A new year gives us another reason to celebrate that Jesus wants to be my friend forever!

This month, we will share several of the miracles that Jesus performed in His short time with us here on earth, showing us that nothing is too hard for Him. If Jesus is so amazing and powerful that He can walk on water then surely He can help me learn to share with my friends.

Preschoolers will hear how Jesus turned water to wine (we call it a “super fancy drink”), helped His friends fill their nets with fish, fed thousands with two fishes and five loaves of bread, and calmed a storm by just telling it to stop. Through each story, our little ones will learn that Jesus can do anything, and “With God, all things are possible,” (Matthew 19:26).

Take time this month to share the awesome power of God with your preschoolers. Show them your awe as you share these miraculous stories. Think of how those surrounding Jesus must have felt as He performed miracle after miracle doing things that were not humanly possible and proving time and again that He was the Son of God.

Kathy Hill
Editor in Chief, First Look
Orange

Elementary

January is a great time to work on changing the way we play this game of life.  So, we’re going to spend the month in Proverbs, a book packed full of wise and visual verses to challenge our thinking—especially about the topic of Self-Control.

Self-control means choosing to do what you should do—and not what you want to do. In the moment, that’s hard for a lot of us. The good news is that God doesn’t ask us to do anything all on our own. We’ll share verses like 2 Peter 1:3 that say: “God’s given us everything we need to lead a godly life.” Self-control is a way to display to the world around us that we have God in our lives. And He’s present every hour of every day, ready to help us take control of our thoughts, words and actions.

Each week, we’ll talk specifically about choosing to have self-control in areas where we know kids (and adults) typically struggle, plus we’ll focus on faith skills like navigating the Bible and personalizing Scripture in their everyday lives.

Our Bottom Lines are:

God can give you the power to control yourself.

Pause before you lose your temper. 

Select your words carefully.

Know when to stop.

Use the Bible to guide your thoughts.

We are so excited about this month in Proverbs with a different principle each week addressing real life situations where we need self-control. Isn’t it great to know that God’s given us everything we need to live a godly life and to grow in wisdom? We can’t wait to hear what you think about Self-control: Changing the way you play!

By Cara Martens. ©2011 Orange. All rights reserved. www.WhatIsOrange.org * All rights reserved. Used by permission.

They talked about the differences of their worlds and showed pictures for the kids to connect in a visible way. Afterwards, they wrote out prayers for Wera, Uganda and posted them on our prayer wall.

Come down the hallway to the NexGen room (where the kids gather for worship) to see what your child is praying for and lift these children’s prayers up.

TEACHING YOUR CHILD HOW TO PRAY:

Perhaps you’ve never prayed with your children. But no matter how old they are, it’s never too late to start. It helps to remember that prayer is simply talking with God.

Here are a few ideas on how to get started:

J.O.Y Prayer, this is a simple acronym that is easy to remember.

J – stands for “Jesus.” Begin the prayer by simply adoring Jesus and God for who they are and what they do.

O – Others – stands for “Others.” Ask your child who they would like to pray for.  Maybe it’s the children in Wera, a friend, somebody at school, or an enemy.

Y – Yourself – stands for “Yourself.”  Ask your child what they need prayer for, struggles, school, an area of their life in which they need God’s help.  Pray for forgiveness for the wrong choices they may have made that day and the desire to make the wise choice.

Sentence Prayer, You can help your children pray aloud by giving them a sentence to complete, such as:

• “Lord, I thank you for …”
• “Lord, forgive me for …”
• “Lord, help my friend …”
• “Lord, help me be more …”
• “Lord, help me to let go of …”
• “Lord, give me the courage to …”
• Lord, one of the fears I need help with is …”

His Great Commission, Jesus commands us as believers to go and tell others of His love and forgiveness. It is exciting to be a part of reaching the world, but how do you get started? Giving your family the ability to see beyond them self & point others to Christ is one of the greatest gifts they will ever receive.

Your family can make a difference.

1.  HarrahKIDS Ministry is adopting a child.  December 11th, your child will decorate cookies in their classrooms.  These cookies will be available after each service for a donation. All donations will go towards supporting a child in Wera.

2.  Encourage your child to bring pennies to bills for offering in their classrooms.  Normally, 1/2 of the offerings are put into the kids mission funds.  During the Month of December, 100% of the offerings received will also go towards supporting a child in Wera & the missions.

3.  Pray together as a family.  The kids in Wera are living in a war daily.  They are                faced with family loses, malnutrition, war crimes, & many other things that we cannot imagine our own children would ever have to experience, just to survive each day.  Pray for the safety of the missionaries going there & that are there now. Pray that the gospel will change lives in Wera.

Jesus came to the world in order to bring the gift of salvation to humanity.  He displayed grace in a big way!  What are we to do with this grace?

Connecting to their world…

Teach your child about missions and cultures.

a. Sponsor a child to support monthly.  Write letters to them & send pictures.

b. Get out a map of the world and ask your children, “If we could go anywhere in the world (including our own town) and tell other children about Jesus, where would you like for us to go?” It really helps them visualize how big the world is and how many  people don’t know Jesus.

c. Show pictures of people in other countries & how they live in other countries

d. Read biographies of missionaries to your children. Watch videos on different countries. Read about martyrs and others who have suffered for believing in Jesus.   A good website that offers these is kidsofcourage.com   Post pictures of  the kids & mission teams on the refrigerator, lay them on the kitchen table or put them on the children’s bathroom mirror so they can be praying for them often.

e. Encourage your child to set aside a portion of their own money.  Put any change you receive from purchases throughout the year in a clear container, like in a clear glass jar.  Give it to a mission event or family mission project.  This is a visible way to teach children the priority of giving.

Model for your children the importance of missions. Being missional needs to start with you. Children will often model what they see.   If your child see you treasuring money, possessions and the American dream, then they will too. However, if children see their parents treasuring Christ & telling others of His love and forgiveness, then hopefully they will too.  Be their visible example.

“And he will answer,

‘I tell you the truth, when you refused to help the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were refusing to help me.’

Mathew 25:45 NLT

Meaningful discussion with your child

If you want to have interesting conversations with your kids, ask open-ended questions.

Closed questions require a one or two-word response or even as little as a nod of the head. They can also be the type that are right or wrong answers, making kids feel as if they’re being quizzed.

Closed questions:

• What’s your favorite color?
• Is that your toy?
• Are you hungry?

Open-Ended Questions invite kids to imagine, elaborate, and tell stories. You’ll get more information and get to know your child better when you ask open-ended questions. They let children think and solve problems.

Open-ended questions:

• What do you think will happen now?
• If you were the cook, what would you fix us for dinner?
• If you were the mayor of our city, what would you do first?

Open-Ended questions allow children to express whatever they’re thinking. They don’t demand a response, but leave space for the child to answer thoughtfully. It encourages creative thinking, problem solving and imagination. Plus, when you take the time to listen to a longer answer, you are sending a strong non-verbal message that you value your child and his thoughts and ideas.

Asking open-ended questions is a habit you can form with a few tricks. You can either print up a list of questions to use as a cheat sheet, or just experiment.

Here are some common ways to start an open-ended question:

• What would happen if…
• wonder…
• What do you think about…
• In what way…
• Tell me about…
• What would you do…
• How can we…
• How did you…

Not only will this technique help you develope a great relationship with your kids, but it’s also teaching them how to communicate effectively with others.

By mastering open-ended questions you bond and teach at the same time.

Bonus: Open-ended questions encourage children to recall what they’ve done and practice talking about it. This encourages their language development and may even get them ready for those SAT essays.

Getting Accurate Information:

Sometimes as parents we assume something’s going on that may not be. We need to be careful not to project our assumptions onto the situation with closed questions.  Early childhood development expert Maren Schmidt states:

“We need to choose our words carefully and frame our questions even more so. Inadvertently we can plant ideas with our questions, and redirect or distort our children’s attention and perception.

Sometimes the situation seems cut and dried. I know I feel like sometimes I just need that yes or no answer. But when I really look at it, sometimes I’m looking to pin something on my kids.

Look what happens when we use Maren’s method of transforming closed questions to open-ended ones:

Closed: Did you hit your brother?

Open: Why is your brother crying? Tell me what happened.

Closed: Did you make this mess?

Open: What can you tell me about this spilled paint?

Closed: Did you take a bath?

Open: When were you planning on taking a bath?

This skill is crucial to all of us. Do your kids a favor and model it for them while they’re young.

If your kids are no longer young, it is never to late to start engaging in meaningful discussions with your child.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW RESOURCES

Sunday Evenings at 6:30pm in the NexGen room, ends approximately November 20th.

FX brings kids & families together for an inspiring experience!  This event is designed with a strategy to shape the character and faith of children.  We believe that experiencing the Bible as a family should not be boring.  We use a high energy fun worship, hilarious skits, a Bible lesson that reaches the hearts of the children and families.  FX IS A FUN FAMILY EXPERIENCE WITH A PURPOSE!

ADMISSION:  Please bring a food item in a paper grocery bag for our Food Pantry

Orange is what you get when you combine two primary colors—red and yellow.
 If you paint only with red, you will get what only red can do. If you paint only with yellow, you will get what only yellow can do. But when you paint with red and yellow, you’ll get new possibilities, fresh solutions, vibrant outcomes.

We use the color orange to symbolize what it means to parent beyond your capacity. Orange parents understand that by tapping into a wider community, they have the potential to make a greater impact in the lives of their children.

I really hope you will jump over and check out the Orange Parents website and blog and that it will become a resource for you as a parent.

In 2011 the Dallas Orange Tour stop will be on January 20th and I want to take a bigger group. This is an incredible opportunity for you to hear from the leaders of our movement, to network with other Orange Leaders, Small Group Leaders, Story Tellers, Volunteers, and to connect with other volunteers from Harrah Church. It is open to anyone working with students from birth through graduation or anyone considering joining the team. The conference cost for Harrah Church people will be $35, which is a discounted rate. Last year we went down after Wednesday night service and stayed in a hotel close to the host site. We will do the same this year and have details on the lodging costs in the coming weeks.

Last year this event SOLD OUT twice and we will need to get tickets early. Contact Jeremy Davidson or Danelle Rush to register for the Dallas Orange Tour and join us for the road trip.

Have you been looking for tools to help make your spiritual-parenting responsibilities easier? Over the past year we have working hard to provide families the tools they need to help develop their children in Christ. We strongly believe that when parents get to heaven that God isn’t going to ask them if they took their kids to church, He is going to ask them what THEY taught their children about God. Deuteronomy 6 lays out a plan for parents on how to teach their children about God. We speak about this plan and focus our efforts not on making the church the primary place of spiritual instruction for children, but on providing tools for parents and using our time with your kids to reinforce what we pray you are teaching them at home.

There are two new tools that I am really excited about providing parents with. The first is http://studio252.tv/ and is a place for parents and kids to go to develop in Christ. The site will be packed with tools, games, and videos to help you.

The second tool is called CueBOX and it is a subscription that will provide families with lessons to be used at home to reinforce what the kids are learning at church. This little box is an amazing tool and I really believe that if our parents will use it we will see massive changes in our kids and our church. The subscription is $9-10 per month and will be one of the greatest investment you will make in your kids each month.

Cue Box Preview Video from McBIC on Vimeo.

Deuteronomy 6:4-9
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 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.”

Our goal at Harrah Church is to help parents live out this commandment. The material we choose for our children and students was chosen with this in mind. There are components to each curriculum designed to help parents reinforce the lesson at home. We believe that the best way to change a child is by changing the home. The average kid spends 40 hours a year with the church and more than 3,000 hours with their parents.

Here are a few of the resources we use to help parents at home:
-Cue Box | http://www.studio252.tv/
-Refrigerator Cards | We pass these out each week to our Grade School kids
-God Time Cards | We pass these out each week to our Grade School kids to use for their devotionals at home
-Family Times | http://familytimes.org/
Small Talk Sheets | Each month we pass out a copy to our preschool parents
Home XP | A weekly resource for parents of JH/HS students that we post on the Renovate Students website http://renovatestudents.org

I hope that you will use these resources to develop your kids in Christ and to create a a better home, a better church, and a better community.