Ways To (wrongly) Provoke Our Children

15 02 2011

Ephesians 6:4 “And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.”

Colossians 3:21 “Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged.”

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1. Discipline your child with (or out of) anger.

2. Scold your children publicly with sarcasm and mockery.

3. Compare our children with other children.

4. Deliberately embarrass our children in public.

5. Creat double standards that make it hard for children to know what to follow or do.

6. Inspect what you haven’t given an expectation for.

7. Never admit your wrong  or ask their forgiveness for wrong doing.

8. Promise things but not fulfill them.

9. Require things that are beyond their physical or mental abilities.

10. Give them regular critique and seldom share praise.



Curiosity

15 02 2011

 Curiosity may have killed cats, but it has also harmed many teenagers. Curiosity has been defined by an “eagerness to learn” or a “willingness to pry to find information.” Both of these phrases aptly describe many teenagers around us and in our homes. We have teens that are eager to learn, and are willing to pry to find out information. As parents and individuals who interact with teens we must consider the following thoughts about “curious teens.”

1. We must assume they are curious. Teens are not as apathetic as we think they are. They are curious and they are searching.

2. Their curiosity is the evidence of questions that exist in their life. Any time we see teens searching or experimenting we must remember that there is a natural curiosity within them driving them to find answers.

3. The world is giving our teens answers (sadly many of them are the wrong answers).

4. Some teens are learning the answers to their curiosity questions the hard way (through experimentation). They may learn the answers but there is a baggage that often comes from those answers they recieved the hard way. There are memories, images, experiences, and emotional scars that often accompany curiosity questions that were learned the hard way.

5. Answers from a parent can help save teens from finding wrong answers to their curiosity questions. Most teens will not initiate certain questions to their parents because of the awkwardness that accompanies some questions. However, please remember…the value of right answers to their questions should outweigh any awkwardness we experience. I hope that both parents and teen workers would be willing to initiate the conversations and teach our teens regardless of the awkwardness we may experience.  

At the heart of this thought is the idea that we shouldn’t want our teens to always learn everything the hard way! There are scars, and baggage that come with many of our teens curiosity. May we take the message of Ephesians 4;14-15 to heart and present the truth in love to the teens around us.

For the sake of our teens,

P.Ron



Calendar Principles for FBC of Folsom

1 02 2011

 Here at FBC there are seven principles that we use to determine what goes on our church calendar.

1. Giving people a telescopic view of events (a yearly calendar) helps them with the microscopic decisions during the week.

2. We must plan events with family units in mind – not just individuals.

3. Tradition is a form of communication. (the easiest things to communicate are the events we have done before)

4. Simple titles for events require less clarification in communication.

5. Every activity must support the mission statement of the church.

6. Blank spaces on the calendar do not mean the congregation isn’t doing anything.

7. Special activities have the potential to distract from the regular activities.

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4 Words that should identify our calendar: RELAXED, TRADITIONAL, D0-ABLE, PURPOSEFUL

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Before a event can go on the calendar we must know the answer to the following questions:

1. When is it happening?

2. Who is responsible for this event?

3. What is happening at this event?

4. How will we organize and do this event?

5. Why are we doing this?

To our FBC family…rest assured that we are not randomly throwing things on the calendar. There is a method to the madness.

All to Him I owe,

P.Ron