1) Wednesday, March 11th - Playdate at Allison Wetzel's 9:30-11:30AM. No need to RSVP - just come! Snacks, coffee, juice etc. provided. Allison's address is:
415 Shipwrighter Way
Lansdale, PA
215-412-2774
2) "Craft With Company" - Friday, March 13th at Covenant Church from 8-11PM. Sandra Currier will be giving beginners instructions on how to knit. If you already have knitting needles and yarn, you should bring them with you. If you need to purchase supplies, beginners will do best with a mid-weight yarn and needles numbered 7, 8, or 9. The Share and Care Shoppe (2nd hand store) sells them for a few dollars. You may contact Sandra directly with questions or further information. Light refreshements will be served; childcare not provided. All our welcome!
Friday, February 20, 2009
Mark Your Calendar!
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
2008 Memories
Here are a few pictures from our 2008 MOPS meetings and outings: 
Ham & Cheese Souffle
Hints On Child Training
About a year ago, I read a book called 'Hints on Child Training' written by H. Clay Trumbull, a Christian author from the late 1800's. Trumbull wrote the book after his children were grown, and his purpose was just to share a glimpse into the life of his family when his children were young and being trained at home.
I think he does a great job illustrating simple, everyday circumstances that come up regularly in a home with children and how to think about different situations from a Christian perspective. I also like the fact that Trumbull is not trying to push any certain methods or ideas, but rather allowing readers to see how one Christian family chose to live. It's also interesting to me that although the book was written over 100 years ago, I can understand and relate to almost everything he writes about in the book.
One of the specific chapters that I found helpful was entitled “Training Children to Sabbath Observance”. The main point of this segment is to emphasize that Sunday is a different day and that it should also stand out as the best day of the week to the whole family, including the children. He writes that every Sunday is a like a Christian anniversary and so we should treat the day like we would any other birthday or anniversary celebration....best clothes, best food, etc.
Another Sabbath Day “best” that Trumbull suggested, which I thought was really interesting, was to have the best toys out for Sundays. He said that in their family they had a Sunday box with several of the most interesting and enjoyable toys for their children so that it would help them be extra excited for Sunday and to help the day stand out in their little minds. This obviously takes some time and work to rotate toys and have special things ready, but to quote Trumbull, “whether at home, or at Sunday school or any other church service, the children should be helped to realize that the day is a day of brightness and of cheer; that while differing in its occupations and enjoyments from all other days, it is the best of them all.”
*This book review is from our January 2009 meeting.*
Monday, February 2, 2009
A Gospel Primer
This past Wed, I had another book summary in our MOPS newsletter so here it is for anyone that isn't part of our MOPS group (and for those of you that are, this is word for word from the newsletter). The book of choice for this month was "A Gospel Primer" by Milton Vincent.
As we approach the Christmas season, with our topic this month for MOPS being “The View from Above”, I thought it would be fitting to give a little summary of a devotional supplement that I recently started using and have found helpful in my spiritual life. This book is comprised of three parts and each segment is meant to directly point to the message of the gospel – the good news of salvation for sinners through Jesus Christ. The first part consists of 31 reasons to rehearse the gospel daily, with scripture references included, to help specifically understand how Christ's death on the cross impacts your everyday actions. For example, one excerpt entitled 'Stimulated to Love Others' reads:
“When my mind is fixed on the gospel, I have ample stimulation to show God's love to other people. For I am always willing to show love to others when I am freshly mindful of the love that God has shown to me. Also, the gospel gives me the wherewithal to give forgiving grace to those who have wronged me, for it reminds me daily of the forgiving grace that God is showing me. Doing good and showing love to those who have wronged me is always the opposite of what my sinful flesh wants me to do. Nonetheless, when I remind myself of my sins against God and of His forgiving and generous grace toward me, I give the gospel an opportunity to reshape my perspective and to put me in a frame of mind wherein I actually desire to give this same grace to those who have wronged me.”
The second part of the book is a prose version of the gospel and the third part of the book is a poetic version, both which Vincent wrote as a way to help memorize gospel truths more easily, also with scripture references included. This book is an excellent source to help fix your mind on the cross and hold true to Colossians 1:23 which tells us to “continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel”.
*This is the book review from our December 2008 meeting.*
The Heart of Anger
Over the summer, one of my projects had been to read "The Heart of Anger" by Lou Priolo, and it was one of the best books I've ever read. The focus of the book is learning to biblically diagnose anger manifestations in your children and train them to work through their problems in a godly way, rather than allowing it to simmer in their hearts and come out as sin. I highly recommend the book to any parent, but I've also found it incredibly helpful for my relationship with my husband and really any relationship in general.
One of the main principles in the book is learning the "Gumnazo Principle", which bascially means to train your child (or yourself) to do the right thing over and over so that eventually it becomes a habit. This is based off of Heb. 5:13-14 which reads"For everyone who partakes only of milk in not accumstomed to the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained (gumnazo-ed) to discern good and evil."So basically whenever your child does something sinful, your responsibility as the parent is to teach them what they should have done and help them practice it so that next time they will at least know what they should do, whether they actually do it or not is another thing!
Priolo also suggests working with your child to answer different questions such as:
-What happened to provoke me to anger?
-What did I say in my heart when I became angry?
-What does the Bible say about what I said to myself when I became angry?
-What should I have said to myself when I became angry?
-What is it that I believe I can't be happy without?
-What do I delight in the most?
-What do I love more than God and my neighbor?
There have been times in reading this book that I have felt overwhelmed at the thought of how much time every day this kind of heart training could take...but as Priolo so aptly asks,"What else are you doing with your time that is more important than this?"
*This book review is from our November 2008 meeting.*
Don't Make Me Count to 3!
This blog is another book summary, "Don't Make Me Count to 3" by Ginger Plowman, that I wrote for our MOPS newsletter this past month. For those of you who have read “Shepherding a Child's Heart” by Tedd Tripp (another excellent read), this book is based off the same biblical principles and is very similar in content. In my opinion, however, I found Ginger's book a little more practical and “real life”, quite possibly because it was written by a mother who deals with children all day every day.
For those of you who have not read or heard of either of these books, the emphasis throughout both is training your children through heart-oriented discipline. For example, every mom knows that sharing is a major issue and can be very tricky to deal with especially in the moment. Ginger suggests rather than just asking “who had it first?”, to instead try to help both children involved understand what is going on inside their hearts (selfishness, anger, etc) by asking heart probing questions like “what was the nature of the temptation (what were you feeling) when you took the toy from your brother?”, “how did you respond to that temptation – in a Godly or sinful way?”, and “what other ways could you have responded that would have been better?”.
Another great resource from Ginger is a little chart called “Wise Words for Moms”. The chart was designed as a tool to help you teach, rebuke, correct and train your child in very specific situations. It looks almost like a calendar with a list common behavior problems going down the side (complaining, whining, tattling) along with heart probing questions, reproof scriptures (what to “put off”), encouraging scriptures (what to “put on”), and additional verses to look up about each behavior. It costs $4.00 new and you can find it along with her other books on her website (http://www.gingerplowman.com/products.html) if you are interested.
*This is the book review from our October 2008 meeting.*
Praise Her in the Gates
I am involved on the steering committee for our MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) group at church and one of my "jobs" this year is to write book reviews for the newsletter. So since I already have a little summary written out, I figured I might as well post it here too in case anyone else is interested...
“Give her the fruit of her hands; and let her own works praise her in the gates.” Proverbs 31:31
The book for this first month is “Praise Her in the Gates” by Nancy Wilson. Nancy is a very convicting writer that will stir your thoughts and challenge you in your walk as a mother. In this book, she pinpoints very specific areas of everyday motherhood and gives biblical suggestions how to handle those situations. Some of the chapters in the book include “Manners: Church Behavior, Friends, Family”, “Loving the Kids: Dinnertime, Bedtime, Holidays”, “When the Kids are Sick”, and “The Domestic Arts” to name a few.
One of the ideas in the book that stuck out to me was in the chapter called “Setting Standards: God's Rules and House Rules”. As any mom will readily admit, we are busy people and probably too quick to say no to our children, especially if we are in a hurry or in the middle of something. Nancy suggests finding ways to say yes to your children as often as possible so their little worlds aren't full of only no's all day long. She suggests having specific drawers in the kitchen that are “yes” drawers or finding time to get out play dough even if you really don't want to. She also mentions that it is important to be wise in what you command and to be careful not to overwhelm your children by expecting them to remember all the rules all the time. Find ways to cheerfully remind them and pour out lots of love, affection and encouragement so that bad behavior doesn't result from your children having a low love tank.
Another chapter that stuck out to me was “The Pleasant Home”, in which Nancy highlights different areas of your home and how you as a wife and mother can bring joy to those areas and will in turn help change the atmosphere in your family. Some of the questions she asks are “Is your home a lovely place to be?”, “Are there flowers in the windowsill?”, “What kind of artwork is on the walls?”, “Does it often smell of cookies or bread baking?”, “Is your home filled with good things?”. Our homes are to be havens of rest and beauty that our family and friends can come to to be refreshed and equipped to go out and serve others. A pleasant home should be spiritually and physically clean to have a complete picture of how God cleans us both inside and out. She finishes the chapter by with this challenging statement, “To say that how your house looks doesn't matter as long as everyone is happy is like saying the gospel doesn't affect the externals. And that is a sad mistake.”
*This book review is from our September 2008 meeting.*
