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Benefits / Blessings
As you read and take time to think over all of the benefits and blessings described below, you will see that God's ways provide long-lasting protection for children, marriage, and family. THE EVIDENCE IS COMPELLING! The
greatest gift you can give your children is a stable God-centered
home. Family devotions are one of the best tools for giving this
gift to your children. Because Our Time Together is just 10-minutes
a day and only 4 days a week, such wholesome outside the home
activities as soccer and little league can still be a part of
your children's schedules, by you must make Our Time Together
one of your highest family priorities.
Listed are benefits to your family when you spend just a few, but powerful, minutes a week together discussing God's principles. Our Time Together® enables Moms, Dads, and children to benefit by:
A lot happens when a family begins to pray together. Prayer not only connects your children's hearts to God but connects you and your child heart-to-heart. When you pray with someone, closeness and feeling of being cared for and loved develops (which, unfortunately so many kids today are missing). As you pray together, you'll know much more about what's going on in your children's lives. You'll understand their real concerns and the things that trouble them, and your relationship will grow. You will be connected as a family, instead of fragmented, and God will begin to be your center in daily living.2
Just calling ourselves "Christian: is not a magic formula for great families. The secret is to live out the daily disciplines presented to us in the Bible.
Practicing the privilege of prayer yields abundant blessings. Not only are we allowed to speak directly to the Creator of the universe through prayer, and often experience the excitement of seeing our prayers answered directly, but family devotions also prepare our children to raise praying families of their own. 4 Whatever state you find your family in today, go pray about it - together.
The greatest gift you can give your child is your "quality time"- time in which you will have the opportunity to hear your child's thoughts and feelings. Intimacy, touching and communicating all take time.5 Spending time with your children is one of the most important aspects of parenting. It gives you the opportunity to teach your children how to respect and care for others. This means showing common courtesy by using words such as please and thank you. It also means hugging your children and telling them you love them, asking about their day, and discussing daily events.6 Influencing Your Children's Lives A federally funded study of 12,000 teenagers yielded an unexpected finding: teenagers still need their parents. It may seem to us that everything we say goes in one ear and out the other, but the fact is, according to them, parents play a significant role in their lives. The study revealed that teenagers who don't smoke, drink, have sex, take drugs, or commit acts of violence, refrain from doing these things because of two basic factors:
The research also found that, if parents expect adolescents to get good grades and refrain from sex, teenagers tend to be influenced by those expectations. What's more, the study showed that it does not matter about the family's income, or their race, or whether both parents work, or whether there is only one parent at home. The most significant factor in well-balanced teenagers is that they recognized the fact that their parents are emotionally available to them. Sociologist, Michael Resnick, says that the most crucial need for teenagers is a strong sense of connection to their parents and their family. This connection, more than anything else protects teenagers from behavioral problems. The Bible also suggests that parents remain emotionally available to their kids. Four-thousand years ago, Moses wrote...
The Bible teaches, and this study confirms, that parents have a responsibility to be emotionally available to their children. Parents cannot live the lives of their children; neither can they become so wrapped up in their own that the children are crowded out.7 When nationally honored educator, author and parenting columnist, Dolores Curran, set out to discover the key factors in effective families, the very top rated skill named in hundreds of surveys returned was "Communication" and "Listening." Children and parents agreed: talking and listening on the same wavelength meant fewer snags in relationships, more respect among generations and a better atmosphere at home. Curran and other family experts agree on several factors that play into communication skills. Probably the number one factor is LISTENING.8 A new survey on parent-child talk emphasizes the importance of communication. The survey found that many families wait too long and don't talk enough about what kid's want-kids want to know more from their parents than just about the birds-and-the-bees. In families that communicate openly, kids are more likely to turn to their parents first if faced with a crisis. (Kaiser Family Foundation)9 Parents are their child's first and most important teacher. Your reinforcement for positive interaction and gentle consistent corrections when needed, will help your child develop a strong sense of self that will help carry him/her more comfortably forward into adulthood.10 The following is adapted from "Being Sure of Your Faith" at billygraham.org. The scripture says, "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen" - Hebrews 11:1. If we have faith, God gives us the assurance, the certainty, the knowledge, that we have passed from death unto life. Believe Confess Obey Partake Be
Filled with the Spirit
Belong If you have renewed your commitment to Christ online, or made a commitment for the first time, Billy Graham has a message to share with you. Click Commitment Where do you begin? 11
Children at the age of 2 to 3 who have been read to several times a day, did substantially better in kindergarten at the age of 4 and 5 than youngsters whose parents read to them a few times a week or less. The group of children who were read to on a daily basis were 1.6 times as likely to be rated by their teacher as being the top of their kindergarten class in learning skills, and 2.3 times as likely to be near the top of their class in communication skills. These relationships hold true regardless of the income of the child's household and the education of the child's Mother.12 The solutions for the church's and world's problems are found not in strategies of political action committees or rationale of the human mind, but rather in God's own Word.
For all of the negative things we have to say to ourselves, God has a positive answer for them.13
Through a better understanding of the Bible, God's love, Christ's sacrifice, and the Holy Spirit's comfort, you will achieve contentment, peace, hope, love, joy, and confidence.
The cost of the blessings described above is just forty minutes each week, divided into only four ten minute family devotionals. The cost is prioritizing your family life to make these ten minute family times more important than just about any other activity. You begin to eliminate the heartache that children and parents experience who are living the world's ways. Just look at the news, statistics, and observe what is going on around you. What is more critical in your children's lives than to provide them with a stable God-centered home? Do not be deceived; the facts are COMPELLING. Start receiving God's blessings now...you can do it (it is quick and effective)! Sign-up now and start applying OTT Online Weekly.
1 http://members.toast.net/tac/GodsWord3.html |
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