Are You Truly Thankful For Everything?Written by Kimberly Chastain
Thanksgiving is time of year when we stop and are thankful for all our blessings. Of course, we should be thankful every day of year. I want you to take a different look at Thanksgiving this year. You certainly can list all of your many blessings and be thankful. But, are you truly thankful for everything?1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 says: Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. Are you thankful for everything in your life? Are you thankful for your troubles, frustrations, unfulfilled expectations, you fill in blank? I think it is easy to be thankful for good things in our lives, but not difficult things. The past few years in my life have been extremely difficult. There is no need to go into all specifics. Through difficulties I have learned more about God’s faithfulness and care for me. I have come to God as a little child and saying, “Please, take care of me.” I don’t have answers. When I focus on God instead of myself I become renewed and refreshed. Now, if you had asked me several years ago did I want these particular difficulties – I would have given you a resounding, NO! I would tell you now I would not trade those difficulties for easy times, because of precious knowledge and growth that occurred in my relationship with God. The verse that has been my stronghold is “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” Hebrews 13:5. God has taught me only sure thing in this world is his love for me and his overwhelming mercy and grace.
| | Ten Suggestions For The Overscheduled ChildWritten by Kimberly Chastain
Ever wonder what happened to family dinner hour? Or for that matter family dinner half hour? Monday is Soccer Practice, Tuesday is Piano lesson, Wednesday is Church Activities, Thursday is a Soccer Game, Friday a birthday party to attend. A number of events will fill up weekend. Do you feel like a professional scheduler and taxi driver? Are you finding yourself increasingly irritable as you go from one activity to next? Maybe you and your children are overscheduled.As a coach and family therapist I see more and more people wanting to find balance in their lives. In past few years I have seen a marked increase in children with anxiety and depression. Children are now saying they are ‘stressed out’. I remember one child in particular who just wanted to play a board game with his parents, only family assignment was to play board game. The family did not have ‘time’ to play game. Children no longer seem to have time to goof off and just be children - goof off time is not on schedule. As parents we need to guard our children and ourselves to protect our children’s unscheduled time to be children. Children need time to create their own games and also to learn to entertain themselves. Children often want us to entertain them or television instead of figuring out how to play by themselves. I would hazard a guess that some of your fondest memories as a child were playing out in backyard with some friends and really doing nothing in particular. Just laughing, playing, talking or ‘being’. Ten Suggestions to keep your family from being overscheduled: 1.Each child in family has one outside activity (i.e. sports, music lessons) besides church activities. (If you have a big family even this may be difficult.)
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