by Polly

Is your homework finished? Did you make your bed? What do you want for lunch? Some days it feels like this is all I ever say to my kids. Days like these are enough to make any parent feel sad and insecure.

In the midst of all the chaos, sometimes parents forget that connecting with kids doesn’t have to be some big expensive time consuming event. The little things really are important and can be just as effective! Here are a few ideas, all of which require very little time, to help you connect with your kids even on the most chaos filled days.

Lipstick Kisses - Every morning before work, my friend Kelle would put on her favorite shade of lipstick and leave her sleeping sons huge lipstick kisses on their cheeks. When the boys awoke later the morning after their mother had left for work, they found beautiful reminders of their mother’s love.

A Kiss a Day - Another friend who had to spend an extended period of time in the hospital left her kids a bowl of Hershey Kisses. Every day each child was allowed one of their mother’s kisses from the bowl. The kisses were a simple and gentle (not to mention great tasting) way of reminding her kids that she loved them even when she couldn’t be with them. You don’t have to be in the hospital to make this work for you. Leaving the kisses in their lunch boxes, with their breakfast, or on their pillow can be just as effective and fun. Be creative and have fun with this!

Love Notes - Leave your kids simple little love notes letting them know how much they are loved and appreciated. You can leave the notes on pillows, in backpacks, with a special blanket or toy, in lunches, or in your family mailbox. Some possible things to write are, I love you because, I’m glad you’re my son/daughter because, I love fill in the blank with you, or a simple note of thanks for loving you.

Bedtime Rituals - Bedtime is often a good time to connect with your kids either with a special way of saying goodnight, a special bedtime story, prayers, or just simply laying with them in bed and talking about your day.

Secret Handshakes - Create a special way of saying hello or goodbye to your kids with a secret handshake, special hug, or wave.

 

Too many Christian people are walking around with eyes that are like hollowed out graves. There is an emptiness that seems to pervade even some who claim the name of Christ. This emptiness comes from lingering in the darkness and toying with some of hells demons. I know this will not be a well liked hub by some and that it may likely stir up some controversy, but it is one that I am compelled to present to you today. I want to say that our God is able in any circumstance to deliver us from depravity and destruction and I want to send out a plea to my brothers and sisters in Jesus to embrace Christ in His fullness, to walk in the Spirit and not fulfill the lust if the flesh and to get away from the edge of destruction.
Fighting the Propaganda

“Grandma, witches are yucky, aren’t they?”

“Uh Huh,” grandma says only half paying attention as she sits there reading her Bible.

“But Grandma, good witches aren’t ugly. They are nice.”

Now grandma’s heart begins to race because as she is hearing these words she is reading in Deuteronomy 31:16. “And these people will prostitute themselves to the foreign gods of this land they are entering”...and she suddenly remembers the words that came right before it in the previous chapter

“See I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, and keep His commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess.”

Now giving her granddaughter full attention she says, “Honey there is no such thing as a good witch.”

“They are all bad grandma?

Grandma thinks about how to answer. She wanted to plant truth into her brain without placing unnecessary images there. She replies. “Well, some witches make themselves look pretty on the outside, but on the inside they are not very pretty because Jesus doesn’t live there. They only look good on the outside, but they don’t still follow the laws of God.”

“Oh.” She says and goes on playing.

Then Grandma’s thoughts turn to the popular series called Twilight and her heart begins to pound again. Why did this come to mind now? She pulls up a trailer to watch so she can see if her thought process is correct about this movie series and she sees the scene of a girl in love with a vampire and then her granddaughter says, “Oh. Is that New Moon?” Grandma’s heart now breaks that her five-year old granddaughter has been exposed to the propaganda of vampire covens. How does she battle this permeating attraction of romancing the dead and fight for her grandkids?

There is a scream that lies within the depth of my heart that no longer will remain buried. The lure of romancing death has much of society in a grip. I am not sure why the romance with the dark side of death is so strong. I can only speculate on two possible reasons. One is that there is no longer anything new in the realm of what I would consider traditional romance. Even if many people in society have not personally experienced all the varieties of sexuality they have likely seen them, whether in a magazine, on TV or at the local Adult stores. And I wonder if it is possible that society is bored with the norm and looks further for a “new” experience. The second possibility I wonder is that people long for the extraordinary - so much that they are willing to accept the gods of the world and willingly buy in to what feels like a fairytale for adults because it is more prevalent and acceptable to fill that god-shaped hole with the false gods that require no restraint. The reason I say this is because many will talk about witches and vampires and productions that romanticize and glorify both and say they are no more than the fairy-tales they read as kids. But the dangers are great spiritually and so many, even Children of God are duped into believing this lie being blinded by the god of this age.

Yes, there are many fairy-tales that teach good witch and bad witch and I am not so sure those old fairy tales were not propaganda as well. And I do remember the old Frankenstein and Werewolf movies that were popular when I was growing up – but it seems we always despised them and regretted that they were able to seduce the humans in their paths. Now the productions are more intense and vampires are causing humans to fall in love with them to the point that now even suicide is romanticized as an option for the human to be able to live forever with the vampire.

I know many will argue that the Twilight Series is no different than those movies of old, and that they are the same as watching movies such as The Narnia Series. Are they harmless movies or is there an agenda behind them? I feel I must cry out to God’s people to pay attention and ask if Jesus was now walking this earth and visiting in your house would you take him to see Twilight?

My heart cries out because there is so much propaganda that is filling the minds of the Christian community. I am not saying that by watching movies such as these that we are choosing death, but I am desperately crying out because I see Christians hanging on the edge of destruction, playing with fire that could eventually lead them to death, and if not them someone who is watching their lives. Oh Christians choose life, fill your minds with life, think on things are good, noble just pure…Romance Christ and live

Deuteronomy 30:15-19 says:

“See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil, 16 in that I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments, that you may live and multiply; and the LORD your God will bless you in the land which you go to possess. 17 But if your heart turns away so that you do not hear, and are drawn away, and worship other gods and serve them, 18 I announce to you today that you shall surely perish; you shall not prolong your days in the land which you cross over the Jordan to go in and possess. 19 I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live.”

A note on vampire covens.

Overtly vampire covens are nothing more than a community–The Coven Vampire Rave, where people can gather, journal, play games etc.

Covertly it is a lie intended to drag you into hell. There are places to research online that will show you there are those who actually believe in vampires and who even claim to be able to draw “Prana” energy from their Christian friends. Look for yourself and see, but please do this prayerfully. This is spiritual and the battle is being waged in your mind. Gird up soldiers of Christ!

 coffeesnob