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For The Home

• How It Works
• This Dad Says It All!
• A Very Special Time
• OTT Online Weekly Notebook
• Setting Priorities
• Maintaining Control
• Dealing with Conflicts, Negative Emotions, and Trials
• Eternal Salvation & Righteous Living
• What You and Your Children Face Everyday
• Helpful Hints
• Sign-Up Now

How It Works

Only one topic is covered each month. Our Time Together is for any age child. For the very young, 1-5 years, we provide instruction for connecting the Bible to God's love for them. For older children and parents, we detail "what to do" with discussion questions about the topic. Each monthly topic is treated as follows
(4 Sessions per week - 10 minutes each):

Note: Parents do not need to be theologians or biblical scholars to do this. Parents simply read the questions (or rephrase the questions) and lead a family discussion for only 10 minutes.

Each OTT Online Weekly contains a place to schedule the four sessions in advance and consider your family's other time commitments. Each month a "topical" memory verse, which has been selected for various ages, is included for each family member.

This Dad Says It All!

"Today, when children are murdering children, substance abuse among our young people is commonplace, and rebellion and disrespect seem to be the expected course for adolescents, we have seen the critical need to be proactive in the training of our son. We discovered Our Time Together, which has empowered us to set the course of each day through ten quick, yet effective, minutes of value rich devotion based on the Word of God. If we, as parents, do not take charge of the instruction of our children, we know what the alternative will be."

A Very Special Time:

• A "Safe Haven" is established.
• Family members are open about real life issues
• Moms & Dads maintain control (not the kids).
• Forgiveness is granted by each family member (Resulting in a peaceful 10-minutes committed to God).
• Moms & Dads train their children based on God's moral values.
• Christ's love is expressed through each family member.
• God's Word establishes patterns for righteous and victorious conduct-then parents reinforce.
• Children observe their parents' commitment to Christ and God's Word.
• The importance and benefits of righteous choices are openly discussed.
• The consequences of unrighteous choices are openly discussed.
• God's Word is applied.

OTT Online Weekly Notebook

Start collecting and organizing your weekly instruction in a 3-ring loose-leaf notebook. Over the three-year topic period, you will assemble 36 character value topics with 144 pages when printed on both sides. Your OTT Online Weekly collection will become a family tradition and your children will remember these times for the rest of their lives. Printing suggestions are included with each week's email. Click Print Notebook Cover and printout a slide-in cover for front your OTT notebook (use 67 # basis stock paper if possible).

Setting Priorities

Your home is the moral training ground for your children. Training requires hands-on working with your children, just as learning to hit a ball or play the piano. It requires repetition and practice. You can "teach" the game of baseball in a classroom, but developing hitting and throwing skills requires practice.

If you abdicate the moral training of your children, you are assured that they will be unprotected. You will watch them experience the hurt and pain resulting from the lies, seductions, and deceptions of the world's ways. God's Word instructs us how to live, so we can obtain peace and rest, not perversion and corruption. With OTT, you are providing long-term protection for your children. By consistently conducting OTT, your children are being trained for at least 40 minutes each week from their very best trainer, you. This is less than 1% of all the time available from all influences including TV, music, peers, movies, internet, schools, etc. Of the remaining 99%, who and what will influence your children?

Do not allow anything to interrupt or deter Our Time Together. Plan and schedule around OTT, do not squeeze in OTT between all the other chaotic activities that are inevitable in family life. With God's help, you can do it!

All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. 2 Timothy 3:16-17

Maintaining Control

God has established parents as the proper authority in the family. The 10-minutes of Our Time Together can be an easy starting point for many parents to establish this God-given responsibility. Children want boundaries, but they will also try to get you to move these boundaries. So, parents be strong in the Lord and maintain your authority for the 10-minutes of Our Time Together...you can do it!

Moms...Dads, you set the mood for Our Time Together by turning off TV's, computers, etc., and eliminate other distractions.

Excuse any member who continues to hold bitterness during the 10 minutes. Also, excuse an unruly child and continue with the remaining 10 minutes.

Over time, when children see that they are not included in this rich family discussion time, they will return and be obedient. (Tell your child that he/she is excused until he/she agrees not to disrupt and is willing to forgive).

Do the above even if the result is only Mom and/or Dad finishing the remainder of the 10-minutes alone. If this occurs, take the remaining time to pray for God's strength and direction for your family.

Exercising control over the 10-minutes of OTT can be contagious, and God can empower you to maintain similar control at other times.

Dealing with Conflicts, Negative Emotions, and Trials

Make each 10-minute Our Time Together a very unique and special time dedicated to God. This is a time when the trials, conflicts, negative emotions, etc. are given to God. This is a time-out for any negative attitudes and emotions. The following is a suggested prayer for a family member who is having difficulty with another family member. (Use this prayer before the start of OTT).

Heavenly Father,

I come to You with feelings of __________(be specific) about _______________ (specify family member's name). I commit my negative feeling(s) to You for Your 10 minutes of safekeeping. I ask You to guard my heart and mind, so that my family's Our Time Together will be honoring to You. I CHOOSE to forgive ____________ (specific name) because You tell me to forgive and because You forgive and cleanse me.

In Jesus' Name, Amen.

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Philippians 4:13

Eternal Salvation & Righteous Living

God's Eternal Salvation - No person can earn God's eternal salvation through righteous living. Only by personally inviting Jesus into a person's heart as Lord and Savior, can anyone receive everlasting life in God's presence.

Righteous Living - Righteous living, God's way, protects children and families from the pain of bad choices.

The application of His Word produces moral victories as we deal with everyday issues and temptations.

Employing God's Word provides the only way to stand firm against the lies, seductions, and deceptions of the worldly ways.

Living God's way, by the power and direction of God's Holy Spirit, is the only way to inner peace, contentment and joy.

What You and Your Children Face Everyday

The world system says we can be satisfied with possessions, power, and prestige; these will not satisfy. When our families follow these lies, seductions and deceptions, they have no peace or rest. They find themselves in depression or despair, which leads to all sorts of harmful escapes leading to further pain. The majority of children today do not know how to make wise moral choices because the world system eliminates basic moral values. As a result, responsible parents are worried that their children will not make good moral choices. The question is "Where do our children obtain the right set of values?" God says in His Word that we will be blessed when we apply His word to our lives. This must be taught, modeled and trained in the home as a lifestyle; nowhere else can this be achieved.

Helpful Hints

1. Suggested Questions in each OTT Online Weekly.

Every Our Time Together session has prewritten questions to discuss during the 10-minutes. If the wording seems unnatural for your family's ages and experiences, silently read the questions and then put the questions in your own words.

2. Ending Our Time Together Sessions

   Near the end of each 10-minute session, the leader asks everyone to pick a word or words that best describe their understanding of that day's session.

   Picking the words provides the leader an effective way to end each session. As time goes on, this will become very natural and the kids will be ready for picking the words. However, do not dwell on this aspect of OTT; just write down what pops into the mind of each family member.

   Some families have found that asking for the words starting with the youngest child first and then going up in age works best. That way younger children do not just copy an older family member's answer.

   Do not take more than 1 minute to select the words when ending each Our Time Together session.

Sign-Up Now

We send you an email every Sunday so that you can receive the easy instructions and Biblical basis for each of the four weekly Our Times Together. Click to see Sample. We protect your privacy, see Privacy Policy, and you can opt-out at anytime.

Sign-Up Now to start receiving your own OTT Online Weekly.