Each day of the month, in addition to my prayers for their safety and for the concerns of that day, I also pray for a specific character trait, virtue, or fruit of the Spirit to be planted and nurtured in my children … At the end of each month, I begin praying through the list again, combining traits when the month is shorter than thirty-one days.

Here are the first seven items on Bob’s list.

1. Salvation: “Lord, let salvation spring up within my children, that they may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory” (Isaiah 45:8, 2 Timothy 2:10).
2. Growth in grace: “I pray that they may ‘grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ’” (2 Peter 3:18).
3. Love: “Grant, Lord, that my children may learn to ‘live a life of love,’ through the Spirit who dwells in them” (Ephesians 5:2, Galatians 5:22).
4. Honesty and integrity: “May integrity and honesty be their virtue and their protection” (Psalm 25:21, NLT).
5. Self-control: “Father, help my children not to be like many others around them, but let them be ‘alert and self-controlled’ in all they do” (1 Thessalonians 5:6)
6. A love for God’s Word: “May my children grow to find your Word ‘more precious than gold, than much pure gold; [and] sweeter than honey, than honey from the comb’” (Psalm 19:10).
7. Justice: “God, help my children to love justice as you do and to ‘act justly’ in all they do” (Psalm 11:7, Micah 6:8).

Be sure to visit Bob’s website for all 31 prayer items complete with Scripture references. (Link: 31 Ways to Pray for Your Children)

Related Posts:
    • Recommended Children’s Story Bibles
    • To Spank or Not to Spank
    • 8 Great Family Rules to Help Any Home

Here are the kids bible memory verses that I recommend as a good starting point. They will help children think about the character of God. By starting with easy Bible verses, the children will have confidence to learn more. These are also great to use as preschool Bible verses.

10 Easy Bible Memory Verses For Kids

• Proverbs 30:5 – Every word of God proves true.
• Matthew 6:24 – No one can serve two masters.
• Deuteronomy 6:5 – You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
• Matthew 22:39 – You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
• 1 Corinthians 10:31 – Whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God.
• Psalm 19:1 – The heavens declare the glory of God.
• Genesis 1:1 – In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
• Psalm 139:14 – I praise you God, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
• Isaiah 43:5 – Do not be afraid for I am with you.
• Psalm 1:6 – The LORD knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.

Related post: The Bible Memory Version

Eight-to-eighteen-year-olds spend more time with media than in any other activity besides (maybe) sleeping — an average of more than 7 1/2 hours a day, seven days a week. The TV shows they watch, video games they play, songs they listen to, books they read and websites they visit are an enormous part of their lives, offering a constant stream of messages about families, peers, relationships, gender roles, sex, violence, food, values, clothes, an abundance of other topics too long to list.

These numbers are up from an average of nearly 6 1/2 hours a day measured five years ago. The study attributes the higher numbers to increased use of mobile devices such as cell phones and iPods.

It also cites a lack of parental supervision. According to the report, most youth say they have no rules about how much time they can spend with tv, video games, or computers. But when parents do set limits, children spend less time with media: those with any media rules consume nearly 3 hours less media per day than those with no rules.

“The amount of time young people spend with media has grown to where it’s even more than a full-time work week,” said Drew Altman, Ph.D., President and CEO of the Kaiser Family Foundation. “When children are spending this much time doing anything, we need to understand how it’s affecting them – for good and bad.”

If you would like some tips on managing media consumption in the home, let me recommend an earlier series from this blog on the subject: Taming Technology in the Home. What are your thoughts about teens and time spent online?

Once upon an undatable-by-you time, an unidentifiable-by-you pair of my four kids showed my dear wife a degree of disrespect that appalled me. I learned of this while at work.

On the way home, I bought some food for a meal such as my wife loves. I got home, set Valerie’s place with care, called us all to dinner. Made my children stand with me as I seated Valerie with particular honor, and served her. We prayed.

Then I talked with them and explained what was about to happen. I reminded them of what I’d taught them since the cradle about respecting their mother. I told them how appalled and shamed I was by what they’d done (don’t let your imagination go nuts; you’d probably think it a small thing — I think it related to homeschooling), and that I would never tolerate such treatment of their mother — ever.

And so, I told them that we would all keep Mom good company as she enjoyed her dinner. I told them they could have water — and that was it.*

And I told them I’d do the same.

Why? I told them that I must somehow have failed to communicate how deadly serious I was in what I’d taught them. So we’d all just let it growl a bit, together.

*Note: No Phillips children were starved (or ever have been) in the teaching of this (or any) lesson. Trust me on this.

What kinds of creative discipline have you used in training your kids? If you have some good examples, share them in the comments.

Related posts:

• 8 Great Family Rules to Help Any Home
• To Spank or Not To Spank

1. The Very Good Beginning (Creation Bible Lesson)
2. A Very Sad Day (Fall Bible Lesson)
3. Life Outside The Garden (Noah’s Flood Bible Lesson)
4. God’s Big Promise (God’s Promise To Abraham Lesson)
5. God’s People Grow (Story of Joseph Lesson)
6. God’s People Become Great (Exodus Bible Lesson)
7. God’s Great Sign (Exodus / Passover Story)

Related post: Recommended Children’s Story Bibles

(Video length: 2:57)

• You can download the video for $1.99 here.
• Guitar chords are available for free here.
• The performance track mp3 is available for free here.

Need some more Bigsby before you go? Here’s “Frogs, Frogs, Frogs” from the Lake Charles show. (Video length: 1:11)

HT: Ministry-to-Children.com

SAT-7 KIDS is the first and only Arabic Christian channel exclusively for children. This channel aims to make the Gospel of Christ available to an entire generation of young Arabs in a way meaningful to them. The channel airs original dramas, talk shows, educational material, cartoons, music programs and other shows that capture the attention of young viewers.

You can watch a live streaming broadcast of SAT-7 KIDS here. I enjoyed it even not knowing the language. (HT: 30 Days of Prayer)

(Video length: 8:32)

“We believe that children can become believers, grow spiritually and serve the church body, and therefore, we will have ministries designed to equip and facilitate this process.” (from Agawam Church of the Bible Core Values Statement)

As a result, we encourage our young people to serve in the church. Probably the most visible way our young people serve is on the church worship team, but others help with Sunday morning set-up, running the sound system, children’s church, nursery, and other areas. So I found it interesting to read that John Calvin also encouraged children to serve in the musical ministry of the church.

“The ministers expect the singing of psalms to have a positive influence on the prayers and on the glorification of the name of God. A number of qualified children are to be selected to lead the congregation in the singing of the psalms.” (Wulfert de Greef, The Writings of John Calvin, p. 111)

Does your church encourage young people to serve? If so, in what ways?

HT: Expository Thoughts

I Love my Lips! (Video length: 3:22)

“My friends all laughed and I just stood there until the fire department came and broke the lock with a crowbar and I had to spend the next six weeks in lip rehab with this kid named Oscar who got stung by a bee right on the lip, and we couldn’t even talk to each other until the fifth week because both of our lips were so swollen and when he did start speaking he just spoke Polish and I only knew like three words in Polish except now I know four because Oscar taught me the word for lip — OOSTA!” (Larry the Cucumber)

The Dance of the Cucumber (Video length: 3:17)

HT: Big Idea