Making History Come Alive for Your Children

Thursday, October 11, 2012 by Elizabeth Owens

The grass withers, the flowers fade, but the word of our God remains forever.  Isaiah 40:8

If you live in the Fort Worth area, or plan a trip there before January 13 (and you should, just to take advantage of this opportunity!) you must be sure to visit the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.  In addition to the 21 scroll fragments, several of which have never been before viewed by the public, there are numerous photographs and artifacts from the time periods leading up to the scrolls, as well as old copies of New Testament pages and a display of early Bibles.

Every display is clearly labeled, and there are docents present to give tours and answer questions, but if you want your children to come away with the maximum understanding of the amazing story of the scrolls, there are some things you can do before your visit to prepare them.  Having been through the exhibit six times now myself, I have come up with some ideas you can use to get your children ready for this once in a lifetime experience.

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Teaching Your Kids to Love the Word, Pt. 2

Thursday, July 19, 2012 by Elizabeth Owens

Your word I have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You. -Psalm 119:11

Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path. -Psalm 119:105

All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. -II Timothy 3:16, 17

As a parent one of my desires for my children is that they grow up learning to love God’s word and live according to it. Because children learn by example, it is important that I live a life grounded in the Word before them, reading it, studying it, basing decisions on its teachings. But I also need to be active in introducing the Bible into their lives.  I can do this by reading it to them, and also by guiding them to memorize it, to hide its words in their hearts.

At what age should we begin working on scripture memory with children? I would suggest that this should start even before the child is born.  Thomas Verny, in his book The Secret Life of the Unborn Child, recounts the story of a conductor who realized that he already knew the cello parts of some of the musical works he was studying as he prepared for concerts.  When he talked about this with his mother, a cellist, they realized that these were the pieces that she had been practicing while she was pregnant with him.

Studies have shown that unborn babies can hear, react to their surroundings, and learn.  By about the sixth month of pregnancy a baby begins to recognize his parents’ voices and speech patterns.  It has even been demonstrated that his mother’s speech has an effect on his body movements and rhythms.  What better thing could he begin to learn than the cadences of Scripture, read to him by his parents!

After the child is born, keep reading Scripture to him! While he will not understand the words at first, he will begin to learn them before you will expect it. Repeat verses and passages that you want him to memorize.  You may be amazed at what he will be able to quote once he begins talking.  One has only to hear little children singing along with and reciting television commercials to know that they have the ability to memorize scripture!

We worked with our children on scripture memory from their earliest days.  In hindsight, I wish we had had a more structured plan.  Although we were intentional, we could have been more organized.  Here are three verses that we started with:

John 3:16, For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Ephesians 6:1, Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.

Proverbs 20:11, Even a child is known by his deeds, Whether what he does is pure and right.

Guide them to learn other verses about how to live for Jesus, such as Psalm 119:11, 105, and Philippians 4:8, and about God’s care for them, such as I Peter 5:7.   As you read through the Bible on your own, note verses that you think would be helpful for your children to know, perhaps one that deals with an issue specific to your child.

You may encounter some who think young children should not memorize verses because they say the children will not understand all they are quoting.  We were once criticized for encouraging our young children to learn Ephesians 6:1; we were told that our child was too young to know what “in the Lord” meant.  We had two answers for that.  The first was that that is one reason that God gave children parents, so they could explain things to them on their level and help them understand.  My husband gave the second answer, when he responded by saying, “I’m not sure that I understand fully what ‘in the Lord’ means, but that doesn’t mean that I shouldn’t learn the verse.”

As a pre-schooler your child can begin learning facts about the Bible.  How many parts does the Bible have?  Two.  What are the names of the two parts? The Old Testament and the New Testament. What does the Old Testament tell us? It tells us how God created the world and people, and about how they were waiting for Jesus. What does the New Testament tell us?  It tells about Jesus, and the people who loved and obeyed him. These are very simple answers; they can be expanded on as the child grows and understands more.  Older pre-schoolers can learn to pronounce and list the books of the Bible.

How do you teach verses and Bible facts to children? Here Deuteronomy 6:6-7 can be your guide: when you sit, when you walk (or drive,) when you lie down, when you rise up.  Most pre-schoolers will not sit still for a long memorizing session.  But if you say a verse to them, or five Bible books, or one Bible fact, each time you sit down to eat, and then when you finish a meal, and before each nap and bedtime, and when you are riding in the car, and when it applies to something they are doing, you will be amazed at how quickly they will be able to quote it with you.

As your children become school-aged, you need to add scripture passages to your plan, such as Psalm 23, Psalm 100, the Model Prayer, and the Luke story of Jesus’s birth.  At this point your church may have a Scripture memory program such as Bible Drill, Awanas, or an in-house developed program, as our church currently does.  It can be helpful to plug into these programs, to have home and church working together to see that our children are memorizing God’s word.

If your children have passed the early stages of childhood and you have not worked on Scripture memory with them, it is never too late to start! Begin with John 3:16, Ephesians 6:1, verses in Romans about salvation, and work on knowing the books of the Bible.  If you have never learned some of these verses or Bible facts yourself, ask your child to help you learn as he learns, and work together to hide God’s Word in your hearts.

Elizabeth Owens is the wife of Waylan Owens, Dean of the School of Church and Family Ministries,  the mother of Blayne, Joshua, Grace, and Mary, and the mother-in-law of Cari.  She has served as a nurse, a pastor’s wife, and a professor’s wife, and is in her 18th year of homeschooling. She enjoys reading books and drinking tea – especially at the same time!

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Teaching Your Kids to Love the Word Pt. 1

Tuesday, July 17, 2012 by Elizabeth Owens

One of our goals for our children is that they grow up with a love for God’s Word, the Bible.  Second Timothy 3:16 and 17 tells us, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.” Since I want my children to grow up to be men and women of God who are complete and thoroughly equipped for every good work, they need to learn to receive their guidance for living and serving from the Bible.  (Let me say here that I am not discounting the work of the Holy Spirit in their lives and decisions, only that right now I am focusing on the Bible.) David expresses in Psalm 19 his love for and need of God’s word, and he only had the Torah, the first five books of the Bible.  How blessed we are to live in a time and place when we can easily obtain the entire sixty-six books of the Bible in our own language!  We can do no less than share it with our children, teaching them by our examples and our words to learn it, to love it, and to depend on it for direction as they grow and become responsible for their own decisions, no matter what their age. From the womb until the time they are young adults, there are things you, as a mother, can do to help your child know, and ultimately love, Scripture.

In the Womb

Did you know that children can hear and begin to learn before they are born? Secret Life of the Unborn Child by Thomas Verny shows that unborn babies respond to and are soothed by the music of Vivaldi and Mozart, but when Beethoven, Brahms or rock music are played they become very restless.  By about the sixth month of pregnancy a baby also begins to recognize his parents’ voices and speech patterns.  What better thing could he begin to learn than the cadences of Scripture, read carefully and thoughtfully to him by his parents!

As an Infant

Scripture reading should continue after the child is born.  While he will not understand the words, he can learn to associate the reading of God’s Word with being held in a quiet and comforting way. What do we read to an infant?  All of the Bible is “profitable,” but you might focus on Psalms and Proverbs, which have a rhythm and a pattern to them.  It is never too soon to begin to read to your children about heroes of the faith.  You can also begin to read verses and passages that you will lead them to memorize first when they can begin to speak, such as John 3:16, Ephesians 6:1, Proverbs 21:11, Romans 3:23 and 6:23, verses from the Psalms, and the Lord’s Prayer.

As a Toddler

As your child grows and becomes mobile, you will discover that it is hard to keep him in one place for a long reading.  That is all right.  Reading does not have to be long; it just has to be regular. Let your child know that you are reading from a very special book – the best Book in the world –  the Bible.  It is a letter from God to us.  Then pick a two or three verse passage to read to him in a happy, dramatic way, and identify a three or four words or direct quotes from that passage that you can repeat to/with him to emphasize what you have read.  You should continue reading verses and passages that you will want him to memorize.

As a Pre-Schooler

Pre-schoolers love stories, and by the time they are around two years old you should be reading them the stories in the Bible.  Will they understand every word?  No.  That is why God gave them parents.  You are there to explain the hard words and ideas on their level.  Read to them slowly, clearly, with a voice that rises and falls with the crises in the story.  Be dramatic!  It will hold their attention and help them to remember the details. Don’t be afraid to read what you might consider to be more difficult passages to your children.  We have found that God was able to use those in our children’s lives for growth, discussion, and learning.

At this point you may be thinking, “Read directly from the Bible to my pre-schooler?  Really? How about a Bible story book instead?”  That is a good question.  Bible story books have their usefulness as a tool to help our child learn the stories, however, they are no substitute for the Scriptures.  Isaiah 40:8 tells us, “The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever.”  It doesn’t say that Bible story books, or Bible thoughts will stand forever; it says the word of our God.  You need to be reading God’s own words to your child.

After you have read him a story from the Bible, repeat it with him to help him learn it.  You might read it again, several times, throughout the day.  You might let him act it out.  Stuffed animals and some chairs pulled together make a great Noah’s ark.  A boat in a bathtub or a backyard wading pool can re-create the story of Jesus calming the sea.  You could draw a picture about the story.  You could eat some foods mentioned in the story.  Your child could call or skype his grandparents and tell the story to them. (Grandparents love this!) Make that story real for your child, and talk to him about how God protects, or provides, or leads, and about how the people in the story pray, or trust, or obey.

As a Elementary Schooler

By the time your child is reading at about a second or third grade level he should begin to read the Bible for himself.  If he wants to try to read his Bible sooner than that, by all means, let him; be available to help, and be thankful. Help your child develop a reading plan, and encourage him in it.  Talk about what he is reading.  Help him with the hard words and thoughts. When your child is comfortable reading his Bible himself, challenge him to read it completely.  There are plans available that set out daily readings to complete the Bible in a year, or two years, or three years.  Some of these plans progress through the Bible as it is printed, and some have a chronological approach.  Or your child could decide to read for a certain length of time each day.  Share these options with your child and help him choose a plan that will work for him.  You might both try following the same plan for a year.

Your child will value what you value when he is young. For that to stick as he grows up he needs to see that your love for God’s Word is real and that it helps you in your relationships and choices.  Let him see how God’s words guide you as you make decisions, receive comfort, and face challenges.  Show him that the Word can do the same for him.

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My Favorite Dads

Tuesday, June 19, 2012 by Elizabeth Owens

Having just celebrated Father’s Day, I thought I would deviate from my usual writing, get a little more personal, and tell you about two of my three favorite dads. (The third is the man to whom I am married, who is one terrific husband and father, but I don’t have room to write about all three in one article!)

The first is the man who became a father when I entered the world.  My dad was born in Pennsylvania, the only child of my grandparents, who had been married for twelve years when he arrived.  He was an adored child, loved and cared for by two generations.  He suffered from rheumatic fever for an extended period of time when he was a young teen; this left him with a damaged heart, which kept him from military service during World War II.  Instead he studied his way through college in three years, graduating from what was then Carnegie Tech with a degree in Aeronautical Engineering at the age of 20.

He immediately began work on planes used in the war effort and beyond.  We knew very little of what he did at work, as much of it was classified.  I do know that he did the stress analysis on the X-1—the first plane to break the sound barrier, and on the lunar landing training vehicle, used by the Apollo astronauts to train for moon landings.

When he was 21 his father died, and he became the sole support for his mother, who lived in an apartment in his home, with no income of her own, until her death when I was eight years old.  When he was in his late 20’s, the church he attended called their first church secretary, a Bible School graduate who had been working as the secretary at a mission in Michigan’s upper peninsula.  In a year and a half they were married, and another year later I arrived.  In the next seven years a son and another daughter were added to the family.

My dad was what I call a quiet leader.  He led our home and family quietly.  He was very active at our church, willingly and capably serving in leadership positions when asked.  He and my mom were the kind of church members all pastors wish for:  supportive and encouraging of their pastors, faithful tithers and workers, very hospitable, and biblically grounded.

Our home was a place of order, peace, and joy, a tribute to both my parents.  My Dad showed his love for his family by word and deed, not always giving us what we wanted, but always seeing that our needs were provided for.  We were shown by example that our relationship to God and service to His church was vitally important.  We never doubted that he loved my Mom, and that he loved us. When my Dad went home to glory at age 71, after a two-year struggle with Lou Gehrig’s disease, our grief in our loss was tempered by our relief and joy in knowing that he was with Jesus, and that he was well and strong again.

The second of my favorite dads became my dad when I married his son almost 27 years ago. My father-in-law was born in Florida, and had one brother nine years younger than he was.  He and my mother-in-law were high school sweethearts; much of their courtship centered around their service together in their local church.  He enlisted in the Army Air Corps during World War II, and married my mother-in-law the weekend he graduated from flight school.

He learned to fly B 24s, 25s, and 29s, and was assigned as a pilot for a B-29.  The night before he and his crew were scheduled to leave for the war in Europe, he broke his wrist in a softball game.  His crew left the next day without him; he remained in the States, and, at 19, became the youngest instructor pilot in the war at that time.

After the war the family of now three moved to Florida, where he worked his way through Stetson College, supporting his family and excelling in his studies.  Called to the ministry, he served as a pastor, and then realized God was calling him to more schooling.  He moved his growing family to Louisiana, where he received a B.D. and a Th.D at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.  He continued pastoring, serving churches in Alabama (where their sixth and final child—who would become my husband—was born,) Florida, and Tennessee.  In his later years of ministry he served for thirteen years as an Associational Missionary in Florida, where he assisted in ten church plants.

He was a strong leader in his churches, preaching the Word boldly and guiding troubled churches through difficult times.  He loved his wife, his children, and his grandchildren and they knew it.  He led his family to serve God by serving in the local church.  It was a great shock when he went home to be with the Lord suddenly and unexpectedly from a heart attack when he was 68 years old.  Humanly we wondered why God would take him home so soon; yet in our grief we rejoiced that he was with the Savior whom he had loved and served so well.

One of the few sorrows in my life is that neither of our dads knew our two wonderful daughters.  A greater sadness is that our girls never knew their grandfathers. My husband and I both appreciate what a marvelous heritage we have been given in our homes and families, and in our dads.  We have gone to church and heard about Jesus’s love for us since nine months before we were born.  We can begin to understand the love our Heavenly Father has for us, because of the thoughtful and selfless love given to us by our earthly fathers.

You may not have grown up with that kind of Dad. If so, I have two challenges for you.

With God’s help, forgive all that needs to be forgiven, and move forward, trusting God to help you understand and receive the love He has for you.  And second, if you are already married, know that the cycle can be broken, and that you and your husband can build a home and family built on Godly principles, and provide that kind of heritage for your children.  The best thing you can do for your family is to pray for your husband’s relationship with God; his growth and maturity in the things of the Lord will directly affect his spiritual leadership in your family.

If you are not yet married and hope to be someday, wait, wait, wait on the Lord to bring the right man into your life. There is too much joy in living in a God-centered home to squander it by impatience.  God’s timing is always right.  He may be preparing a quiet leader for you, or He may be preparing an up-front leader. His choices are always right, and worth the wait.

 

Elizabeth Owens is the wife of Waylan Owens, Dean of the School of Church and Family Ministries,  the mother of Blayne, Joshua, Grace, and Mary, and the mother-in-law of Cari.  She has served as a nurse, a pastor’s wife, and a professor’s wife, and is in her 18th year of homeschooling. She enjoys reading books and drinking tea – especially at the same time!

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Raising Your Children Without Raising Your Voice

Tuesday, May 15, 2012 by Elizabeth Owens

…Wow!  Is that even possible? There is only one way that I know to do that.  It is to teach your children to have proper respect for the authorities God has placed over them, and then to teach them to obey the first time.

The first verse we ever had our children memorize was John 3:16.  The second was Ephesian 6:1, which states, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.”  Children being raised to love God and His Word learn from this verse that obedience to parents is something God commands them to do. 

From that beginning they need to be taught that obedience means obeying immediately.  Our children need to hear about the people in the Bible who immediately obeyed God or those in authority over them.  Four biblical heroes come to mind. Noah was told to build an ark in Genesis 6.  There is no record of his questioning God or waiting for a “better” time; he began after God gave him the plans, and worked diligently to complete them. Abraham was commanded by God to do several things: leave his country (Gen. 12) and sacrifice his son (Gen. 22.)  In both instances the very next verses show that Abraham obeyed immediately.  Ruth and Miriam both obeyed other people.  Miriam obeyed her mother by watching her baby brother Moses (Ex. 2), and Ruth followed the counsel of Naomi in approaching Boaz (Ruth 3.)

The truth is that children can be trained to develop self-discipline to obey their parents immediately and cheerfully.  The harder truth is that this demands self-discipline and self-sacrifice on the part of the parents.  It demands knowing your child, establishing routines – especially with preschoolers – and thinking before you speak.

Too often we train our children to disobey. 

Let me give you an example.  Mom wants to run some errands.  She tells Johnny to put his toys away so they can go, and then she works to collect all she needs to take with them.  Johnny is having a great time with his toys and doesn’t want to quit playing – so he doesn’t.  In a few minutes Mom tells him again to put his toys away and keeps working on her own concerns.  After this is repeated two or three more times Mom’s voice begins to raise, and she finally yells at Johnny and tells him to obey now!  Johnny is very smart and he has learned his mother well.  He knows just the level of loudness that his Mother’s voice will get to before she finally intervenes with his behavior in a way that is unpleasant to him. (Some mothers prefer to count, but their equally smart children know just what fraction of “2” is Mom’s real disobedience limit.) He will usually “obey” just before she gets to that level.  In essence, his mother has trained him to disobey until she gets to that magic loudness level.  This is unpleasant for Mom, and not helpful to Johnny. So what is the alternative?  It begins with Mom, developing her own self-discipline and then re-training her son. 

Mom, when you tell your child to do something you need to be prepared to drop whatever you are doing to deliver consequences if you are not obeyed immediately. 

You also need to learn to assess your child’s situation to see that you are creating the best possible environment for him to be able to obey.  Let me explain. It is very hard for me to pull myself away from something I am enjoying without warning, so I have great empathy for the child who is suddenly told to pick up his toys in order to do something else.  He may do better if he is told that he will be running errands with Mom soon, that he has 10 more minutes to play, and that then Mom will ask him to put his toys away.  This lets him wind down his play a bit, and be ready to obey. We used to set a timer for 10 minutes before our oldest child had to put his toys away for bed, and we found this made a huge difference in his willingness to obey and his happiness in doing so.

Some children do not obey because they do not seem to “hear” when their parents give them directions.  If you have one of those children you need to be very careful to make sure that he has heard you – the first time.  This may involve getting him to look at you while you give him directions. It may also mean you ask him to repeat the directions back to you, so you know that he has heard and that he understands.

Children have a harder time obeying cheerfully when they are hungry or tired.  Just seeing that your children have meals and snacks at routine times, and that they get adequate rest during the day and at night, goes a long way toward helping them to obey without whining or fussing.  Knowing that these needs are being managed will keep Mom from excusing disobedience by saying that he can’t help it, poor thing, because he is tired or hungry.  The truth is, children need to obey even when they are tired and hungry, and if you have developed the habit of obedience in them already it will be easier for them to do so at those times.  They do not need to be taught that there are excuses for disobedience.

“But I’ve been doing this all wrong,” you cry.  “My children don’t do what I say until I yell at them.  How do I change this?” 

First you need to ask God to forgive you for training your children to disobey.  Then you need to ask Him for wisdom and self-discipline to change your behavior so you can help them to change theirs. 

 With younger children, this begins immediately.  With older children, you may need to sit down with them and confess that you have been allowing them to disobey, but the Bible says they need to obey, so you are going to do things differently, and are going to help them learn to obey God by obeying you.  This means obeying the first time.  Then you need to be prepared to drop everything to carry this through consistently.  The first couple days may be rough, as your child learns that you mean what you say.  It is hard work, but your child is worth it.

There is joy in obedience, in ours to the Father, and in your child’s to you.  Praise your child lavishly as he is learning to obey you the first time.  Brag on him to Dad, and to grandparents, about how well he is doing in learning to obey.  Play obeying games (a modified Simon Says) with lots of laughter and even silliness. 

The end results will be an obedient child who may find it easier to obey God as he gets older because he has learned to obey his parents in his youth. It will be a Mom who doesn’t have to yell.  And it will be a home where the loudest noise is laughter.

Elizabeth Owens is the wife of Waylan Owens, Dean of the School of Church and Family Ministries,  the mother of Blayne, Joshua, Grace, and Mary, and the mother-in-law of Cari.  She has served as a nurse, a pastor’s wife, and a professor’s wife, and is in her 18th year of homeschooling. She enjoys reading books and drinking tea – especially at the same time!

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The Glory of the Mundane

Tuesday, April 10, 2012 by Elizabeth Owens

Hear, O Israel.  The Lord our God, the Lord is one!  You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.  And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart.  You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.  You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.  You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

Deuteronomy 6:4 – 9

 

This Old Testament passage, known to those of the Jewish faith as the Shema, was spoken by Moses to the children of Israel as they were about to enter the Promised Land.  It is a great passage for parents; it contains some of my favorite verses of instruction for teaching and training my children.  But don’t stop reading if you are not a mom, because those are not the verses I am focusing on right now, and what I have to say applies to you, too!

The last two sentences describe actions that are not familiar to most of us.  If you were to visit the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem you would see Jewish men praying, and you might see some of them wearing phylacteries.  Phylacteries are strips of leather that are wound around the arm and hand, and around the head. They are attached to small square leather boxes that contain portions of scripture.  One box would be visible on the forehead, the other would be on the upper arm.  These are what the verses above are describing.

“So what does that have to do with me?” you may be thinking.

Moms, I’ll start with you.  There are days in the life of a mother, especially a mother of preschoolers that seem filled with tasks that are repeated over and over again.  You change diapers, wash dishes, fold laundry, change diapers, wipe runny noses, wash little hands, change diapers, pick up toys, fix meals, clean the bathroom, change diapers, and on and on.  You may hear from others that you lead a boring life of an endless repetition of menial tasks.  Some days you might even start to believe that.

When I have days like that, I try to remember God’s directive to the Israelites, to bind His scriptures to their hands.  I may not actually see straps wound around my fingers and hands, but I can imagine them there as I use my hands to care for those I love the most, those whom God has entrusted to me to nurture and raise for His glory.  I think of Ecclesiastes 9:10a which tells me, “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might;” and I begin to find glory and even joy in the mundane, as I serve God by serving my family, caring for their most basic needs with my hands.

The Jewish man who wears the straps on his hands sees them as he prays, just as I “see” the straps as I use my hands to serve God.  But he does not see the box of Scriptures bound on his forehead; instead it is seen by all who look on his face, and is a testimony to his desire to obey God.

In the same way, others may not see a box of verses on my forehead when they look at me, but what do they see?

What do my children see?  Do they see an angry mom, an impatient mom, a sad and frustrated mom?  Or do they see a face that reflects the peace and joy that only Jesus can give?  Do they see God’s love for them on my face in the midst of a hectic day filled with all the seemingly trivial tasks, endlessly repeated, but so necessary to the care of a family? Now the truth is that while moms are often told that their days contain mindless tasks, the same can be said about almost any job in the world.  They all have some element of necessary but mind-numbing requirements.  Ask any nurse, or teacher, or pilot, or engineer, or bus driver, or student, or whoever!

So for those of you reading this who are not moms, here is your challenge:  As you go about your work each day and you use your hands for paperwork, or checklists, or whatever it is that you wish you didn’t have to do, learn to find the joy of serving God even in the repetitious or mundane tasks. Strive to complete them with excellence, “with your might,” for God’s glory.  And when those with whom you work look on your face, will they see an angry co-worker, an impatient co-worker, a sad and frustrated co-worker, or will they see a face that reflects the love and joy that only Jesus can give, a face filled with God’s peace, even in the midst of a hectic day?

One final thought.  The last verse describes what is known as a mezuzah—a small box or cylinder containing scripture, which is fastened to the doorposts of a home.  All who enter that home see it and know that those who live there value scripture and seek to obey God’s laws.

We may not have scriptures attached to our doorposts, but do all who enter our homes discover that those who live in them love Jesus and are trying to order their lives around his Word?

This applies to all of us, married or single, with or without children, living in a mansion or in a tiny apartment. Our homes should be a place of peace and joy, a refuge for our families first of all, and then for all others who walk through our doors.  May we allow God to so order our homes, our families, and our lives, that even our dwellings become a testimony to His grace and salvation.

Elizabeth Owens is the wife of Waylan Owens, Dean of the School of Church and Family Ministries,  the mother of Blayne, Joshua, Grace, and Mary, and the mother-in-law of Cari.  She has served as a nurse, a pastor’s wife, and a professor’s wife, and is in her 18th year of homeschooling. She enjoys reading books and drinking tea – especially at the same time!

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Raising Debt-Free Children

Tuesday, February 7, 2012 by Elizabeth Owens

Money.  Everybody talks about it.  Almost everybody thinks they need more of it.  Some people have budgets or spending plans.  Many people are in debt; some are deeply in debt.  Most of us wish our children would learn to manage their money well – perhaps better than we think we manage our own.

How do we teach our children to manage money?  What does the Bible say about money, and how do we communicate these principles to our children?

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