Parent Stuff

The Ultimate Challenge

Stop and think about someone you really admire.

Are you thinking of someone? Whether that person is a teacher, coach, friend or family member, he or she is valuable to you. You recognize that this person is important because what they do impacts your life. But did you know that everyone is valuable? That’s right. Your boss, your mailman, your babysitter and your neighbor—they are all valuable.

Every person has value, not because of what they do, but because each and every person has been put together by God. When God created people, He made them in His image. That means every person alive today has been put together in the likeness of God. So every person has value. And it’s our job to help everyone feel like they are valuable.

When we show other people how valuable they really are, we are showing them honor. There are many ways to honor someone. Moses gave us the Ten Commandments to teach us to honor our mother and father (Exodus 20:12). Paul taught us to honor the authorities who have been placed over us on earth (Romans 13:1). When Jesus was on earth, He taught us to honor everyone—even those who are overlooked and unpopular.

Jesus showed other people how valuable they really were by spending time with them. He ate dinner with people who usually ate alone. He served people who were used to doing the serving. He paid attention to people who normally didn’t get a lot of attention. If Jesus thought it was important to honor everyone, then we should follow His example.

This February, we’re taking on the Ultimate Challenge of showing the highest degree of honor. We’ll be looking to David as a mentor and exploring his life in 1 and 2 Samuel, and we will define honor as “letting someone know you see how valuable they really are.”

In week 1, we’re looking at how God chooses the next king from an unexpected place—the youngest boy watching sheep in the fields (1 Samuel 16:1-13). We’ll notice that God doesn’t see as the world sees; He looks at the heart instead. Honor those who are overlooked.

This Bible story sets up the month and God’s pattern to honor people in unexpected ways and encouraging us to do the same. To do this, it will help to memorize our monthly verse: “Love each other deeply. Honor others more than yourselves,” Romans 12:10, NIrV.

In week 2, we’re discovering that honor can also be shown between friends. In this Bible story, we’re introduced to the current king, Saul, and his son, Jonathan. These two may be related, but they have very different responses to David’s role in their lives and his rising popularity (1 Samuel 18:1-4 & 5-9).

Saul is increasingly more concerned about his own status and power. But Jonathan values his relationship with David more. He doesn’t just say so in words, but also through his actions, sharing important things like his armor and weapons. Honor others more than yourself.

In week 3, we’re discovering that it’s important to honor the people in charge of you. If you don’t and you dishonor them, it usually doesn’t end well. Often, people get hurt. Just ask King David’s son, Absalom. He rebels because he thinks he’d make a better king (2 Samuel 15:1-16a, 18:5-7, 15, 31-33).

His dad tried to protect him, but the natural consequences of showing dishonor led to a real tragedy. That’s why it’s best to Honor those who are over you.

In week 4, we’re discovering that another way to show honor is through worship. In some cultures, dancing is a special way of expressing honor to someone important. In this Bible story, King David is so excited that the ark of the covenant—and God’s presence—is finally coming to his city, that he dances on and off the whole way there! (2 Samuel 6:12b-22a) He dances out of his joy, for an audience of One—not caring what others might think.

When we really love God, it’s natural to Honor God in front of others. We just can’t help ourselves really! It doesn’t matter if others think we might be embarrassing ourselves. This month, we’re not only looking for ways to show others how valuable they really are, but also for opportunities to share publicly who God is, what He means to you and how He’s shown up in your life. Who can argue with that?

I can’t wait to see what happens in February when we take on the Ultimate Challenge of showing the highest degree of honor!

By Cara Martens. ©2011 Orange. All rights reserved. www.WhatIsOrange.org * All rights reserved. Used by permission.

GAME ON!

January is a great time to work on changing the way we play this game of life. It feels like a fresh, crisp start to a new year!  So, we’re going to spend the month in Proverbs, a book packed full of wise and visual verses to challenge our thinking—especially about the topic of Self-Control.

Self-control means choosing to do what you should do—and not what you want to do. In the moment, that’s hard for a lot of us. The good news is that God doesn’t ask us to do anything all on our own. We’ll share verses like 2 Peter 1:3 that say: “God’s given us everything we need to lead a godly life.” Self-control is a way to display to the world around us that we have God in our lives. And He’s present every hour of every day, ready to help us take control of our thoughts, words and actions.

Each week, we’ll talk specifically about choosing to have self-control in areas where we know kids (and adults) typically struggle.

In week one, the Proverbs principle we’re focusing on compares someone without self-control to a city with broken down walls—defenseless (Proverbs 25:28 NIrV). In our monthly memory verse, the very beginning of James 1:19 begs us to pay attention and be quick to listen. God can give you the power to control yourself.

In week two, we’re studying a young and new king, Solomon, who was smart enough to ask God to make him wise. What he learned is recorded for us in the book of Proverbs. We’ll talk about the biblical principle that it’s better to be patient than to fight (Proverbs 16:32). Pause before you lose your temper. We want to be slow to anger, to make the best choice for the future too, instead of just reacting based on how we feel and what we want right now.

In week three, we’re continuing to see the destruction that happens when we don’t have self-control. We want kids to know that God wants better for us and wants to protect us. So, we’ll focus on the hurt that’s caused when we use our words thoughtlessly like a sharp sword. We need to be slow to speak because wise people’s words can bring healing to a situation (Proverbs 12:8). Select your words carefully.

In week four, we continue to see that sometimes God says things a certain way to grab our attention and hold it long enough to make His point. He’ll use words to create a picture that’s really hard to get out of our mind and show us that it’s possible to have too much of a good thing. Proverbs 25:16 clearly says we better be cautious or we’ll end up in a stinky mess. None of us like getting sick (or cleaning up).  Know when to stop.

Maybe that’s why Galatians 5:22-23 says: “But the fruit of God’s spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” The only thing you can’t get too much of is God!

We are so excited about this month in Proverbs with a different principle each week addressing real life situations where we need self-control. Isn’t it great to know that God’s given us everything we need to live a godly life and to grow in wisdom? We can’t wait to hear what you think about Self-control: Changing the way you play!

By Cara Martens. ©2011 Orange. All rights reserved. www.WhatIsOrange.org * All rights reserved. Used by permission.

WRAPPED UP

It’s official—the holidays are around the corner. How do we know? Relatives are asking for Christmas lists so they can get their shopping done and the commercials on TV are rolling out their latest toy temptations to get children drooling.

It’s so easy to lose perspective in all the hustle and bustle. That’s why we are excited to focus on Generosity this December—so kids (and adults like us) can be reminded about what we should get all wrapped up in this year!

In fact, James 1:17 says, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights.” So, we know that God is the giver of all good things. But we also know that God’s generosity has a purpose.

In Week 1, we listen as Jesus tells the parable of a rich man in Luke 12:13-21. He gets wrapped up in storing more and more stuff and ends up losing everything that really matters.  People are always more important than stuff.

The brother did what we all have a tendency to do—to focus on what God can do for us, instead of thinking about ways we’ve already been blessed or how we can bless others. That’s why our monthly memory verse says, “Be rich in good deeds . . . be generous and willing to share.” (1 Timothy 6:18, NIV).

When we realize that it’s really a lie that stuff makes our lives better, then it’s easier for us to be generous. We define generosity as making someone’s day by giving something away. We can’t really live generously unless we believe this Basic Truth: I should treat others the way I want to be treated.

In Week 2, we learn that you can’t take it with you! A rich young ruler has a big question in our Luke 18:18-25. It’s interesting because Jesus really wasn’t after the guy’s stuff; He was after his heart. Jesus knew that this guy was trapped and He wanted to set the guy free. Don’t let stuff get in the way of loving Jesus. Living generously shows the people around us what we love and trust in most.

In week 3, we read two different accounts in John 3:16-17 and Luke 2:1-18 about the Greatest Gift Exchange ever—when Jesus is born. God is the ultimate example of generosity. We give because God’s given to us. God’s original gift is our motivation for giving freely to others. God gave the greatest gift when He gave us Jesus.

In one of the busiest times of year it’s important to take time to remember who gave first. We can stop and remember how amazing it is that God sent His Son to show us a new way to live and later make it possible for us to live with Him forever if we just believe.

Week 4, No services on Christmas.  Spend this day with loved ones and celebrate the birth and the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Because God gave us His only son, He showed us how valuable we are to Him! Other people should be valuable to us because they are valuable to God. When we give to others it shows God that we value the people He loves so much that He sent His son.

God gives generously to us so that we may be generous toward others. The Bible says, “You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.” (2 Corinthians 9:11, NIV)

In other words, God gives generously to us so we will have time, emotional energy, patience, and a wealth of resources to give to others. Then, when we are generous with all we have been given, others will see us and be thankful to God.

So many times we think that our ability to be generous is connected to our riches. We are afraid to give because we don’t know if we have enough, and we think generosity is for those who have more than we do to give. But the cool thing about generosity is that we’re not generous because we are rich, we are rich because we are generous. When we choose to give generously to others, we are blessed with everything that really matters in life!

By Cara Martens. ©2011 Orange. All rights reserved. www.WhatIsOrange.org * All rights reserved. Used by permission.

PITSTOP!

Have you ever found that it is really hard for kids (and adults) to consistently slow down long enough to express any kind of gratitude?  Sometimes we are moving so fast that we forget to give thanks to our Creator for both the big and the small things in our lives.  So the theme for this November is taking a “Pitstop” so we can remember that because of what God has done, we always have a reason to be grateful.

Showing gratitude is a natural response to God’s good character and is talked about throughout the Bible. It’s interesting to realize that God doesn’t actually express gratitude—because God doesn’t need anything. In fact, we can’t do anything to help God because He is completely omnipotent. He has the power to do anything that needs to be done. He is the only One who is truly self-reliant.

But God made us so that we are not self-reliant. We need God, and we need other people. We are all sinners in need of a Savior, and God met that need when He sent His Son, Jesus, to die on the cross for our sins (which we will start talking about the last week of this month with the Last Supper and continue all next month as we prepare for Jesus’ birth at Christmas time). Because of God’s sacrifice, we can have eternal life with Him in heaven. So that means we can be grateful to God for saving us and preparing a place for us in eternity.

And that’s not all—there are other things to be grateful for as well. Do you have shelter? Food? Clean Water? Clothes? Shoes? School? Work? What about friends and family? These things can be easily taken for granted—like air conditioning or fans! But imagine what our lives would be like without them! God wants us to remember that every good and perfect gift comes from Him, and that we should be grateful to Him for what He has given.

The Bible also tells us that it’s not enough just to show gratitude to God. We should also use the same gratitude to show our appreciation to all the people who help us every day. We don’t do as much by ourselves as we think we do. Sometimes it’s as simple as remembering to say “Thank you.” Sometimes it’s writing a special note or giving someone a hug. The important thing is that we remember and recognize what others do for us as we thank them for their help.

In week one, we will look for the silver lining in every situation. Bottom Line: You always have something to be grateful for. To do this, we will unpack our monthly memory verse: “Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” 1 Thessalonians 5:18, NIV

The second week we will focus on a group of vineyard workers (Matthew 20:1-15) who agreed to do a job but were disappointed by the way things turned out. Bottom Line: Take time to adjust your attitude.

In week three’s familiar story, we’ll study Jesus’ healing of the 10 lepers (Luke 17:11-19) and think about why only one came back. Bottom Line: Take time to say thank you.

And in the final week, we’ll learn about the Lord’s Supper (Luke 22:14-20) to focus on what Jesus was about to go through because He loved us so much. Bottom Line: Take time to celebrate what God has done.

We all need a gratitude adjustment from time to time—especially when we’re hot or hungry or tired. So we can’t wait to hear what you think of this month’s curriculum. One of the things I’m most grateful for is passionate leaders who invest so much in the next generation, so they can discover what God’s done for them in His big story and see the adventure that He invites all of us to experience as we try to follow Him every day.

By Cara Martens. ©2011 Orange. All rights reserved. www.WhatIsOrange.org * All rights reserved. Used by permission.

IMAGINE THAT!

A few years ago at the Orange conference, a well-known speaker and author made this statement: “A leader speaks something into nothing.” My initial thought was, “That’s beautiful!” And then, “Is that even possible? Can anyone except God create something new or unique?” But everywhere I look, the world around us needs fresh creativity and those of us who believe in a big God to show them a different way of living and loving others.

That’s why I’m so excited about October and our journey to discover where true creativity comes from. The first week, we’re going back to the beginning to explore the original Creator and it’s no surprise that there we find a very imaginative God (Genesis 1:1-2:1). He really did speak something into nothing! So where does that leave us? In Genesis’ description of the Creation process, the Bible says specifically that we are created in God’s image. We were made out of God’s imagination. The bottom line is that “You were created so you can be creative.” In fact, we’d go so far as to say that Christians have unlimited potential to be the most creative people on earth!

Later, the apostle Paul says it this way (in what will be our monthly memory verse): “We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Ephesians 2:10, NIV).

We are created by a creative God in His image, but unfortunately the older we get, the less we believe that we are creative and the more narrow our view of creativity becomes. So this month, we’re discovering a variety of ways to be creative. The second week, we’ll expand our definition of creativity to include the idea of how God empowers us to solve problems and lead in out-of-the-box ways. The bottom line is “Use your imagination to think BIG.” We’ll discover noteworthy examples in Miriam and her mother as they work together to save baby Moses (Exodus 1:22-2:10) for the future God intended even though it seemed impossible at first.

And then in week three, we’ll learn about how we can creatively express ourselves through our words, music, art and more to point people to God. We’ll study the life of David, one of the most creative examples in God’s big story. Did you know that in one Biblical translation David is described as living his life as a poem back to God? (2 Samuel 23:1-2) David was more than an artist- he used not only his natural creative gifts, but his learned skills and other life experiences to lead others and show God’s goodness. So the bottom line is “Use your imagination to make your mark.”

But there’s more to creativity than just problem solving and expressing ourselves. God created us to reflect Him and be the type of light that helps others see Him more clearly. We can do that when we learn more about what Jesus shared in His Sermon on the Mount about Salt and Light. (Matthew 5:14-16) Remember God promises that He has big plans for us in the world! Bottom line: “Use your imagination to do more good”.

In fact, to take it even a step further, we can make more of an impact when we get creative and share our resources (Acts 2:1-47). Bottom line: “Imagine what could happen if everyone used their gifts together.” It’s such a timely faith skill to focus on this fifth week of October–what worshiping with your life looks like–praising God and giving generously every day with other believers.

By Cara Martens. ©2011 Orange. All rights reserved. www.WhatIsOrange.org * All rights reserved. Used by permission.

GROW UP

Have you ever noticed that when you ask a kid a question in church, their default answer, if they don’t really know the answer, will be “God?” Or coming in a close second-hand frantically waving in the air-”Jesus!”

And really, most questions can be answered in some way with God or Jesus. That’s because God is the ultimate source of knowledge-and that’s the characteristic of God we’re learning about this month as we kick off a new school year. It’s in the story of God that we find the character of God, so we’re headed to the Gospel of Luke to learn from His Son, Jesus, as He grew up.

Did you know that the Bible only gives us one story and one comment on the life of Jesus from the time He was a preteen until He’s a thirty-something starting His ministry? It’s our memory verse for the month (Luke 2:52) and it tells us that Jesus spent time studying God’s Word, and that He grew in His relationship with God, in His ability to make wise choices and in His ability to love others.

So, we’ll start the first week learning with the 12-year-old Jesus as He listens and asks questions in the Temple (Luke 2:41-52). I love how one translation says that Jesus had to be about His father’s business. Bottom Line: Since God knows everything, I should discover what God says.

Next, we’ll see how Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist (Luke 3:21-23). Did you know that Matthew actually says Jesus had to remind a protesting John that this was part of God’s plan and it was the right thing to do? Bottom Line: When I discover what God says, it helps me trust Him more.

Then comes a low point in the story-Jesus being tempted in the Desert by the devil (Luke 4:1-13). He was able to use what He knew, and He was filled with God’s power to choose what was best, not easiest or quickest. Bottom Line: When I discover what God says, I can make wiser choices.

Finally, we’ll come full circle with Jesus as an adult teaching in the Synagogue of His hometown (Luke 4:14-30). What a surprising twist for the people who knew Him when He reads from Scripture and says He’s the one they’ve been waiting for, then leaves to start His ministry of healing and hope. Bottom Line: When I discover what God says, I know how I should treat others.

This month, as we talk about knowledge, we aren’t just talking about learning more. It’s not how much you know, it’s what you know (and who you know) that really matters! When we look at the life of Jesus, we see three main things we need to know. And these things are the foundation of everything we do at EpicKidz. Each week we will focus on just one of these three big ideas: I can trust God no matter what. I need to make the wise choice. And I should treat others the way I want to be treated. Can you guess which one goes which week?

By Cara Martens. © 2011 Orange. All rights reserved. www.WhatIsOrange.org * All rights reserved. Used by permission.