God uses word pictures to teach us important principles. This year we had more snow than usual. I began looking up verses in God’s word that talk about snow. In this video, I share with you what God shares with us about snow and our lives.

Isaiah 55:8-11 (NIV)

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways My ways,”
declares the LORD.

“As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are My ways higher than your ways
and My thoughts than your thoughts.

As the rain and the SNOW
come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,

so is My word that goes out from My mouth:
It will not return to Me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

Find unique ways to encourage others in my book and audio set “Paper Towel Encouragements”. You can find it at http://www.lois-graham.com/PTencouraging.html. Get on a roll, encourage others, and help soak up hurts!

]]> http://lois-graham.com/godteachesuswithsnow/feed/ 2 http://lois-graham.com/learn-and-grow-through-circumstances/ http://lois-graham.com/learn-and-grow-through-circumstances/#comments Thu, 03 Dec 2009 22:52:33 +0000 Lois Graham http://lois-graham.com/?p=686

Can you imagine being Mary the mother of Jesus? What an indescribable gift and responsibility she was given.

Imagine with me. Mary is going about her day when an angel appears. The angel Gabriel, said to Mary that she was highly favoured and blessed (Luke 1:30). This is an amazing and jaw dropping moment! What would you think or do? It’s not everyday that you receive a compliment from an angel. The angel calmed Mary’s fears. He said “fear not Mary” and repeated that she had found favour with God.

To be told that you are favoured by God would be exciting! What a privilege it would be to have God say he has found favour in you. We should strive to have an attitude and be a person that God can be proud of. We are to have a God pleasing attitude, even when your boss has unreasonable expectations, your children are making a mess, or you have a final/deadline that is stressing you out. We are to build God’s name up and not tear it down with our words and actions.

The angel, Gabriel, goes on to tell Mary an important message from God in Luke 1:3o. “And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God.” Think about the questions that must have been going through Mary’s mind.

When circumstances come into our life that we don’t understand, it is easy to question God. We do not need to understand all of the “whys” in life. God has a purpose. The angel Gabriel told Mary in Luke 1:37 “For with God nothing is impossible”. God is in control and has a plan for our lives. Trust God! He knows and will do what is best for us.

Mary rejoiced! In Luke 1:46-47, Mary says ” My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.” Mary could have chose to see this news as a tragedy. She choose to trust trust in God to care for her. The hard times came for Mary, but she stayed strong.

Can you imagine being ready to deliver a baby and have to take the trip that Mary did? When Ceasar Augustus decreed that the world should be taxed, Mary went with Joseph to Bethlehem. The trip from Nazareth to Bethlehem was not as simple as it would be today. Imagine expecting a child and walking or riding an animal this great distance. It must have been uncomfortable and tiring.

Our lives have become accustomed to a life of ease. If we go on a trip, we have the pleasure of riding in a comfortable vehicle and stopping at a restaurant to eat. This was not an option for Mary. She endured and kept going. We can find many things to complain about. Is life really that bad? Who or what does our complaining benefit?  Remember Mary when you are standing in line or sitting in traffic and feel like complaining.

That is not the end of the story. Mary and Joseph arrive in Bethlehem. When they arrived the inn was full. How discouraging! They made the long trip and were probably weary and tired. The only place to stay was with the animals.

Where would you pick to sleep? A barn or an inn? The inn would be more comfortable and pleasant. Often, God takes us out of our comfort zone. God wants us to to grow and rely on him. Luke 2 :7 tells us that Mary “brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn”.

Mary could look back and see how God had used her. We read in Luke 2:19 “Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart”. Mary had special memories to look back at. Let what you do today be a good memory for tomorrow.

Have an attitude and be a person that God can look at with favour. Trust God and rejoice in all circumstances. Don’t complain or get discouraged. Go out of your comfort zone following God’s will. God has a plan for your life. Learn and grow through the circumstances that come your way!

Making a blessing tree gives you the opportunity to share blessings. Make an impression on children and influence them to be a blessing to others.

Count Your Blessings Craft and Activity

Supplies:

Construction paper, a marker, and finger paints.

Directions:

1. Draw a simple tree outline on construction paper.
2. Let children paint leaves on the tree with finger paints.
3. As the paint is drying, have the children tell you things that have and things they enjoy and like doing.
4. Explain that all we have is from God. God blesses us. The things that we have and do are blessings. Psalm 100:4 – “Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto Him, and bless His name.”
5. Write or have them write on their picture the blessings that they have. Remind them about all the things that they said they have and enjoyed doing.
6. Have children think of ways that they can be a blessing to others.

Thanksgiving is not the only day of the year that we should count our blessings. Everyday of the year we should count our blessing and praise God.

Count your blessings Today!

Have you heard “I’m bored” or want something fun for your children to do? Fall can be a time of learning while you “bust the boredoms”.

Start by sending your children outside or go to a park and gather leaves. Look for leaves of all shapes, colors, and sizes. See who can find the biggest, smallest, or most unusual leaf.

Make a movie- Plan your character, setting,  problem, plot, and solution. Use a video camera to tape the adventures you encounter as you search for the perfect leaf.

After the leaves are gathered, you can dry them or use them as they are.

Tracing and imprinting- Tape a leaf to a piece of paper and let younger children trace around it. Put the leaf under the paper. Use the side of a crayon to roll over the leaf, making an impression.

Story or comic strip- Decide who your characters will be. Choose leaves for the characters in your story. Take a big sheet of paper.  Glue or tape leaves to the paper. Draw arms, legs, and a head onto the paper, connecting it to the leaf. Add your story and share with others.

Notebooking- Make a notebook with the different leaves that you found. Label the parts of each leaf and what type of leaf it is.

Bible pumpkin painting- Paint your favorite Bible character or Bible story on a pumpkin. This is a picture of King David. The picture at the beginning is of Jesus wearing a crown. We used acrylic paint on the pumpkin. Use your pumpkin to tell others your favorite Bible story.

Have fun as a family and bust the “boredom’s”.

Ready? This is EASY as ABC…

• Find a good nook! It does not have to be huge. Certainly does not need to be expensive.  All that is needed is a place that invites your children (and YOU!) to think, work through the studies (writing, reading, studying, proofreading, projects, experiments…). Ask yourself, “Where do they gravitate toward to read…to research…to write…to print?” Keep in mind that each and every student in your family will be very different during the learning process, but most will appreciate having all of the supplies and equipment in a safe, quiet, comfortable place to study. When deciding on a spot, make sure that the spot has good lighting and a good, solid, clean, work surface.  Make sure it is a good spot to think AND work on lessons.” Set up the area with a nice table or desk with plenty of work area…comfortable chairs…limited distractions…shelves for books and notebooks…space for a computer and printer…convenient power supply…space for you to sit down and work with them during their lessons…and a specific spot for organizational bins that will hold supplies.

• Get supplies together! You probably have supplies ALREADY in your home. Use our list to remind you of which supplies you will need to gather for homeschooling. Gather them and organize them so they will be ready to use when your children can snatch time to dig into their studies.

• Give easy access to materials and supplies! Don’t just gather supplies, give your children easy access to those supplies! Nothing else can encourage your children to dig deeper into studies like having the materials needed to learn AND free reign to use them. Gather the supplies you will need and store them in clearly marked plastic bins and containers. There are SO many options available. Find what will work for you and your family. Get paper and printable pages together. I have always stored ours in our school materials so the children had their materials on hand as they needed it. A quick glance can remind me that we need more. I buy all of our paper, ink pens, pencils, 3-ring binders, etc in bulk at Sam’s Warehouse. During the school breaks, many stores have supplies and paper in bulk for better prices than all year round. That is when we also stock up. We store it on our school shelves and have what we need as we work.

• Invest in the best tools! It may seem to be an added expense, however tools make all of the difference in the world! For example, you can buy a cheap stapler for under $5.00 OR you can buy a long-arm stapler for $29.95 at an office supply store. The difference? Well, we have bought SO MANY cheap staplers. They simply do not last. Plus, they are limited in what they can do. Now, contrast that with the long-arm stapler? They are built to last. You can use those for making any size booklet and for regular stapling. Just watch your most reluctant writer when they figure out ALL that they can do with one stapler! $29.95 will be the best investment ever!  Buy the best as you can. The investment is more than just for equipment, it is investing in your child’s education!

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This is written by my friend Cindy Rushton. I use, love, and highly recommend her resources. Find more help and ideas in her Back to School Blast Set.

Keep younger and older children busy and learning with winter activities. Pretend it is winter and have fun!

1. Freeze water in a tray and let your kids play with plastic animals on the ice. Younger children can choose what animals live in snow and what animals live where it is hot. Older children can name where the animals live and place them on a map in the correct location.

2. Fill baggies with shaving cream or spray it on a table. Children can draw winter shapes in the “snow”. Teach shapes by drawing snowmen in different shapes. Ask questions. Example:  Is the square snowman taller than the rectangle snowman?

3. Use crumbled newspaper to make snowballs and have a snowball fight. Count, add, subtract, multiply, and even divide the snowballs.

4. Take two ice cubes and put each in a bowl. Put one outside in the sun and the other indoors. Time how long it takes each one to melt. For younger children freeze plastic animals in the ice cubes. Older children can experiment by setting the ice in different locations and make a graph with their findings.

5. Make an igloo out of a white sheet or plastic draped over chairs or a play tent. Sit inside and read winter stories or books about winter animals.

6. Use packing bubbles for ice. Have fun coloring the “ice” with sidewalk chalk. Use the opportunity to teach younger children colors. Let older children make a picture by popping the bubbles into a design.

7. Use marshmallows, containers, and toothpicks to make snowmen, igloos, forts, animals, or something else imaginative. Be creative!

8. Have a snowflake making contest. Use a variety of art supplies to design one of a kind snowflakes.

9. Look through your house finding things that begin with the letters in SNOW. See how many you can find. The first one to a certain number gets the first popsicle. Younger children can look for colors that match winter items. Examples: white – snow, black – penguin

10. Younger children can use cookie cutters to cut bread into winter shapes. Then frost with marshmallow fluff. Older children will enjoy making this recipe RBP’s Polar Extremes Bible school.

• Tasty Snowflakes

What you need:

Large flour tortillas, waxed paper, kitchen shears, cinnamon, cooking spray, and sugar

What to do:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Fold tortilla in half. Fold tortilla in half a second time to make a triangle.

3. Cut out snowflake designs from the tortilla triangle.

4. Unfold the tortilla triangle and place on waxed paper.

5. Lightly spray tortilla with cooking spray.

6. Sprinkle cinnamon and sugar on tortilla.

7. Bake tortilla for 6 to 8 minutes or until crisp.

Quotes:

• A Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever. – Letter to Abigail Adams (July 17, 1775)

• Our faith teaches that there is no safer reliance than upon the God of our fathers, who has so singularly favored the American people in every national trial, and who will not forsake us so long as we obey His commandments and walk humbly in His footsteps. -William McKinley’s inaugural address

• I deem the present occasion sufficiently important and solemn to justify me in expressing to my fellow citizens a profound reverence for the Christian religion, and a thorough conviction that sound morals, religious liberty, and a just sense of religious responsibility are essentially connected with all true and lasting happiness. – William Harrison’s inaugural address

• God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that his justice cannot sleep forever. Commerce between master and slave is despotism. Nothing is more certainly written in the book of fate than that these people are to be free. Establish a law for educating the common people. This it is the business of the state and on a general plan. – Shown on the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C.

• The religion which has introduced civil liberty is the religion of Christ and His apostles, which enjoins humility, piety, and benevolence; which acknowledges in every person a brother, or a sister, and a citizen with equal rights. This is genuine Christianity, and to this we owe our free Constitutions of Government. – Noah Webster, 1832, History of the United States

• The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were the general principles of Christianity. I will avow that I then believed, and now believe, that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God. – John Adams wrote this on June 28, 1813, in a letter to Thomas Jefferson.

• God who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the Gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that His justice cannot sleep forever; That a revolution of the wheel of fortune, a change of situation, is among possible events; that it may become probable by Supernatural influence! The Almighty has no attribute which can take side with us in that event. – Thomas Jefferson Notes on the State of Virginia, Query XVIII, p. 237.

• It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For this very reason peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship here. – Patrick Henry The Trumpet Voice of Freedom: Patrick Henry of Virginia, p. iii.

Here are some freebies to help you teach your children. I encourage you to continue studying history and look for ways to impact our future.

Freebies:

* Pocket Constitution (pay only S&H), Games, and Puzzles
http://www.constitutionday.cc/

* Audios and Videos
http://kids.learnoutloud.com/Kids-Free-Stuff/History/American-History

This is not an endorsement for these sites.

What are we teaching our children? Do they understand the meaning and history of this special day? As the years go by it is easy to let pieces of our heritage slip away. This year I encourage you to spend time with your children teaching them about our heritage. History does not have to be dull and boring. Do hands on activities to keep it fun and interesting. Read the history of July 4′th and then try some of the activities I have listed. It will not only keep history alive but you will be making new memories with your family.

History:

Independence Day is celebrated on July 4′th to commemorate the approval of  Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776.

Here is some interesting Independence Day background information from Wikipedia:

During the American Revolution, the legal separation of the American colonies from Great Britain occurred on July 2, 1776, when the Second Continental Congress voted to approve a resolution of independence that had been proposed in June by Richard Henry Lee of Virginia.^[4] After voting for independence, Congress turned its attention to the Declaration of Independence, a statement explaining this decision, which had been prepared by a Committee of Five, with Thomas Jefferson as its principal author. Congress debated and revised the Declaration, finally approving it on July 4, 1776. A day earlier, John Adams had written to his wife Abigail:

Adams’ prediction was off by two days. From the outset, Americans celebrated independence on July 4, the date shown on the much-publicized Declaration of Independence, rather than on July 2, the date the resolution of independence was approved in a closed session of Congress.^[6]

One of the most enduring myths about Independence Day is that Congress signed the Declaration of Independence on  July 4, 1776.^[7][8] The myth had become so firmly established that, decades after the event and nearing the end of their lives, even the elderly Thomas Jefferson and John Adams had come to believe that they and the other delegates had signed the Declaration on the fourth.^[9] Most delegates actually signed the Declaration on August 2, 1776.^[10] In a remarkable series of coincidences, both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, two founding fathers of the United States and the only two men who signed the Declaration of Independence to become president, died on the same day: July 4, 1826, which was the United States’ 50th anniversary. President James Monroe died exactly five years later, on July 4, 1831, but he was not a signatory to the Declaration of Independence.

Activities:

The Declaration of Independence signifies freedom. We have many freedoms to be thankful for.

Make a “Declaration of Thankfulness”. Talk about our country and why they wanted freedom and what we have to be thankful for.

• Younger children can draw pictures of things that they are thankful for. Draw pictures of what preschoolers are thankful for and let them color it.
• Older children can read or listen to parts of the Declaration of Independence. Talk about rights that we have, Then write a “Declaration of Thankfulness”. Let them write it on fancy paper and then have an adult burn the edges to make it look old.

Look around your house for everyday things that you can use for music instruments. Water bottles filled with beans, pots, spoons, paperclips in an empty container, and bells are just a few items that you can use for a thankfulness parade. March around playing your instruments and saying things that you are thankful for.

Sidewalk art is a fun way to talk about how we can celebrate what others have done to give us freedom.

• Younger children can draw stars and fireworks with sidewalk chalk. Talk  about how we can do fun things because people wanted us to be free.
• Older children can draw a USA map or pictures of those that signed the Declaration of Independence. Talk about how many people have fought to give us freedom.

Songs to sing:

America the Beautiful

My Country ‘Tis of Thee

Star spangled Banner

Have fun and enjoy this July 4′th in remembrance of why we have Independence Day.