Devotional

January 13, 2021

Do You Have a Word for 2021?

By Kimba Capbell

I remember years ago, several of my friends talking about their “word” for the year. One of my friends chose the word “peace” and another friend chose the word “family.” I didn’t have a word. I wanted a word for the year, but I didn’t know exactly what to choose. I think I chose something that year, but honestly by February that word was long forgotten.

It was New Year’s 2019. I sat down with my Bible and notebook to think about my New Year’s goals. God gave me the word “Surrender” as I sat on my couch that day. He then led me to the verse found in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” I began to think about the word “Surrender” and thought about what that word truly meant. To me, it meant giving it all to Him. Not trying to run on my own strength, but to be completely dependent and obedient to Him. The year before had been a challenging year. I had goals and dreams, but realized I had tried to accomplish them on my own. God was gently teaching me that I needed to “Surrender” my plans to His – to let go and let Him lead me. I was waving the white flag and clinging to my Creator and Savior. God brought that word to my heart over and over again in the year 2019. It was a pivotal season in my life, and I am grateful God gave me that word during that season.

Do you have a word as we begin 2021? Maybe it is not a word. Maybe it is a Scripture that God is pressing on your heart for a new year. What is He wanting to teach you during this season? Are you listening? Are you willing to sit at His feet and allow Him to speak life and truth into you? What about the ministry that you lead? What is God preparing you for this next year? Think about your family, your friends, your community. How might God want to use you in 2021? Are you ready?

Advent, Christmas, Devotional, Family, Kids Ministry, Parent Helps

November 1, 2019

2019 Family Advent Guide

By Jeremy Carroll

In the opening verses of the Gospel of Luke he writes:

“Many have undertaken to compile a narrative about the events that have been fulfilled among us… It also seemed good to me, since I have carefully investigated everything from the very first, to write to you in an orderly sequence, most honorable Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things about which you have been instructed” (Luke 1:1-4, emphasis added).

Luke wrote an orderly sequence of Jesus’ life so that Theophilus and all other readers could have confidence in the gospel message. During the Advent season, we have the opportunity to encourage the parents we serve to guide their children toward a similar goal of having a confident hope in Jesus’ birth.

Hope, love, joy, and peace are a few of the good gifts God has given to us. During this Christmas season, let’s remember and celebrate Jesus’ coming to earth as a baby, making a way for us to experience these gifts. Our prayer is that families will spend time each week celebrating Jesus’ birth and the hope and joy He offers.

Click here for the free Family Advent Guide.

Share this resource with families in your community to help them focus on the hope, love, peace, and joy that only Jesus can bring. He is the gift we proclaim. Let’s celebrate!

Devotional, Encouraging, Family, Kids Ministry, Leadership, Parent Helps, Parenting

January 24, 2018

9 Tips for Family Devotions

By Delanee Williams

Family Devotions are a time of worship. They look different for each family. One family’s devotion time may look different than another family’s devotion time. The family’s schedule, number of children, and age of children are some of the factors impacting what the family devotion looks like. Typically, a family devotion time includes, reading a Bible story from the Bible, singing songs, and praying, Use the nine tips below for beginning and maintaining a regular family devotion time:

Intentionally Schedule Devotions. Make this time a priority by writing it on your calendar. While looking at the calendar, select a time that works best for your family, such as at breakfast, in the evening, or during the day.
Be Realistic. Keep in mind the ages and developmental stages of your children. Devotions with young preschoolers will look very different than families with school-age children. Family devotions can range from a few minutes up to 15 minutes.
Plan your time together. Consider using your child’s activity pages from church as a starting point. Select a Bible story to read and review. Choose a Bible verse to learn together as a family. Write down worship songs your family can sing together.
Be Flexible. Family devotions will not always go according to plan. The important point to remember is that your family is spending time with God.
Give Yourself Grace. If you miss the family devotion one day, give yourself grace. Start back fresh the next day to help establish the routine.
Be Creative. If a family member isn’t able to be present due to travel or schedule, use technology to include him/her in the family devotion time. Technology can also be used to include grandparents and other out of town family and friends from time to time.
Keep Devotions Fresh. Include variety in your family devotions. After reading the Bible story, incorporate activities such as making a Bible marker or playing a game to review the Bible verse.
Focus on the Bible. The Bible is central to the family devotion. Use a Bible translation your child can understand. Allow him to hold the Bible, and to help find and read the Bible passage.
Reinforce Lessons During Daily Activities. As opportunities arise throughout the day, remind your child of what you have been talking about and learned during family devotions.

Helpful resources to use in Family Devotions:

Read to Me Bible: Use the prepared Bible stories to read to your preschooler.

The Big Picture Interactive Bible: Use the downloadable free app to scan the illustration to watch and hear the Bible story come to life visually and audibly.

Bible Skills for Kids and Levels of Biblical Learning: Resources to help parents understand age-appropriate biblical skills and concepts.

LifeWay Kids Curriculum App: This free app includes games, puzzles, and content to help reinforce kids’ Sunday School lessons at home.

In Deuteronomy 6:4-7, the Bible shares that parents are to teach their children about God. They are the primary spiritual leaders of their family. Parents have the most significant influence on a child’s life and development. When parents make family devotions a priority, children learn to love the Lord their God with their heart, their soul, and their strength. What other ways can we as kids ministry leaders support and equip parents?

Delanee Williams serves as a Ministry Specialist with LifeWay Kids. She is a graduate of Baylor University and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Delanee has served in kids ministry for over twenty years and is passionate about developing, equipping and encouraging leaders.

Advent, Christmas, Devotional, Family, Kids Ministry, Leadership

November 15, 2017

Family Advent Guide

By Jeff Land

I love Christmas. In fact, the only playlist that I’ve ever created on my Spotify® channel is a Christmas station. I’m not trying to be overly spiritual with this statement, but I’m just not a huge fan of secular Christmas music. I mean, if you want a hippopotamus for Christmas, who am I to judge, but that’s just not my thing. I love the songs of Christmas that remind me of our precious Savior!

Sometimes we become overwhelmed by the commercialization of Christmas, and the LifeWay Kids team wants to help you bring families back to the reason for the season. Our 2017 Family Advent Guide is an excellent way for you to help the families in your church connect with each other. Each week, families can read, discuss, and participate in a meaningful Christ-centered devotional and activity.

We hope you enjoy this devotional and the LifeWay Kids team hopes to be one of the first to wish you a very Merry Christmas!

Click HERE to access your Free Family Advent Guide

Devotional, Easter, Family, Kids Devotions, Kids Ministry, Parent Helps, Parenting

March 22, 2017

Free Easter Devotional Guide

By Kids Ministry 101

Last year, we shared a free downloadable Easter devotional guide for kids ministers to pass out to families in their ministry. As parents and kids ministers tagged LifeWay Kids in Instagram pictures, Facebook posts, and Tweets, we were so encouraged by families’ commitments to celebrate the Easter story together. We hope our resources help you lead family discipleship throughout your entire church.

Click the image below to download the 2017 version of the LifeWay Kids Easter Devotional Guide. Post the link on your kids ministry social media page or print out copies of the guide to hand out next Sunday. May we truly celebrate our Savior’s resurrection this Easter and beyond. Happy Easter!

Click here to download your free Easter Devotional Guide.

Devotional, Encouragement, Kids Ministry, Leadership

December 28, 2016

4 Ways to Make Sure Your New Year Shines

By Tim Pollard

Each year when I celebrate my birthday, I find it odd when people ask, “Wow, don’t you feel older?” I always respond the same way, “Yes, I feel one day older than yesterday.” In truth the passing of time is constant, we celebrate days like birthdays and anniversaries, we have annual celebrations for Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the New Year. These celebrations are a great time to think about the passing of time and the events that brought you to where you are today. When we think about celebrating the New Year, many people make resolutions, signifying a fresh start, a new beginning. Is there anything special about the calendar turning from December 31 to January 1? Not really … but, maybe there is!

Did you know that annual celebrations like this are not new to us? It’s true! The Old Testament tells of many celebrations that the Israelites convened in order to worship God. One of those celebrations was the New Moon Festival. The first day of every month was set aside as a day to focus on and worship God. The festival required no work to be done, musical offerings to God, other special offerings, and of course food. The celebration gave the Israelites a time to step back and look at what God had provided for them in the previous month and look forward to His provision for next month.

When we look at the New Moon Festival it gives us a hint on ways we can make sure our New Year starts off well and shines. Here are four ways to make sure your New Year shines.

Remember the blessing. As you get ready to launch into a new calendar year of teaching, remember what God has done for you the last year. Has He provided for your needs in teaching? Has He given you the ability to lead? Has He blessed you with boys and girls to tell the wonderful news of redemption? Remember the blessing.
Anticipate the blessing. If God has provided for you in the past, and He has, He will continue to bless you! Anticipate the blessing to come and thank God in advance for what He will do.
Plan to plan. In preparation for these monthly celebrations the Israelites had a plan for what would happen. If we want to be successful we need to plan for the time we get to minister to boys and girls. Good healthy planning makes a more successful experience when you teach.
Eat. You might be laughing right now, but fellowship is a great tool to get to know the people you teach with. If you are like me, new in a teaching environment, getting to know each other in a few minutes before teaching starts is difficult. Carve out some time to fellowship with your fellow teachers and their spouses if they have them and get to know who you are teaching with.

Four tips that might go a long way in helping you connect with the leaders you are teaching with as well as have a shiny new … and full year.

Tim Pollard teaches 3rd-6th graders Explore the Bible: Kids Worship on Sunday nights at Tulip Grove Baptist Church. He’s passionate about helping kids dig deep into Scripture, which he pursues through his daily work as leader of the Explore the Bible: Kids team. Tim lives with his wife and daughters in Mount Juliet, TN.

Devotional, Kids Ministry, Preteen, Resources

November 29, 2016

Devotional Giveaway

By Cristy Whitlock

Once or twice a week, you meet with kids face-to-face, speaking into their development as disciples. You know they are growing spiritually, but imagine the exponential growth that could take place if they make it a priority to spend daily time in the Word.

This week, we’re hosting a giveaway to help you equip kids to study the Bible on a daily basis. Enter below for a chance to win 20 copies of devotions for three different age groups. See the images and downloads below for details on devos.

Download a preview of the More devotion.

More is a 28-page monthly devotional designed to help kids ages 4-7 develop a habit of daily Bible reading. Each devo includes 10-minute devotions, prayers, and fun Bible-learning activities.

Download a preview of the Adventure devotion.

Adventure engages kids ages 7–10 and cultivates the disciplines of daily Bible reading and spending time with God. The content is designed to invite today’s media-savvy kids to have a daily relationship-building experience with God. Each devo includes fun facts, puzzles, and games.

Download a preview of the boys’ side of the Bible Express devotion.

Download a preview of the girls’ side of the Bible Express devotion.

Bible Express is designed for ages 10 and up. Each issue is produced in a flip-book style with separate sections for boys and girls that is made up of fun facts, puzzles, missionary kid stories, and games. Kids will carry this cool, magazine-style devo everywhere they go.

You could win 20 copies each of More, Adventure, and Bible Express. Click here to enter the giveaway.

Update: This giveaway has closed. Congratulations to our winner, Cathy Scharf!

Advent, Christmas, Devotional, Fun, Kids Ministry, Parent Helps, Parenting

November 15, 2016

Free Download: Family Advent Guide

By Cristy Whitlock

Last year, we posted a blog that provided a downloadable Advent guide for kids ministers to share with every family in their ministry. The response from families and kids ministers was amazing! So amazing, in fact, that we decided to repeat this year. You’ll find the same format with updated content to help parents lead their families into deeper discipleship.

Kids ministers, click the image below to download and print out Advent guides, and then pass them out on Sunday, or email out the link in your weekly newsletter. This is just one more way to make sure you’re equipping parents to lead the way in the spiritual development of their kids.

Click here to download your free Family Advent Guide.

Devotional, Kids Ministry, Leadership

October 26, 2016

Who’s To Blame?

By Landry Holmes

Place two kids in a room, and soon they will be blaming each other for something. I know this both as a teacher and a parent. My two married, adult sons are 28 months apart in age. When they were in elementary school, my younger son would often come to my wife or me whining about his older brother and say, “Get him in trouble!”

While that statement is humorous to us as adults, isn’t that a natural thing to say? Look at Adam and Eve. Adam said, “The woman You gave to be with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate.” (Genesis 3:12) The question, “Who’s to blame?” is as old as the fall of man in the Garden of Eden.

The Bible is replete with other examples of imperfect people pointing the finger of blame to others. One such situation is found in 1 Kings 18. After three years of drought, King Ahab asks Elijah, “Is that you, you destroyer of Israel?”

To us, Ahab’s question seems ridiculous. But the king had circumstantial evidence—the drought. After all, who announced the drought? The Bible says, “Now Elijah the Tishbite, from the Gilead settlers, said to Ahab, ‘As the Lord God of Israel lives, I stand before Him, and there will be no dew or rain during these years except by my command!’” (1 Kings 17:1) So, what is the logical conclusion as to the reason for the drought? That’s correct, the cessation of rain must be Elijah’s fault.

The tangible evidence, however, proves the circumstantial evidence false. According to the writer of I Kings, “Ahab son of Omri became king over Israel … Ahab … did what was evil in the Lord’s sight more than all who were before him . . . he married Jezebel … and then proceeded to serve Baal and worship him.” (1 Kings 16:19-31) King Ahab’s wrong choice to worship Baal resulted in the drought. Therefore, sin is the real reason for Israel’s troubles, not the messenger Elijah.

So, where does that leave us? We often make wrong choices in ministry and in life and then blame others:

The kids in our ministry are acting crazy and wild, so we blame them, when our lack of planning and preparation might be to blame.
No one shows up for a Sunday afternoon program, and we blame the parents, when our over-scheduling activities may be the problem.
Our pastor and/or other staff members dismiss what we have to say, when our chronic whining may be the cause.

Rather than blaming others, we need to recognize that the root of our problems is sin. Sometimes the cause may be either our own sin or the result of living in a fallen, broken world. Additionally we should give our problems to Jesus, who promises, “Come to Me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. All of you, take up My yoke and learn from Me, because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for yourselves. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30).

The next time you are tempted to blame parents, the church down the street, the kids, or other leaders in the church, remember that the source of difficulties is sin. Then, turn your situation over to Jesus and rest in Him.

Devotional, Encouragement, Kids Ministry, Leadership, Training

May 18, 2016

Teaching From the Overflow!

By Bill Emeott

God wants to teach the boys and girls in your ministry from the overflow of what He’s already taught you in your heart. Here’s the problem, many of us find ourselves too busy to seek the flow from God’s Word and end up with a “trickle” (at best) instead of the fresh flow that comes from regular personal Bible study.

So, how do you find time in your very busy schedule for this important discipline?

I love teaching Sunday School and I want to be a good teacher to the kids I’m blessed to teach so I’ve decided to make this a priority. Each week I use the Bible content that I’ll be teaching that next Sunday as a guide for my personal Bible study. Each week (when I’m being a really good Bible study teacher) I start early in the week and spend 5-10 minutes a day reading, studying, and considering what God is wanting to teach me through the Bible content I’ll be teaching the kids.

Here’s my plan:

Day 1: Read the text from your Bible. Take out your favorite Bible and read the text … even if you know the account, read it again. God wants to speak to you fresh and new every time you read His Word.

Day 2: Read the “Leader Bible Study” in the leader guide. Take a few minutes on Day 2 to consider what the curriculum provider thinks about the text. In LifeWay’s on-going resources we provide a one-page deeper dive for leaders for each of our sessions.

Day 3: Re-read the text in a different translation. If you always read from the KJV then consider on Day 3 reading from the HCSB (or the other way around). For me, this is where I get out my paraphrased version of the Bible. A paraphrase helps me to hear the text differently and react to the translator’s interpretation.

Day 4: Choose a favorite commentary to read and consider. God has gifted many men and women with a deep understanding of Scripture and many have pinned their thoughts into commentaries. I’m simple, so I like a simple commentary, J Vernon McGee’s “Thru the Bible.” Find one you like (and understand) and enjoy the deeper dive of their thoughts.

Day 5: Read and review the Bible account, as it will be presented in the session. Go back to your curriculum and read, review, even practice how you will present the Bible account to your kids.

Teach kids from the overflow. You’ll enjoy it so much more!

Bill Emeott serves as Lead Ministry Specialist for LifeWay Kids. A graduate of Mercer University and New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, Bill has served as a Kid’s Minister and currently teaches 2nd Grade Bible study and Kindergarten Choir.