If parents want to be able to make best use of time with their children, then it is crucial for a parent to start becoming alert to state that their children are in. Tired? Satisfied? Bored? His shoe hurts him? She has a stomachache from spaghetti? And so on....This applies particularly during time that children are playing with toys. They want to be happy. And you want them to be happy too..

Here’s one way of looking at it: it’s a bit like dealing with a baby. Your baby cries. So you figure, usually and probably it’s one of four things. One, baby is hungry. Two, baby needs a diaper change.Three, baby is tired. Or four, baby wants to be held. You would probably test each of these out to see if baby will stop crying. What’s happening here is a continual process of trying to figure out and be sensitive to the baby’s needs. Right? So we are dealing with a sensitivity to child, and a willingness to experiment to find out exactly what baby needs. Once thing is done (for example, changed a dirty diaper and put on a clean one) and baby stops crying, and is now smiling and gurgling, you think: “Bingo! I did right thing there!”.

So checklist is a key to a parent’s success, because it provides parent with various possibilities of dealing with a baby’s (or child’s) needs.

As babies turn into toddlers who turn into pre-schoolers who turn into kids (and so on), their needs naturally get more sophisticated. In order to keep up with their kids, parents need to increase their checklist. Not only that, but to change checklist as kids grow, as some needs get taken off list and others get put on. So it helps to start off with this idea of a checklist for each of your children. It can be simply a mental checklist. For those who are more organized, they can write it down.

I grew up in small Baptist country churches. I remember them being filled to overflowing as people gathered to hear a word from Lord from God-called preachers. My Daddy preached at this small church where over 150 attended..Sunday School and church..how we fit into that small, but adequate building, I don't know. Over 40 years later, same church has same number attending but buildings are 10 times as big...hmmm..are we placing more emphasis on buildings than on people? Anyway, I wrote this in my Daddy's memory...Thank you, Jesus, for giving me a spirit filled oldtime preacher man for my daddy.

This story was written December 21, 1994 and appears in my book

Luke 2.10 "And angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people."

When we think of Christmas, we picture presents under tree, Christmas play at church, Christmas lights and hustle and bustle of that time of year.

As I look back over 42 years good Lord has allowed me to live, Christmas of 1966 stands forever etched in my mind. I was 14 years old, an only son with four sisters.

I really had a close relationship with my daddy, late Rev. A.J. Rozier, The week before Christmas, daddy and late Rev. Jody Thigpen performed wedding ceremony for my oldest sister, Shirley, and her husband, Joe.

The simple ceremony at our old home place brought a sense of joy in air. We eagerly anticipated excitement of Christmas day.