During our family time, we like to read the Bible. Sometimes, we’ll make a game out of it and I’ll give a quiz at the end to see who was listening. It usually gives us a fun way to talk about the text. It also keeps the kids on their toes. If they don’t listen, there is a slim chance that they will win. And, like tonight, the stakes were high.

The one who has the most points at the end of the game gets to determine who will make his or her bed the next morning.

They were excited about the game. That is, until they started trailing in points. Apparently, two of our children were distracted with other things in the room. They didn’t hear all of the story. And, it showed.

The game was over. I was out of questions. The winner was announced and official Bed-maker was declared. Oh, how the game went sour. It is all fun until you find out you have to make two beds in the morning.

The Bed-maker was distraught by this. You’d think that it was mid-December in 2012 and the world was ending. So my wife intervenes … “You know what, I’ll make the bed in your place, so you don’t have to.”

Brilliant. I knew exactly what she was doing! I was excited. I hung on the words that followed.

She began to relate the gospel to the children. ”You know, this is what Jesus did for your sins. He said, ‘You know, I’ll make the bed so you don’t have to.’” The kids got it. But to reaffirm their thoughts, she added, “We all sinned and deserved to be punished, but Jesus willingly took our punishment instead.”

There was more said. It was great. I was delighted to see it all happen. It was a great night. My wife rocks.

God’s grace and providence recognizes the obligations and blessing of this very special tie of parent and child. The God of Abraham “blesses obedient children for the sake of their obedient parents.” He has a method for transmitting true religion from one generation to another. He has a scheme for continuing his church in the world. It is unavoidably this: The children of holy parents are placed solidly within his gracious economy, in his divine government of this world (p.62).

Let us obey the Lord so that the Lord will bless our children with obedient hearts. What gift could be better?

Each year we have focused more on Christ and so gifts are becoming really a thing of the past to us. It is just easily overlooked in our house. However, since our families are still doing it, we succumb to the Christmas trade.

I have found it helpful to have gifts for our children to illustrate the idea and remind them of why we celebrate Christmas; namely, the giving of our Savior, Jesus Christ. So as Mommy and Daddy give, so did God. It has assisted us in explaining the reason for Jesus’ birth.

We have also decided to give our children only three gifts to be placed under the tree. (This was my wife’s idea, so I can’t take the credit.) The giving of three gifts is one more way to help us communicate the birth of Christ. As the Magi gave (stereotypically three gifts), so we give three gifts. This is not implying that our children are little Messiahs, but to give them a reminder of the past. It is sort of a object lesson.

So our family gift giving is really small. Besides the three gifts to our children, one gift to our siblings and parents (however that is arranged) and some small stocking stuffers for each other. We don’t really participate heavily in the “trade” of Christmas. It is much more to our pleasure (as well as the Lord’s) that we use everything possible to point to Christ.

So like baptism points to Christ’s death and resurrection, our Christmas practices help point to the birth of Christ. We have found this to be effective in teaching and reminding our children (and ourselves) as well as keeping us from spending too much money.

So we save our money and our children (Lord willing).

I wonder, what things you do in your family during this Christmas time of the year? Let me know.

Recently, Paul was invited to host a conference at Mars Hill in Seattle, called Biblical Parenting. Once I found this out, I immediate went to the site and began listening. His sessions were insightful and easy to understand. I thought so highly of them, that I wanted to pass them on to my readers. Below you will find the audio and video from each session (for those of you not feeding The Resurgence – maybe you should start).

Session 1: The Call to Formative Instruction

Session 2: Giving Kids a Vision for God’s Glory

Session 3: Helping Kids Understand Authority

Session 4: Helping Kids Understand the Heart

Session 5: Overview of Corrective Discipline

Each Monday he receives the week’s memory verse. He brings it home and we get the whole family involved. It has become the family’s memory verse. (Our two younger ones barely articulate their needs so it is a stretch for them to get involved in that way, but they enjoy it nonetheless.)

When my son (who manages to have it memorized that very day) recites it to me in the evening, I try to spend some time communicating to him about its meaning. Luckily, these are easy verses and I don’t expect to stumped. I thought it would be fun then to post the thoughts online that I offer him. Maybe they will inspire some parents when talking to your children or maybe it will just be something fun to think about. I’ll try to be frank and child-like as much as possible.

I ran thinking something was wrong. “Justus wants to pray for Kylee,” she said. I smiled, realizing that there was nothing to be anxious about. I sat down with them as my son laid his hand on his young sister and prayed.

I listened intently trying to make out his words. He is not a great articulator because of a learning disability caused by autism. But I think it was something like this:

Dear Lord,
Please help Kylee stop crying.
In Jesus name, Amen.

Just three lines. Just over 10 words. Short and sweet. Just like him. There were some other nonsensible words mingled in there, but he got his thoughts across. And I loved him for it.

We all gave a confident “Amen!” and opened our eyes (mine were never closed). He looked at my wife and said, “Mommy, I do the Amened.” We both chuckled and said, “Yes you did!” And he walked off. But just before he exited I called his name and echoed the words of Robert De Niro in Analyze This, “You … you’re good, you!” He giggled and responded, “You … you’re the man, you!” (This was our secret code of charity. We saved it for the right moments.)

My child is on a roll. Just two days ago he was in a church play singing and dancing for the cause of Christ. I expressed an overwhelming joy in seeing him represent the gospel. Again, I’m finding that same joy.