Monthly Archives: October 2016

At Children Desiring God we strongly believe that God has ordained parents as the primary teachers and disciplers of their children. It is a sacred responsibility and privilege. All the many wonderful Sunday school classes and other children’s and youth programs in your church are no substitute for your calling to nurture the faith of your children. Consider these words from Charles Spurgeon:

Let no Christian parents fall into the delusion that the Sunday school is intended to ease them of their personal duties. The first and most natural condition of things is for Christian parents to train up their own children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Let holy grandmothers and gracious mothers, with their husbands see to it that their own boys and girls are well taught in the book of the Lord.

But…

• what

Watching my daughter at home full time with four children, 5 years old and younger, is to watch a type of loving, synchronized chaos with moments of structured instruction thrown in. Here is a college-educated woman, who once worked with thoughtful adults, now deal with cute, but often unreasonable, little people. Yet through it all, she has fully and joyfully embraced this calling, knowing that it is a sacred calling to nurture the faith of the next generation. Mothers, listen to these encouraging words from Charles Spurgeon:

O dear mothers you have a very sacred trust reposed in you by God! He has in effect said to you, “Take this child and nurse it for Me, and I will give you your wages.” You are called to equip the future man of God that

When my husband and I were young Christian parents, we instinctively knew the importance and responsibility of sharing the Gospel with our children. But, as good as our intentions were, and as heart-felt as our longings and prayers were for them to come to saving faith, I think we sometimes sent a confusing message to their young ears. In part, this was because we ourselves were somewhat immature in our understanding of the essential truths of the Gospel. Having come to saving faith in the popular “born again” era of the 1970s, we were steeped in an easy-believe-ism that did not rightly reflect the rich beauty  and grandeur of God’s grace, or the transforming power of Christ’s work in the life of a believer. Over time, and by God’s gracious provision of solid biblical teaching, our own understanding grew, and our children received the benefits of being instructed in this glorious Gospel.

1. I want them to know about God’s faithfulness to his church. 2. I want them to know reformation must continue. 3. I want them to know defending the Bible is dangerous, but worth the risk. 4. I want them to know God does extraordinary things through ordinary people. 5. I want them to know

In between deep sobs, the voice of a caring mother is heard. “Gilbert, what’s wrong?” With tears streaming down his face he replies, “Mommy, I’m sad.” “Gilbert, why are you sad?” “I can’t find nite-nite!” …Or, “I want to play with my cars longer.” Or, “I don’t want to leave Grandma and Grandpa’s house.”

To my 2-year-old nephew who is learning how to express his emotions in words, these sad situations feel very hard to him. Unfortunately, there will soon be a day when his tears and sorrow do not stem from something as simple as a lost blanket or shortened play time.

Your child may be saying “I’m sad” as they try to figure out why kids were mean to them at school. Why did my friend lie to me? Why does

Our customer service team delights in partnering with our customers in ministry. We (Holly Urbanski, Suzy Plocher, and Lori Myers) all agree that we have the best customers in the world. As we reflect on the last few months, we are thanking the Lord for a sweet partnership between Children Desiring God and the churches and individuals with whom we interact. We can honestly say that our customers are by far the nicest, most understanding, and most patient we've ever encountered. And this is saying a lot, especially from Lori who has worked in several other customer service positions at various kinds of companies. We love coming to work and anticipating who God will have us talk with and how we can help them.

Team Leaders, you have a special role in serving alongside and leading a team of children’s ministry volunteers in your classroom. Here are five practical ways you can connect with your teachers, small group leaders, worship leaders and helpers in order to develop stronger relationships and support them through the school year. Try one or more ideas to show them Christ, encourage them in their role in your class and to challenge them to let Christ be seen in them.

Encourage your team to arrive 10-15 minutes before you start welcoming children into the classroom. This gives you time to talk with your team about what will be happening during class, give any last minute instructions for the morning and most importantly, pray for the children in your class to have minds to hear and hearts to respond to the truths they will be taught that day. It is also a great time

Simplifying the Gospel is like simplifying the story of Romeo and Juliet. If you simply tell the story as “Two mixed-up teenagers fall in love and end up dead,” you loose the depth of the story. The background of the feuding families, the secret marriage, Romeo’s banishment and the sleeping potion Juliet took gives the story meaning and heart.

If we fail to teaching the whole counsel of God to the next generation, we remove the depth and meaning from their faith. If all they have is simplistic Bible truths—just love Jesus and believe in the cross—how will our children’s faith stand strong when they are confronted with the skepticism of our culture?

In our zeal to preach the gospel, we can often overlook or ignore the doctrinal foundations that lead to an understanding of the preciousness of the cross. In our zeal to evangelize, we must not forget that the main purpose