Sizzlers and grace.

Posted on August 4, 2012 by angathome

Our treasure tree after a day or two. (It is now quite well covered, but as we had cut up a LOT of leaves, it is by no means full.)

We are going out to dinner in a restaurant tonight. It is the culmination of our treasure tree character reward system. No, the tree is not full, but after reading “Give Them Grace” by Elyse Fitzpatrick we have decided to implement one of her suggestions. She mentioned marble jars and other reward systems and suggested that occasionally we should simply fill them up and have the reward as an act of grace towards our children.

We have been a very intentional recently about the message of grace and how we present the gospel to the children since reading her book. We have focussed more often on how our good works, right living and good character (being a “good” person) cannot earn our way to heaven or gain God’s forgiveness. We have discussed how we will never measure up to the perfect standard that God expects from us.

Of course, the message does not stop there. When we are finally able to admit our sin and see our need for a saviour, we can turn to Jesus and through His death on the cross, bearing the sin of us all, we can repent, receive forgiveness and be made holy in God’s sight.

We presented the children with the treasure tree chart and asked them what they were requires to do to earn their reward.  (Fill the tree with leaves by displaying acts of Godly character.) We asked if they had earned that reward – did they deserve it? As the tree is far from full, they could only say that they didn’t. By this stage, the older children were beaming as they had already guessed what was coming. We then announced that we would be taking them to Sizzlers as a demonstration of grace to remind them to think about the amazing free gift of salvation that they have available to them through Jesus, despite the fact that they haven’t earned it and don’t deserve it.

Who knows whether they will remember this in time to come, or if it will make any difference to their spiritual walk in the long run, but we will all have a wonderful family night out together and who knows what lasting impact it may have?

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Book review: Give Them Grace by Elyse Fitzpatrick

Posted on July 24, 2012 by angathome

Give Them Grace: Dazzling Your Kids with the Love of Jesus

Whether your children are obedient, rebellious, believers or non-believers, well-behaved or difficult to control, models of virtue or endlessly trying, this book is an eye-opening read for every Christian parent. Rather than a list of how-to’s, Elyse Fitzpatrick in her book “Give Them Grace”  focuses on our children’s need for a saviour and what we as parents can say and do to point them to Jesus.

I highly recommend listening to Elyse’s talk here. This free recording will give you a good understanding of the major themes in the book and if, like me, you find what she has to say is worth a deeper look, read the book to dig further into what she has to say.

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