Wisdom

Give them hearts that constantly overflow with thankfulness

Make them peacemakers

Give them a vocation/skill/work that provides for their family and is useful to society

Give them a sense of purpose and joy in their life work

Rescue them from the fear of man

Provide for them a good education

Help them apply themselves diligently to their studies and other work

Rescue them from laziness and dishonesty

Influences and Relationships

May they be quick to forgive

Give them godly friends all their lives who will influence them to love God

Give them godly influences from “uncles and aunts” and “substitute parents,” especially as our influence wanes

Don’t let them go through a time of teenage rebellion

Help them remain pure and enter marriage as virgins

May they marry only strong believers

Save, sanctify, and bless their future spouse

Keep divorce away from their lives and their children’s lives for many generations

Give them the gift of children and the grace to raise them up in the faith of Christ

If they are to remain single, make them unusually fruitful for God’s kingdom

Protect them from sexual predators

Protect them from deviant sexual desires

Physical

Heal and protect them from sicknesses and diseases

Protect them from accidents

Give their country peace in their lifetime

Megan
for the Sisterhood

For a PDF copy of cards you can print off, email us here at albright.sisterhood@gmail.com

ABC Verse Cards

Oscar's Alphabet Book

Our "Oscar" recently turned one, and is becoming quite the book-a-holic. I wanted to create something special for him that was full of memories and educational. I came across an idea on Pinterest to create an alphabet book that was specific to the child. Using that idea, I sat down and created a photo alphabet book with all of Oscar's favorite things and people in it.

"G-H" pages of his Alphabet Book

"Q-R" pages of his Alphabet Book

Desiring to pour God's Word into his life, my husband and I found Bible verses for each letter of the alphabet for the book as well. The Sisterhood requested that those verses be turned into flashcards that could be used with their children. God's Word does not return void, and our prayer is that the truths of God's Word will take root in the hearts of our children.
 

If you wish to receive a PDF file of the verse flashcards as pictured above, please send an email request to albright.sisterhood@gmail.com with the subject line "Verse Cards." Thanks, and we hope these can be a blessing to you and your kids!

16 Tips to Raise Kids Who Love to Read

As a supplement to Joanne's series on Children's Authors, I wanted to pass along this quick list with excerpts from a book that I have (almost) finished reading - Tony Reinke's Lit! A Christian Guide to Reading Books (more on some of the other great aspects of this book later). For now, hopefully you can be encouraged and inspired by his advice on raising kids who love to read - even if you don't enjoy it yourself. :-)


16 TIPS TO RAISE KIDS WHO LOVE TO READ
by Tony Reinke

1. Fill your home with books. Many of history’s most prolific readers, writers, leaders - and Theologians - were raised in homes filled with books.
2. Read to your kids. We all begin as readers who require aided discovery - that is, initially we need parents, pastors, classrooms, and teachers to help us to learn from books.
3. Don’t stop reading to your kids. Parents should read aloud to their children from birth until college, the point in their lives when literacy plays the most important role in their educational success.
4. Read your books in front of your kids. Young children prize what they see their parents prize. . . . Let it be obvious to them that books are cherished in your own life. (Blogger's Note: If you don't really "cherish" books yourself, start by reading Reinke's book Lit! - Some great tips on how to enjoy reading - and why as a Christian you should.) 
5. Teach young children to read. Every child will learn to read at a different pace, but try to teach your children to read early.
6. Push entertainment into the background. It is not impossible to enjoy reading and entertainment, but your priorities must be settled first. In our home, reading is the priority over video games and television and movies. This is modeled in how we talk about books and how we limit electronic media. 
7. Listen to audio books in the car. Over the years we have logged many miles on the road for family vacations. We have grown to anticipate these road trips and the opportunity they present for the entire family to enjoy audio books. 
8. Hunt for the best books. Take time to plan books by season, by personal interest, and even by school studies. Talk with other parents in your church to find reliable recommendations. 
9. Anticipate new books. My wife and I seek to connect our children’s reading interest with specific authors. Once we discover an author that our child really enjoys, we watch local book signings and new book releases. 
10. Celebrate the classics. Find ways to get significant dates from your favorite books, and the birthdays of your favorite authors, into your calendar so you can celebrate.
11. Cultivate your child’s moral imagination. Find books that picture moral lessons in the imagination, and savor those books with your children. (Blogger's Note: For two great articles on why this is important, read theologian Russell Moore's post on "Why Christians Should Read Fiction" and David Mill's article on "Enchanting Children.")
12. Help interpret worldviews as you read to your children. Reading literature together allows parents to read about sin and evil and goodness and beauty—and to pause and help the child interpret those realities in light of Scripture. Ultimately we can use books to show our children where a biblical worldview and real life connect or clash. (Blogger's Note: WORLD Magazine does a great job reviewing books and identifying different worldviews found within them.)
13. Read your favorite excerpts to your children. This simple exercise shows my children a love of reading, and it serves them a sweet dessert of prose.
14. Invite your children to read to the family. I will buy [my son] as many books as he can read, so long as he agrees to mark his five favorite pages in each book, bring those marked pages to the dinner table, explain the context, and read them to the family. 
15. Challenge your children to improve books. When the time is appropriate, encourage your kids to disagree with a book. 
16. Most importantly, read the Bible together as a family. Books are a big part of our home, but the Bible is the supreme Book. Parents model the primacy of Scripture by reading the Bible together as a family on a regular basis.

Megan for the Sisterhood

Family Meal Time

Today we want to feature a special guest blogger - Grace Albright.  She is the matriarch of the Albright Sisterhood, and a faithful reader of our posts (it's encouraging to know there will be at least one page-view for every article that we post).  We are thankful for the good and faithful mother that God has given to us in her, and we often look to her for wisdom - especially in the realm of parenting.  We hope you enjoy the following article that she wrote on the importance of family meal time.

Albright Family Meal Time
August 2005

Twenty years ago while in the middle of the daily routine of dealing with the seemingly unending struggles of being the mommy of five (which included preparing and serving countless meals to those five noisy and messy diners), I rarely considered that those daily, sometimes dramatic rituals might someday end.  And now they have. The decision to have a daily routine of eating at least one meal a day as a family, sitting at the table together, was a deliberate choice made early in our marriage before we even had children.  Nothing could substitute for all that could be taught at the family table, and the following are some of the benefits we believed to come with such a habit.

Benefits of Family Meal Time

An Albright
circa the 70's

• A scheduled, daily family meal time contributes to orderliness in teaching the discipline of a schedule.
• Related to orderliness, having a planned meal served on a set table trains children in matters of etiquette and planning ahead.
• Serving more nutritious meals is more likely to occur with well-planned meal times.
• Many times, a family meal is the only time of the day when everyone can be together for a significant period of time and share the events of the day without the distraction of a TV, cell phones, toys, etc.  Meal time is most often the greatest opportunity for children to learn the communication skills of speaking properly and listening intently.
• Even toddlers can begin learning to sit still for an extended period of time while involved in a worthwhile activity.
• This is also the time of day when all family members, regardless of age or height, can all sit together at the same level, making conversation more likely and beneficial for all. The egalitarian nature of the table makes the conversation of the two-year-old as meaningful as that of the twelve-year-old.
• Unique to meal time comes the opportunity for training children in matters usually found nowhere else such as table etiquette, gratitude to Mom for her work, eating food the kids may not prefer, taking turns, sharing food with others, treating each other with respect, mediating disputes, etc. Rules of etiquette, gratitude for the service of others, eating non-favorite foods also better prepare children to be guests in the homes of others.
• Having a set time to publicly thank God for food and other provisions is also a great opportunity. Acknowledging Him as the source is another key in urging children to eat and be grateful for food they might not like
• Meal times can transition well into a set time for family worship and prayer.
• Laughter and light-hearted conversation should also be a natural part of the family dinner table and will create lifelong memories of a family in harmony.



Family Meal Time
December 2011

In a culture that craves the convenience of eating food out of a paper bag or sitting in a room with a couch next to a running TV set with a paper plate on the knee, establishing and maintaining the routine of regularly scheduled family meal time at the table is NOT necessarily easier.  Family meal time at the table requires a plan and the mutual agreement of mom and dad to make it work ahead of time: but children will reap a lifetime of priceless benefits from such habits.  Now that my husband and I indulge in the perks of being "empty-nesters," (which of course include sit-down meals much easier to prepare and serve), we definitly miss our children's presence at mealtimes; but we do hope they appreciate and cherish the memories of the countless meals that we ate together.

~Grace Albright

Family Badges: Postive Reinforcement Your Children Will Love

I have often stopped to listen to myself as I've talked with my children and wondered, "Do they ever get discouraged at how often I say 'no' to them?"  I understand how important it is to teach them how not to act, talk, and respond, but I've also come to realize that approving an action, word, or response when it is the right one can be just as effective, if not more so.  As Christians, my husband and I strive to teach our children what God has asked us to teach them according to His Word - and this is hard work!  Only by God's grace can our children absorb these truths and practice them someday with a heart motivated out of love and not fear or obligation.  But what about all of those other character traits that they need to learn? (ie. finishing a job, learning a new skill, cleaning up after oneself, working as a team, or teaching a younger sibling/friend a new skill)  These are pretty valuable character traits, and I'm embarrassed to say that I was at the grand age of 18 before I learned some of these (when I entered my first college dormitory!).

As I worked through these concepts in my mind, I came across an article that Family Fun magazine (Disney) wrote on a program they've been running called "Badges of Fun."  Some of you may have seen their promotion of this program last summer and for those of you who have not, you can view it here.  It is a tool they developed to help families spend more time together creating, learning, and growing together.  I loved the concept and decided to "tailor make" our badges to fit our family's values, while keeping their ages in mind.  My kids were 1, 3, and 5 last summer, and even though they were young, they enjoyed earning the badges that my husband and I had come up with to fit our little family.  And what, you might be wondering, was the purpose of our Family Badges?  Well, we wanted to teach our children character traits and skills they can perform for the rest of their lives while encouraging them to choose the right way to behave (even though we knew these things weren't ultimately going to change their hearts).  Needless to say, it kept all of us busy throughout the summer.

This is how we presented the Family Badges to the kids.  For the first time the children participated in one of our badge categories, they earned the official badge.  Each time they performed another "badge behavior," we added a little ribbon to the original badge, allowing them to continue earning rewards.  The following are the badge categories we used:

• Music Badge - they had to learn a new song
• Cleaning Badge - they had to help with a "big person" chore
• Exploring Badge - they had to discover something they didn't know, like a new bug or fact about our world
• Helping Badge - they had to DO something for someone without being asked
• Art Badge - create something "artistic"
• Building Badge
• Saving Money Badge
• Cooking Badge
• Listening Badge
• Crafting Badge

There are so many categories that we didn't cover, so maybe this coming summer we'll use a new set of badges.  Or if we can't make it until next summer, we may do a winter version with indoor activities.

My husband and I would periodically have "award ceremonies" and present the kids with the badges or ribbons they had earned over the weeks prior to that ceremony.  We loved watching the kids get excited about earning a new badge, doing something they had not yet tried, but most of all watching their character begin to develop.  It was such a fun summer activity for all of us, and I think we all enjoyed being able to say, "YES! Let's go do something new today!"