April 29

Teaching with Joy!

My child listen to me and treasure my instructions.

Proverbs 2:1 (NLT)

The wise person makes learning a joy.

Proverbs 15:2a (NLT)


Like most parents, I want to help my children by teaching them good things—the important things of life. The Proverbs are great for teaching. They give us some superb teaching tips. Besides teaching me, they also offer insights into what I should teach—important truths to pass on. But there is something else they show me and that is the how of effective teaching. “The wise person,” we are told, “makes learning a joy.” Does this make sense?

Exercise, I think, is a good analogy. I don’t relish the boring repetitions of the step-climber or the treadmill. Do you? If you ask me, it gets old—even with the TV in view. But invite me to play basketball, or football, or some other sport and I’ll leap off the couch to join in. This is fun. This is entertaining. And to me, this is a joy!

So how do I make teaching fun? Well, I haven’t exactly become a master of fun teaching, but I have found it helps to spend time with my boys and do the things they want to do. So, we do things together—fun things, and at appropriate times, I weave in snippets of truth. Sure, there will be other times when we’ll sit down and focus on spiritual things, but always in a positive way. Always with an uplifting motivation.

If there’s something I should remember about teaching my kids, it is this: I need to have the right heart, and by all means, we need to have fun!


Lord, teach me, speak through me … with joy! Amen.

April 28

Helping Our Kids to Focus

For I want you to understand what really matters, so that you may live pure and blameless lives until Christ returns.

Philippians 1:10 (NLT)

I am the father of three boys who love games. They are especially good at computer games and those played on electronic game systems like XBOX, Gamecube and Play Station. My oldest son even plays online with people miles and miles away. No doubt my kids find these games fun, but at times the activity seems to be the entire focus of their existence.

Since games aren’t reality and since there ARE more important things in life, part of my mission as a Christian father and the leader in my home is to bring a spiritual, moral, and practical focus to these precious lives.

My challenge then, if I choose to allow these things in my house, is to bring in healthy alternatives, to provide a much-needed break from what could be a mind-numbing addiction. To do this requires my time, my patience, and a lot of prayer.

Lord, show us healthy ways to guide our kids' activities. May they grow in Christ, and may we set a good example by showing them Your great love each and every day. Amen.

April 27

Finding His Deep, Deep Love

May your roots go down deep into the soil of God’s marvelous love.

Ephesians 3:17b (NLT)

Our richest, most endearing loves go deep. These relationships are an investment of time, sweat, and even tears, yet these disciplines yield such good fruit—commitment, devotion and that wonderful thing we call joy.

God longs for such a relationship with us. In fact, His deep love is all around us—it always has been—He’s just waiting for us to wake up and realize His great hopes and desires for us.

As Christians, it’s our choice to stay shallow, carnal, lukewarm … or just maybe … to go deeper, to sink roots into this rich treasure and tap His strength, His resources, His peace.

The fertile soil lies before us. What’s your choice?

Lord, enrich our lives by opening our eyes to Your great truth, Your great love. May the fruit of Your Spirit fill our lives to overflowing, so others may see Your deep love too. Amen.

April 26

Saying, "Yes!" to the Least of His People

I tell you the truth, anything you refuse to do for even the least of my people here, you refused to do for me.

Matthew 25:45 (NLT)

Quiet footsteps enter my study and I hear my eight-year old’s inviting, melodic voice, “Dad, it’s time for karate….” He has finished practicing with his Tommy Nitro Karate DVD and now he wants to practice on me.

I look at my desk and the projects I’m falling behind on: bills to pay, accounts to balance, important correspondence to answer. The urgent, growing pile screams at me, pulling me away from the cute, sandy-haired, blue-eyed boy dressed in white.

By comparison, my older sons are teens now and pretty much past this stage. It’s I who seek them out, but still, probably not enough. My heart aches as I think of the missed opportunities. It is enough. The thought stirs me.

I smile at my son, drop my pencil and follow him upstairs to the playroom. For thirty minutes we duel in a happy, slow-motion dance of preposterous maneuvers. His Rocket Fists of Fury streak straight toward me. I cup my mouth and begin exhaling my Indomitable Blow Dryer of Death attack only to be countered and overcome by Alex’s Atomic Elbows of Destruction and his Sweeping Sidekick of Pain. We tumble, tussle, and laugh, and I am thankful for not missing this. For I am doing this for my son, and I am doing this for Jesus. And in the bigger scheme of things, I am doing it for myself.

Lord, give us sensitive hearts to what may seem like smaller needs but really aren’t. Help us say “Yes!” to the least of Your people. Amen.

April 25

Don’t Be a Dummy!

If you need wisdom … ask him, and he will gladly tell you.

James 1:5 (NLT)

I need God’s help—lots of it. When I carefully think things through and do them with my great understanding and in my own power, I consistently fall flat on my face. It happened again yesterday.

In a hurry and thinking things through, I asked my wife where we could get a quick bite to eat. You see, I had carelessly overbooked myself, and I now saw the easy way out. We could really make up some time if we cut short our date and went to a place that had less in the way of both atmosphere and cuisine. The cold, quiet response to this plan set off alarms and reminded me how shortsighted I really am. You see, quality time is my wife’s love language and in MY wisdom, MY power, and in MY way, I was working against God’s plan for our oneness and not toward it.

I am happy to say, I have been enlightened … and it didn’t hurt too much! I see a better way—His way. This morning was for my wife. She feels loved and I feel God’s hand—not mine—back on my life.

Lord, give us wisdom. Transform our thinking that we may know what to say, what to do. Amen.

April 24

Ask! Seek! Knock!

… listen to me. Tune your ears to wisdom … cry out for insight … Search for them as … hidden treasure then you will understand … For the Lord grants wisdom! Then you will understand what is right, just, and fair, and you will know how to find the right course of action every time.

Proverbs 3:1-9 (NLT)

Listen to me! You can pray for anything and if you believe, you will have it.

Mark 11:24 (NLT)

If you need wisdom—if you want to know what God wants you to do—ask him, and he will gladly tell you.

James 1:5 (NLT)


We make many mistakes in life, don’t we? We flounder with hard circumstances and struggle with awkward situations, we wrestle with the aftermath of too many bad decisions, but the truth is, it doesn’t have to be like this. There is a better response, a wiser solution than what we concoct.

God, you know, has all the answers, and guess what? He wants to help us. Really. Listen to Jesus’ words. Doesn’t He tell us to ask, to seek, to knock? Then why don’t we? Is it pride … or ignorance … or just a lack of faith?

Listen to the word, my friend. Believe God hears you … and ask!

Father, give us Your insight, lead us in Your way. Help us to do what is right. In Jesus’ name and for the cause of Christ, Amen.

April 23

Keeping Alex Safe

… He looks throughout the whole earth, under all the heavens. He made the winds blow and determined how much rain should fall.

Job 28:24-25 (NLT)

You chart the path ahead of me … every moment you know where I am.

Psalm 139:3 (NLT)

My son is afraid of the wind. He expresses this fear at home, at school and when we travel. It developed this last year—how, we’re not quite sure. Alex cowers whenever the wind picks up. Last night, he slept on the couch—fearful of the wind rattling his bedroom window. We’ve tried all kinds of things, like talking about God and His love for Alex. And His protection. We’ve tried rationalizing, “the wind has never hurt us before,” and on and on.

Last night my wife and I prayed for wisdom. We so want to help Alex overcome this fear. And then we got an idea: Scripture memory. God’s word is such a comfort! Certainly, there must be something in the Bible he can latch onto ... something that will encourage him and help him move on. So we looked and found some verses—some good verses.

Together we will memorize Job 28:25, “He made the winds blow….”, and Psalm 139:3, “…every moment You know where I am”, and Psalm 4:8, “I will both lie down and sleep, for You alone, O Lord, will keep me safe.”

Lord, indeed, keep our child safe and take away all his fears. Amen.