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Monday, June 12, 2017

The most important things in life

What is the most important thing in your life?  I think 99% of people would not say it's any thing, but would be much more likely to say God and family.
The same is true for me.  God has first place in my life, followed by my husband and family.  That means it's important to me that I show and share God with those people that God has blessed me with.  Our kids are now grown, but right now we have the privilege of spending lots of time with Alaina and Ruby.   Aaron and Laura are wonderful parents and work hard to teach the girls and share God with them, but we want to do the same when they are with us.  Here are some of the ways we do that.

We pray!  We pray for them, we pray with them.  It's wonderful to tuck them in at night and pray individually with each one.

We play!  It wouldn't be any fun for kids to just be preached to all the time.  God designed us to feel joy, and we love to see them laugh and have fun.  In those times we talk too, and you never know what is going to come out of their mouths.  Last week Alaina told me "Did you know that God is bigger than the whole universe?  That is really huge!"  It was a good time to talk about how God is in bigger than all of us, but He loves to hear from us and takes care of us.

We love music! We usually listen to Christian music, and the girls, especially Alaina, knows a lot of the songs when she hears them in the car.  We also listen to music at home on our Echo Dot, and Alaina will often ask it to play her a song - usually it's "Alexa, will you play God's not dead?"  (We're getting a little sick of that song)  :)



We read!  Both girls love to read and even if we haven't read earlier in the day, we always read a few stories before bed.  We have a lot of books, quite a few have a Christian theme. This is the latest book I got.  It's The Rhyme Bible Storybook, by LJ Sattgast.  It's all Bible stories in a rhyme form, which makes it fun to read and listen to also, plus the pictures are great, and the girls really like it.


Here's one that's hard.  We watch tv...  or in Alaina's words - "let's watch a show!"  She is now 5 and loves to watch tv. We monitor what shows we let her see, but even the little kids programs can have things that we don't want to expose her too, and it's hard to find shows with any Christian content.



This is something I've been thinking of trying.  It's Pure Flix, a Christian movie resource, that costs $10.99 a month or $99 for a year.  You can try it free for one month - just cancel at 30 days if you don't like it. It's like Netflix, or Hulu but with faith and family content.  Have any of you tried it?  I'm thinking it would be a good thing not only for my girlies, but for Bob and I as well.

These are some of the things we do.  I'd welcome any ideas you might have!

13 comments:

  1. It sounds like you have a good plan when you are with the girls.....they can learn so much from you and your husband, and it will make what they learn at home, even more important. They are such cute little girls....every time you post a picture of them, it makes me smile. Hope you have a good remainder of the week.

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  2. Alaina and Ruby are precious. I agree that it is hard to find Christian shows and books - sounds like you have done some investigating and have found good solutions. I have such sweet memories of my parents/grandparents teaching by example. So happy that you live close to these little girls and can share with them. I know they bring you much joy and pride.

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  3. Your grandchildren are cuties. Our oldest granddaughter always loved books and has a teachable spirit, very inquisitive so we read a lot to her. Her mother kept a journal for years that they write in every night. "Tonight I am thankful for_____" She's old enough now to write it herself but when she was younger, she shouted the answers and they were usually the same things every night but Carrie wanted to teach her to thank God for something each day. Now little Amy, 3, is not fond of books like that but I just ordered Olive, the story of Noah's Ark because she Loves animals and we will be babysitting in two weeks so I hope she likes the story. We'll see.

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  4. When you build on a strong foundation of faith, the foundation will withstand any storm! The girls will carry their memories of you and Bob and your love and faith with them through their lives. It will be up to them to make choices but when they have been given the right roadmap for life, those decisions will hopefully be easy for them.

    I have not heard of Pure Flix but will go investigate! Wishing you a good Tuesday, Mari!

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  5. Awww....how precious....I just love watching them grow, Mari. smiles. Thank you for the lovely post, always brings smiles.

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  6. No there is not a lot of tv that is appropriate for children these days. I try to find the old tv shows I watched as a child to have in DVD form. I love that you Love the things I do Mari. I am sure if we met in person, we would feel like we had known each other forever. And those sweet girlies...their faces just make me smile.

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  7. All great ideas! That photo of them is adorable. Building into their lives for eternity is the best thing you can do!

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  8. It is definitely hard to find anything to watch on tv with kids. Mine are 13 and 14 and about the only thing that we watch with them is America's Funniest Videos!

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  9. That rhyme bible storybook sounds so perfect. Wishin' I had little ones nearby to read these to, together.

    LOVE that first photo sooooooooooo much!!

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  10. I love that picture of Alaina and Ruby. They are so precious and I love that you want to teach them about God when they are young. Sometimes we think that they are not listening but they truly are. Our Son, Ben, says that he can remember the Christian radio being on when he was young. We didn't have a tv back then and that was a good thing.

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  11. Such a sweet post! I can't even say what it does to my heart to know that our girls have two sets of grandparents who love them so much, and who are reinforcing everything we want so much for them to know.

    I haven't seen that website before, but it's very intriguing, we struggle so much with shows because even things that are supposed to be for kids have some really not great things. If you do try it, let me know!

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  12. You and Bob are awesome grandparents. Our "plan" for our grands is lots like yours -- we pray with them and for them, read to and with them, and have lots of interesting activities. Allissa will be here next week and I'm so excited to swim with her and take pictures and watch her play with Rizzo and Dagny. As for TV, I don't know what Allissa watches but for Dagny it's Peppa Pig and The Hive and similar shows, which aren't Christian but have positive messages. Our Grandson Andrew is all about Paw Patrol -- no job too big, no pup too small, haaahaha. I've never heard of PureFlix but it sounds like a great idea. xoxo

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  13. I love your plan...one we strive for too. And I love that rhyming Bible Story book. I need to think about getting that!

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