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Podcasts
March 4, 2021

Avoid Isolation by Connecting in Community

By Kids Ministry 101
https://media.blubrry.com/lifewaykids/p/kidsministry.lifeway.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2021/03/Avoid-isolation-by-Connecting-in-Community_Final.mp3

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Andrew Hudson joins the podcast to discuss how to avoid isolation and the importance of connecting in community. Check out more from Andrew at:

Discipleology — Discipleology.com
Discipleology on YouTube — https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_X2i7xIi4RwYVJlt16x8bC1pRAwIHl5h
Free eBook: How to Build Community — https://biblestudiesforlife.com/how-to-build-community

Devotional, Easter, Uncategorized
March 2, 2021

Easter Week Devotional

By Kids Ministry 101

One of the most celebrated weeks in the lives of Christians is Easter week, or Holy week. Many churches schedule multiple events throughout Holy week, starting with Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday. While churches will vary in how they observe the events of Holy week, all of these are great days to celebrate both with your church and your family. One great way to celebrate at home is through a guided family devotional. Resurrection Sunday and the events leading up to it, provide a simple outline for starting or continuing “at home” discipleship. 

From the triumphal entry through resurrection Sunday, Lifeway Kids invites you to download this brand new 8-day family devotional that will guide parents and kids through Bible readings, discussion questions, and family activities that will equip parents to have gospel conversations in their homes.

Download Easter Week Devotional

Fun, Kids Ministry Curriculum
February 26, 2021

Fun Friday: The Gospel Project for Kids Activity Page

By Kids Ministry 101

It’s Fun Friday! Today’s free download is an Activity Page from The Gospel Project for Kids.

You can learn more about The Gospel Project for Kids by reading the latest Kids Ministry 101 magazine.

Podcasts
February 25, 2021

Staying Connected with Our KidMin Leaders

By Kids Ministry 101
https://media.blubrry.com/lifewaykids/p/kidsministry.lifeway.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2021/02/Staying_Connected_with_Our_KidMin_Leaders_Final.mp3

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Delanee Williams and Landry Holmes join the podcast to discuss how to stay connected with your church leaders while Covid is still around.

Uncategorized
February 23, 2021

Spring 2021 Volunteer Appreciation Downloads

By Kids Ministry 101
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Family, Parent Helps, Parenting
February 22, 2021

End of Winter Bucket List for Families

By Kids Ministry 101

By Sarah Humphrey

February can be a long month, even when it’s a short one! The days can be dark, and the ache for Spring starts to birth in us the desire for all things fresh and new.  Though it can be tough to keep kids motivated during the winter months, here are a few bucket list items that can spur you on in faith and fun.  They don’t cost much, and Spring will be here before we know it!

  1. Make an inside-the-house scavenger hunt.  Create a few riddles or clues about things around the house that can lead you on a mini-adventure. A half hour of running around the house can lead to a freshly charged heart and a laugh or two.
  2. Clean up the clutter! Have each of your kids fill up a garbage bag full of trash, tattered items, or things you don’t use anymore.  If you find some things in good working order that are no longer needed, make an extra pile of items to donate.  Whoever has the best bag of goods, gets $5!
  3. Make a Friday Night ice cream tradition.  Each Friday night, choose a new flavor of ice cream to share as a family.  Make it a point to try flavors you typically would never buy!
  4. Sibling arguments in close quarters? Have each child find a Bible verse that is encouraging or affirmative to each of their siblings. They may need some adult help, but it will be a joy to watch them support one another instead of squabble with one another!
  5. Arts and Crafts time is always a favorite! Head to your local store and buy a new coloring book, fresh paint, or even nail polish for girls.  Take the time to enjoy color, creativity, and the simple fun of fresh crayons and coloring inside (or outside!) the lines.
  6. Who doesn’t like to laugh? Google a few tongue twisters, and repeat them five–ten times.  Go faster with each repetition, laugh, and have some fun!
  7. Take a trip to your local store and find a new board game for the family to play together.  It’s amazing how much you can engage with one another when you learn a new game. Memories like these last forever, and the tradition can be carried on for years to come.
  8. Eat more cake! Baking together can be a sweet activity that includes following directions, learning about the ways of the kitchen, enjoying and expressing creativity, and also ending with a treat! Find a recipe that fits the age range of your kids, turn on a little music, and have fun creating something together!
  9. Take a nap. Sometimes the easiest thing to do is the hardest thing to make time for. Watch an afternoon movie until you fall asleep on the couch, cuddle in bed and close all the blinds, or sprawl out on your fuzzy carpet. A twenty-minute power nap is God’s grace to us all!
  10. Call a loved one you haven’t spoken to in awhile and check in! Hearing the voice of someone you love is one of the best things in life. During a time when people feel isolated and lonely, FaceTime and phone calls are such a gift.

Though we never want to wish away the time, winter can be tough.  Enjoy these tips to spruce up the last days of cold, and savor the sweetness of connection and comfort!

Sarah is a wife and homeschool mom to three kids while also working as an artist, author, and voice actor.  Her writing and doodling can be found in her devotional, “40 Days to a Joyful Motherhood” and her voice in several commercials, children’s books, and audiobooks. She loves encouraging women and kids to embrace self-care, utilize their gifts, and become leaders in the community around them. 

Podcasts
February 18, 2021

Covid Consideration for VBS

By Kids Ministry 101
https://media.blubrry.com/lifewaykids/p/kidsministry.lifeway.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2021/02/Covid-Consideration-for-VBS_Final.mp3

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Rhonda VanCleave joins the podcast to discuss different considerations to take with Covid when dealing with VBS.

Encouragement, Family, Parent Helps, Parenting
February 15, 2021

How To Be Friends With Your Daughter (And Still Be The Parent)

By Kids Ministry 101

By Chrissy Duke

Being a parent and a friend often seems like a contradiction, or just too layered to be true at the same time. Either way, it is a common critique of parents that they either err on the side of being their child’s friend, or they simply have little to no personal relationships outside of setting boundaries and rules with their children.  Where is the balance and can there be a balance between the two?  

I remember as an elementary age kid one morning waking up to a horribly loud crashing noise. I ran out of my room to find my mom, who had recently had knee surgery, had slipped on the stairs and fallen down the entire flight. 911 was already being called because she couldn’t move.  Needless to say, it was scary as a young child, seeing this and watching your mom be taken to the hospital by ambulance. To skip to the end real quick – my mom ended up being okay and came home the same day! But I remember after this all happened, my dad took all of us kids for an early morning breakfast, maybe to cheer us up or to distract us all from what happened. Either way, when we got home, as I unwrapped my breakfast sandwich it slipped from the wrapper and fell to the ground. I immediately started bawling! My dad picked me up, set me on his lap, and whispered in my ear, “I know you’re scared, but mom is going to be okay.” I specifically remember the amazement I felt that he knew I wasn’t upset about the breakfast sandwich. I was so grateful in that moment that He understood me, and assured me that it was okay to be scared.

Whether we are family or friends, our goal in relationships is focused in the same direction and the ultimate goal is connection—to be known and understood. We all long for connection, a space where we can be known and know another. In fact, we don’t just long for it, we are made for it. God created us to be connected with others. It’s no small thing that God Himself is in constant connection and relationship with Himself. He is the triune God—Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  It’s hard to comprehend but He within Himself is fully in connection and fully known! He created us in His image, with the intentional design to need connection. We are not supposed to do life alone.  

A parent relationship and a friend relationship often look different. A parent connection happens naturally, automatically—simply because you are family. But a friend relationship seems like the place where connection is deeper. A friend is often the person whom you confide in and offer honesty with in a way you may not with a parent. When you go to a friend, you are really looking for someone who you can share with that will say, “oh man, i know how you feel.” “That is so unfair.” “I am so sorry you went through that.” “Wow, how awesome that happened!”  So, even though a friend and parent both seek connection, a parent may feel it’s impossible to be a “friend” because of discipline. boundaries and rules.  

I would like to offer one suggestion for you to create a connection with your daughter that reflects the automatic connection, as well as a deeper connection and understanding.  The invitation is to offer validation. 

Validation is when you recognize or affirm a person’s feelings or opinions as valid or worthwhile. At first glance, I’m sure you feel like validation is the wrong way to go especially if your child has just rolled their eyes at you for the hundredth time today, or they just shoved their sister down as they walked to their room. And yet, the most beautiful thing about validation is it does not declare their action as right or wrong. 

Validation is the opportunity to connect even in the most difficult or hurtful of situations. In Michael Sorensen’s book on validation, he says validation is essentially “saying to someone, “I hear you.  I get what you’re feeling, and it’s perfectly alright to feel that way.”1 You may have heard it said that feelings are neither right nor wrong, they just are. Feelings are there to inform us, to tell us and point us to truth. When we validate someone, we for a moment suspend the right and wrongness of the situation and offer to empathize with the emotion. 

For example: when your daughter rolls her eyes again, you can offer validation of the emotion (not the action). “I don’t blame you for being frustrated right now, being told no is frustrating when you have a plan you would like to see happen.” You may be amazed how quickly this little thing called validation diffuses a situation. It immediately creates connection. 

Is this not the type of connection we look for in our friendships? What if, as parents, we can create opportunities for this same type of connection without stepping away from discipline and equipping our children to make wise choices. What if validation is a way we can enter into and appreciate their struggle and as we create connection we also create the safe space to reinforce boundaries?

If you read through the gospels, you will encounter countless examples of how Jesus validated His followers and friends without condoning their sin. Think about John 11 when Jesus weeps over the death of Lazarus. Even though He knew that Lazarus would rise again, “when Jesus saw her crying, and the Jews who had come with her crying, he was deeply moved in his spirit and troubled.” (v. 33). Jesus was compassionate to His friend, Martha, and the Jews, and despite their doubts, He extended an invitation for them to witness the miraculous resurrection of their friend, Lazarus.

It’s a beautiful reminder that our Heavenly Father isn’t just our Savior—He is our friend. And if you want to model your parenting after anyone, He’s the best example there is.

1. Michael Sorenesen, I Hear You: The Surprisingly Simple Skill Behind Extraordinary Relationships (Autumn Creek Press, 2017).

Chrissy Duke is a passionate follower of Jesus Christ who loves to share what God is speaking to me with other young girls and women! She is also a wife and a mother of two beautiful girls. Chrissy has a calling to help the marginalized be recognized, heard, and helped. She does this primarily through an organization called Beauty For Ashes Africa. They work to combat human trafficking in North Africa, where they have a transition home for at-risk girls! Chrissy loves a good cup of coffee in the morning, getting outside in nature, and being with family.

Crafts, Fun
February 12, 2021

Fun Friday: Valentine’s Day Coloring Pages

By Kids Ministry 101

Download these coloring pages to help kids celebrate Valentine’s Day this Sunday! If your church is meeting virtually, share the pages with families via email.

Podcasts
February 11, 2021

Parent Ministry

By Kids Ministry 101
https://media.blubrry.com/lifewaykids/p/kidsministry.lifeway.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2021/02/Parent-Ministry_Final.mp3

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Dr. Jim Dempsey joins the podcast to discuss ways to minister not just to the kids in your ministry, but you the parents as well.

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