February 2015

Put Love Into Action

“Love” is a theme seen throughout the month of February, but it doesn’t mean much unless we put it into ac-tion. As Christians, we have the per-fect example of love in action: God sending his only Son, Jesus, to die for our sins and rise again to give us new life.

God, who is love (1 John 4:8), calls his followers to love one another as he has loved us (John 15:12). That includes people of different skin col-ors, cultural backgrounds, physical abilities, and even religious beliefs. Kids notice differences and may be unsure how to treat people.

But no matter a person’s appearance or situation, Jesus loves and values him or her, and he calls us to do the same.

As parents, you play an important role in teaching your children how to love others in both word and action. Here are some helpful tips to follow. • Acknowledge the differences that kids notice in people, and allow them to explore those differences.

• Encourage children to look for posi-tive qualities in others. Focus on what makes each person special and unique. Kids who feel secure in them-selves are more likely to embrace oth-er people with love.

• Be a role model of love and ac-ceptance. If you want your kids to ex-press love, you need that same ap-proach yourself. As your role model, remember Jesus, who befriended out-siders and outcasts.

POWERSOURCE ASK GOD:

1. To help your children realize the

depth of God’s love for them.

2. To give your kids a loving spirit

toward all people, including

those who are different from

them.

3. To guide you to live out your

love daily.

TEACHABLE MOMENTS

God’s Heartbeat With masking tape, create a heart outline on the floor. Say: Let’s read what the Bi-ble says about love. Read aloud 1 John 4:8. Ask: What do you think it means that God is love? When you think of his love, what words come to mind? Have family members stand on the heart outline and hold hands. Say: I’ll squeeze the hand of the person to my right. When you feel a squeeze, pass it on to the next person. Continue until there’s a good rhythm of squeezes. Say: Think of this as God’s heartbeat. When we receive his love, we can give it away and keep that love going and going! Ask: What are some loving things people have done for you? What are some ways you pass along God’s love to other people? Close in prayer.

Love One Another

Exchanging cards and treats on Valentine’s Day is a small reminder that love is meant to be given away. Use that tradition as a springboard to discuss how much God loves each of us—and how we, in turn, get to share that love with other people. Remind your children that God’s love isn’t performance-based. In other words, he doesn’t love us more or less depending on what we do or don’t do. Instead, our loving actions are merely a grateful response for the love that God gives us so abundantly. Try a few of the fun activities below to reinforce the importance of loving others—inside and outside your family.

Living Valentines—Give each family member a heart-shaped candy, and share the messages written on them. Read 1 John 3:18, and discuss what it says about showing love. Put that love into practice by exchanging can-dies with another family member, giv-ing them a hug, and saying, “Jesus loves you—and so do I!” Woven With Love—If you have a chain-link fence (or can obtain permis-sion to decorate one at or near your church), create a symbol of God’s love. Weave red and white crepe-paper streamers in and out of the fence to make a design, such as a white heart with a red cross in the center. Pray together, asking God to use the image to remind your neigh-bors of his great love for them. Secret Valentines—Have family members choose names so each per-son has a Secret Valentine. During February, surprise one another with encouraging notes, treats, and help with chores. At the end of the month, reveal the names of Secret Valentines and express appreciation for all the love that was shown. A Cool Valentine—If there’s snow on the ground near Valentine’s Day, go on a chilly mission to send lovely greetings to special people.

“Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for

love comes from God…If we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression

in us.” —1 John 4:7,12

Fill a squirt bottle with water and some red food coloring. (Or buy snow markers, available at Target.) Locate a large area of fresh, un-tracked snow in your valentine’s yard. Stomp the outline of a large heart, beginning at the bottom point, keeping your footprints close togeth-er. Then squirt the snow inside the heart with colored water. Leave a valentine card (and some cookies!) on the porch. Polar Molar—Ahead of time, freeze some bubble gum. Read Matthew 24:12, and give each family member a frozen piece of gum. Have them race to soften it and try to blow a bubble. Then talk about how that cold gum is like a cold heart—and how you can “soften” your heart. Al-so discuss how you can show God’s warm love to people with cold hearts who might be sad, lonely, or scared. Name Game—Come up with ways to show God’s love to other people based on the first letter of your first names. For example, Tristen can “tell” people Jesus loves them. Han-nah can “help” someone carry gro-ceries. Read John 13:35. Say that other people know us by our names, but Jesus knows us by how we love one another.

MEDIA MADNESS

MOVIE Title: SpongeBob: Sponge Out of Water Genre: Animation, Adventure, Comedy Rating: Not yet rated Cast: Antonio Banderas, Clancy Brown, Tom Kenny Synopsis: This is the second feature film starring SpongeBob SquarePants, the popular character from the Nickelo-deon TV series. (The first released back in 2004.) SpongeBob and his friends must recover the Krabby Patty recipe from a pirate. Our Take: SpongeBob has taken some heat from parents because of its rude language, name-calling, and car-toon violence. The movie will likely be more appropriate for older kids—about 8 and up.

MUSIC Title: No Turning Back Artist: Brandon Heath Synopsis: This is the fifth studio album for award-winning Christian singer and guitar player Heath, 36. He first heard about Jesus at age 16, while attending a summer camp. Since then, Heath has stayed involved with Young Life. He uses personal lyrics to explore faith’s role in people’s lives. Our Take: Older kids will enjoy Heath’s radio-friendly hooks and en-couraging messages. On “No Turning Back,” he beckons listeners to decide to follow Jesus, like he did. “I made up my mind, I leave it behind,” Heath sings of the world’s distractions.

Games, Sites & Apps

Hohokum This artistic PlayStation game filled with color and music has a unique look and a relaxing ef-fect. The player be-comes a kite-like crea-ture who floats through different worlds. The game is a curious ad-venture filled with nooks and crannies. (Rated E10+)

BuildWithChrome Lego and Google Chrome teamed up on this virtual playground, where builders of all ages can construct their own projects. Kids can just start creating or can take lessons from a Build Academy, which get increasingly more complex.

Homes by Tinybop With this app for iPhones and iPad ($3.99), users embark on interactive tours of homes across the world. Kids can make meals, decorate, explore rooms and working models of utilities, and click to hear items described in more than 50 languages.

CULTURE & TRENDS

E-Cig Regulations—Due to a patchwork of state laws, an esti-mated 16 million children can le-gally purchase e-cigarettes. Only three states (New Jersey, North Dakota, and Utah) prohibit indoor e-cigarette use. (Centers for Disease

Control & Prevention)

Naming Trends—More parents are selecting their children’s middle names based on real-life or fiction-al heroes (Angelou, Austen, LeB-ron, Malala). Other trends include Kale (not just a food anymore!) and exotic hues such as Cerulean and Azure. (today.com)

QUICK STATS

Nutrition Pays Off!—Researchers have found that every dollar spent on nutrition during the first 1,000 days of a child’s life can provide a country with up to $166 in future earnings. (MedicalNewsToday.com) Parenting Values—When parents with a variety of ideological beliefs were surveyed about what they want to teach their children, these qualities came out on top:

Responsibility (55%) Hard work (42%) Religious faith (30%) Helping others (22%) Good manners (22%)

(Pew Research Center)

This page is designed to help educate parents and isn’t meant to endorse any movie, music, or product. Our goal is to help

you make informed decisions about what your children watch, read, listen to, and play.

A Note from Ann

Faith Creation I found the quick stats on page 3 interesting. It revealed that 30% of parents wanted to teach their children “religious faith”. (It was third on the list.) Many of us desire that for our children, that they have faith in God. In our world where we put lots of pres-sure on ourselves to achieve, this is one more place where we don’t want to fail. But let’s pause for a minute . . . Where does faith come from? It is a gift from the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the One who calls us and puts faith into our hearts. In our attempts to be good parents, we forget this truth. Instead, we get it in our head that par-ents are the source of faith. Parent aren’t off the hook; we do have some responsibilities. Think about what promises are made when a child is baptized. Parents are asked to pray for their child, bring him to wor-ship, to teach the Lord’s Prayer and the Scriptures. We have the responsibility to model a life of faith, to share our faith, to teach our children about the Lord. But it is still the Holy Spirit’s job to use all of that to create faith in our child’s heart. It gives me great confidence when I remember what is my job and what is the Holy Spirit’s. Praying, sharing and modeling are at least things that I have some idea of how to do, even if I don’t do those things per-fectly. The greatest comfort comes in knowing that the Holy Spirit can use my imperfect actions to bring about His desired outcomes. I remind myself over and over again that God loves my boys even more than I do and even more than Dave does. He will do His part in calling them to faith and He al-lows me to be a tool in that process.

February Happenings

Family Fun Night

Saturday, Feb. 21

6 PM

Where did the ASHES come from?

Lent begins in the middle of February with Ash Wednesday

on February 18. The ashes used to mark people’s foreheads as a

reminder of Christ’s sacrifice are made by burning the palms from

the previous Palm Sunday. It reminds us that Christ’s death is

what brings us eternal life because of His resurrection on Easter

Sunday.

There will be

Spaghetti

Salad

Garlic bread

Plain noodles

Gluten Free Pasta will be available

Sign up to let us know you want to

show us your talent. Use your im-

agination (sing, dance, karate,

magic tricks, play an instrument,

etc). They can be solo, group or

family acts. The time limit is 5

minutes. Start practicing today.

We are gathering prizes to be raffled off at

the end of the evening. There will be gift

cards, artwork by the students, etc. There

will be a “preview” of the student created

Raffle items in the days leading up to the

event.

The tickets will be 1/$1 or 6/$5. There will

be a bucket for each item so you can se-

lect the items you want to try to win.

SUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY

1 Sunday School

8:45 AM Worship

10:00 AM

2 3 4 5 6 7

8 Sunday School

8:45 AM Worship

10:00 AM

9 10 11 12 13 14 Valentine’s

Day

15 Sunday School

8:45 AM Worship

10:00 AM

16 President’s

Day

17 18 Ash

Wednesday Supper at 6 PM

Worship at 7 PM

19 20 21 Family Fun

Night Spaghetti

Dinner starts at 6 PM

22 Sunday School

8:45 AM Worship

10:00 AM

23 24 25 Lenten

Worship 7 PM

26 27 28

February