KidzPort March 21 – Get Your Palms Ready

March 23, 2010

Just a quick refresher this week for the kids about the importance of Lent, and what’s going to be coming up.    We dug out the old chart, and reviewed what happens during this time of year.

It’s important that we keep this season of Lent at the front of what we do.  Easter, Resurrection Sunday, Paschal – whatever you call it, it is the single most important day of a Christian’s life.   Lent should be a time of preparation – readying the heart for the coming Resurrection, when Jesus’ work is fulfilled.

For Parents:

• Talk to you children about Lent.  Make sure they know why this time of year is so important.
• Read together some scripture regarding the preparations for the Resurrection.  The Gospel of Matthew is a great start, chapter 21.

KidzPort March 7 – Dem’s da Rules

March 8, 2010

Ever wonder why there are so many rules?   We have rules for everything -

what we can’t do, what we have to do…

Kids, especially, have a lot of rules to deal with.  Parents’ rules, school rules, church rules.  Sometimes the rules seem unfair or even silly.  We talked Sunday about some of those rules; what the kids felt was unfair, or unreasonable.  (Surprisingly few bedtime complaints.)   I’m happy to report almost none of our kids are allowed to watch The Family Guy.

God has rules.  The most famous of these are the Ten Commandments.   But there are actually over six hundred commandments in the Old Testament!  How are we supposed to remember them all?    Romans 2:15 says:

who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them) (Romans 2:15, New King James Version)

So, in other words, God places His law directly in our hearts, so that we can know what it right and wrong.  We need to listen to that.  How?  Psalm 119:11 says this:

Your word I have hidden in my heart,
That I might not sin against You. (Psalm 119:11, New King James Version)

(Which, by the way, is a memory verse.)  If we keep reading God’s word, then we will be better able to obey His rules, won’t we?

For Parents:

• Read the memory verse together with your child. (Ps. 119:11) What does it say to them?  Have them explain it to you.
• We went over the Ten Commandments in class.  See how many your child remembers, and work together toward memorizing them.
• Pray together that both of you will listen to God’s word that He has placed in your heart.