This coming Lord’s Day, 12/13/15, will be a full day at Crestview with our Children’s Christmas Program, Annual Member’s Meeting and Small Groups. I thought I’d post this photo:
God Made All of Me
Was privileged to get an early release copy and opportunity to review God Made All of Me: A Book To Help Children Protect Their Bodies by Justin and Lindsey Holcomb.
Here’s how the publisher described this important book:
God Made All of Me is the first children’s book by Rid of My Disgrace authors Justin and Lindsey Holcomb, and its goal is to equip parents to help kids protect their own bodies. It’s a beautifully-illustrated little book with a clear message: your body is designed by God and every part of it is good. It helps parents give their kids language and expectations for appropriate and inappropriate touch and set clear boundaries for how others should treat them. When you read the book yourself, I think you will feel more confident in guiding your kids; when you read it with your kids, you will have already started the important conversation that every family needs to have.
Unfortunately, in the day and age we live in, child abuse is far too common. At times, I think, people with children almost feel paralyzed in addressing this issue with their kids and we certainly don’t like to discuss it with others. But, this children’s book is help to not only model some language for these kinds of courageous conversations but give instruction to your children in this matter. Please consider the importance of this book. You can see why this book is important.
On top of the importance and subject matter found in this book, it comes loaded with incentives when you pre-order: over $100 worth of free, related resources. These include the eBook for Rid of My Disgrace, a Journal of Biblical Counseling article, some catechism albums, and a whole lot more! It would definitely be in your interest to pre-order if you feel drawn to utilize this book.
Recommend this book. Share this post. Point people to the book’s site. Let’s be about the common good of our children by equipping them in this way.
#Godmadeallofme
Crestview Kids Prep – Holy Spirit
Tonight at Crestview Kids, we are studying the Holy Spirit. Our verse for the month has been 2 Corinthians 13:14, which highlights the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We’ve also sang the Sovereign Grace Music song, “Three In One” this month.
Why study the Holy Spirit? On the one hand, Jesus’ credibility stands on the Holy Spirit being sent. After all, Jesus was the One who promised that He would send Him (in John 14). In a much deeper way, though, the Holy Spirit is the person of the Godhead who teaches us that Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. If we want children who love the Gospel, then, they must love and understand the Holy Spirit, who makes it possible.
VBS Wrap
We’ve had an amazing week of Vacation Bible School. We again used and were very pleased with Lifeway’s theme/curriculum. This year’s theme was Amazing Wonders Aviation. For our missions project, we took an offering and trumpeted the ministry of The Elisha Foundation, which cares for the needs of disabled children and their families by offering Gospel encouragement.
On a deeper level, we were humbled that God entrusted us nearly double the number of people we were expecting. This caused some restructuring and thought to reorganize early in the week, but it was no problem for the amazing support staff and workers God had already provided.
We closed our week with an In-Flight Movie for parents highlighting the week. Here’s that video:
Our hope is that God was glorified and the lives of children and workers were changed this week.
Mr. Rogers AutoTune Garden of Your Mind Mix
Take time and smile as you watch this short video:
Summer Reading
Justin Taylor had some helpful recommendations for what children can be reading during the summer. He’s adapted all of his findings (from a classical school) into one PDF document. Maybe you could skim through and benefit from some of the recommendations.
Three For Thursday – Some Links I’ve Recently Found Helpful…
ESV, the Bible translation our church uses,recently had a post on how to they are capitalizing on the digital craze. If you have an e-reader, they offer the Bible free there and have apps for Android, IPhone and IPad.
If you would like to read some great encouragement for children’s ministry, our elders have been greatly helped by Yancey Arrington’s Gospel Centered Curriculum for Children.
Related to that, this Fall, we are heading a bit of a different direction on Wednesday nights with our children and will be using a new curriculum called God’s Story. One feature I especially appreciate is what they call the Emmaus Moment each week, so that no matter where you are in the Bible, you can relate that back to Jesus (much like Jesus did on the Emmaus Road with His disciples). We’re excited about the Gospel-centrality that may emerge in the lives of children through this.
One Reason Why We’re Doing VBS in the Evening This Year…
…is because we are complementarian. Being complementarian simply means that God has hard wired the universe with men and women having unique roles to fulfill in their personhood. Both men and women are made in the image of God and have value in that. However, God has called men and women to different roles. And this calling doesn’t negate or determine value.
So, how does this relate to VBS? In recent years, as we tried to do VBS in the morning, I noticed that it was mainly women doing all the work. The daytime schedule meant that men, by and large, were at work in secular jobs and thus unable to serve in VBS. Couple with this truth the recent statistics on the influence that fathers (read men) can have on learning, and you can see why the need to change happened because we are complementarian.
So, this year, our VBS will be held from 6:30-8:30PM so that men, after working all day in many cases, can come and demonstrate Christ’s love by serving children in VBS. We’ve structured each class so that they have a man present. Each class is not necessarily taught by a man (again showing God’s creative complementarian design) but men are there to give grace to the children by offering an encouraging presence in the class. We are excited about what this might mean for our children and for the men who are serving in a way that God gets the glory.
What’s in a Name…
We all know choosing a name for a child can be a difficult task. In naming Lauren, we were drawn to that for some reason. The name means crowned with victory or honor. Lauren’s middle name, Kaylea, is especially meaningful to us, because it pays tribute to our mothers. My mother’s middle name is Kay. Meg’s mother’s middle name is Lea. Put them together and you get Kaylea. Thanks moms for the way you have been such a blessing to us. Lauren’s name will always remind us of the blessing you are.
Lauren Kaylea Auxier Is Here!
That’s right, at the early hour of 2:27AM, Lauren Kaylea was born. She was 19 inches long and weighed 7lbs.,13oz. Mom (Meg) did great through everything. I believe her water broke around 1:30. They checked her and she had gone from being dilated 3 to 9. Things happened pretty quickly after that. Meg pushed about 4-5 sets of pushes and we were done. We’re praising God for His grace and kindness to us.