We want to give Brady and Lindsay a hearty Thank You for joining us at our last Kid's Club meeting. We had a great time discussing how we, as children, need to honor our parents. Each week I ask the kids what it means to honor their parents. One of the first answers is "we need to obey them". I had been holding off on discussing obedience with the kids because it is an area that most of them understand. We are supposed to do the things that our mom and dad tell us to do and yet we so often disobey. Why?

Jenna and I talked about making cookies. We discussed how exciting it is when mom pulls the batch out of the oven and we want to take a bite, but, mom says we have to wait. We don't necessarily want to wait but mom did say wait. Why? Why would mom want to stop me from enjoying the cookies. Is she selfish? Does she want to withhold the cookies from me? Does she want to keep them all to herself? No, the reason I have to wait is because mom knows what is best for me. She knows the cookies are hot and they would burn me. Mom withholds the cookies because she loves me.

In our lesson later that night the kids and I touched upon the reason why we disobey. We disobey because the first man and woman disobeyed God. God told Adam and Eve to leave the tree of the knowledge of good and evil alone. They were not even to touch the tree. But they said in their hearts, "I will decide what is true and right," rather than trusting God to decide what is true and right. After Adam and Eve sinned a terrible thing happened between God and mankind. The perfect relationship was torn in two. Man and woman no longer had a perfect relationship with God, they were separated. The separation was caused by disobedience and we call that disobedience, sin.

The same thing happens when we disobey our parents. The relationship is damaged and things must be made right. Usually there is pain. It may be pain that is caused by our disobedience, such as getting burned by the cookies, or it could be pain that is caused by discipline from mom or dad. Please understand Mom and Dad, there must be discipline. It could be as simple as a firm talking to or it could involve more severe punishment depending on the situation, but there must be discipline. To withhold discipline is to affirm in your child that disobedience is ok - that to disobey is a little thing.

The reality is that disobedience is a BIG thing. When our children disobey us they disobey God as well. If we treat our children's disobedience to us a as a little thing it teaches them that their disobedience to God is a little thing as well. Their disobedience to us provides us with an incredible opportunity to demonstrate the relationship between mankind and God. Use your child's time of disobedience to display what takes place between us and God when we disobey. The relationship is broken, punishment must be made. In His grace God has provided Jesus to take the ultimate punishment upon Himself - death. In the death of Jesus the penalty for our disobedience is met and we can be reunited with God. When you discipline your child take time to share the good news that Jesus provides a way for us to be reunited with God. Encourage them to ask the Father for forgiveness. The real issue when our children disobey us is not that they are sinning against us but that they are sinning ultimately against God.

BK Challenge

Introducing the New Hope’s BK Challenge for Kids

You may be asking, “What is the New Hope BK Challenge?” Well, the BK Challenge is a new Bible Knowledge Challenge for Kid’s who attend New Hope. This is how it works. Each week a new Bible Challenge question will be posted on the New Hope Family BLOG. Find the BK Challenge, post a comment with the answer along with your first name. Each week during Kid’s Club one person will be randomly selected to receive a BK Challenge prize. It’s this simple:

Go to ALL Things Kids!
(Click on the underlined words to go there!)

Find the BK Challenge for that week.
Find the correct answer to the question.
Post your answer with your first name
Come to Kid’s Club to see if you win the prize.

Little Kid's Club

Because we so often don't get to see inside Little Kid's Club on the blog, here are some fun glimpses from last week!!

Honor and Respect

It was our privilege to have Olivia's parents, Gary and Rachel, as our special guests this last week. As a group we talked about how Honor and Respect are closely related. They are often used interchangeably to describe each other. This week we decided to focus in on the positive side of respect. It isn't enough to just not do "bad things" but we must also do "good things". We must be seeking to look for the good and honorable things to do. When we honor and respect our parents we should think of ways to "esteem, show regard or to favor".

Each week we start off asking easy questions, questions that are simple to answer and then we move to more difficult questions. Olivia did a great job as I moved into some of the more difficult ones. We talked about things that we can do for her mom or dad when they are having a bad day. Some of the things that Olivia likes to do for them is to make cards for her parents to show that she loves and honors them. She likes to cook with her mom and may play games with her dad.

Kids, Make it a point to let your mom and dad know that you love them by doing something for them this week. It could be something like helping rake the leaves or do the laundry. It could also be something like making a card or just out of the blue giving them a hug and telling them you love them.

Parents, Last week we encouraged the kids to let you, the parent, love on them. This week we want to encourage you to let your kids love on you. When they come to talk to you, stop what you are doing and listen to them. They are coming to you because they honor, respect and love you. When they want to give you that hug, let them linger, enjoy it, anything else can wait.

Oops!!!

Yes, we had a minor mistake on our Life Groups sheet SO - we WILL have Kid's Clubs THIS Sunday, October 14 but we WON'T have Kid's Clubs NEXT Sunday, October 21 - instead we have a congregational meeting. If you were scheduled to bring snack or be a special guest on the 21st - we will move you to the 14th instead. Thanks so much!!

Special Guests - The Harald's

We had another great evening honoring Nicholas' mom and dad, Mark and Dorinda Harald. It was a joy to get to know the Harald's a little better as well as giving Nicholas a chance to show honor to his parents. Sunday night we reviewed some additional ways that we can honor our parents. Some of the ideas the kids had included respecting, obeying, and listening to them.

We asked Nicholas what he does when he gets hurt. His answer was "my mom puts a band aid on it". We also asked him if he allows his mom and dad to hug him. He said that they give him a hug before going to bed at night. Mom's and Dad's love to show affection to their children and they do it in many little ways all throughout the day. Basically, Mom's and Dad's love to love.

Kids - let your mom and dad love you. It gives them joy and it gives them honor. Parents - let's take some time this week to encourage our children to let us show our love. Explain to them that it is honorable to allow your mom and dad to love you. Mom's and Dad's lets give our kids a few more hugs throughout the day and maybe just maybe try giving them a kiss on the cheek.

As I was writing this it made me think of our Father in heaven. Do I honor Him by letting Him love me? Have I put our faith in the fact that God really loves me? Do I cherish that love? I can imagine few greater hurts than to have one of my children reject my love. Have you hurt the Father by rejecting His love? Spend some time with Him this week. Allow Him to love you. You will honor Him if you do.

Corn Maze is COMING!!!

THIS SATURDAY, October 6 at 6:00 - we are meeting at Pumpkinland to do the corn maze!!! Plan to come and join us - the whole family is welcome! (The maze will cost $4.00 per person and you can pay that at Pumpkinland.) Following our time in the maze - we will head to Pizza Ranch in Orange City for PIZZA!!!! (We are just asking for a freewill offering to help cover the cost of the pizza.) If you want to come and didn't sign up at the table - leave us a comment below and we'll make sure to add you to our count - oh, and in your comment, mention your favorite pizza choice too!!

See you there!!!

(If you click on the word "Pumpkinland" above - it will take you to their website for directions, etc.) AND - thanks to Jennifer Tullar for planning and coordinating this fun outing for us!!!

Special Guests!

Honor Your Father and Mother.

Each week in Kid's Club we want to reserve some special time to focus on honor. Specifically how to honor our mother and father? We discussed what it means to give Honor. Honoring our Mother and Father includes more than just obeying it also includes respect. We gave examples of dishonor such as direct disobedience, improper attitudes and arguing. This week we were privileged to have the parents of Chris and Zack join us.

Chris and Zack demonstrated honor by answering a few questions. We started off simple, asking just a few questions about a few of their parent’s favorite things:

Tim’s favorite soft drink is Coke.
His hobby is watching sports.
His favorite sports team is the University of Michigan
His favorite food…. Anything that isn’t moving. :)

Kari’s favorite food is chocolate.
Her favorite hobby is sewing.
Her favorite sports team is Michigan State and sometimes Penn State.
Her favorite sport is Hockey.

We then focused on Chris and Zack. We wanted to know what they enjoyed doing the most with their parents. Chris enjoyed any board games and Zack enjoyed Movies with his dad. We also asked them what they would miss the most if their parents had to leave for a year. Chris would miss his mom’s lasagna and Zack would miss his Dad’s “lame” jokes.

You might be asking, “How do these simple questions demonstrate honor?” The answer is time. The thing that Chris and Zack value the most is time with their parents. They didn’t even realize that they were showing honor to their parents in the answers they gave. But think of the honor they demonstrated by in affect saying that they most wanted time with their parents; time to listen to jokes, prepare great food, watch movies and play games.

So, thank you, Chris and Zack for showing us that one way we can honor our parents is by valuing the time they spend with us.

Note from Joe...

This year has had a great start. On our first Sunday we had the first ever New Hope water logged bon fire. We did indeed have smores that night thanks to Jason’s incredible fire abilities. Not only did we have a fire but the fire was started while the rain was starting to come down. You’ll have to ask him what his secret is… (I think it may have something to do with a little lighter fluid)…

I wanted to take a few minutes to tell you about an opportunity for you during our Sunday Night Kid’s club. Some of you may wonder “what do they do with my kids after I drop them off on Sunday night?” Well, we want to give you a chance to see. We would love to give each of you the opportunity to be our special guest host for an evening. This is your opportunity to spend an evening with us, to check us out.

Our goal is to come along side you as you seek to teach your children the ways of God. We are your helpers and we want to get your feedback. We want to know how we can better partner with you as you disciple your child.

We also want to take some time to discuss with the children what it means to “Honor your Mother and Father”. Each evening we will set aside a time to discuss honor, and to reflect on practical ways that children can show honor.

Here is what are we looking to do: On the night that you sign up to be our special guest we are looking for three things. 1. Come check us out. You can come and follow your child as they go from class to class or maybe you can help us out if you feel comfortable with that. 2. (Here’s the hard part… food). We are asking that you bring the treat for that night. Maybe you and your child can work together to bring their favorite treat to share. 3. Provide us an opportunity to honor you for the greatest job on the planet… being a parent.

So when you drop off your child take a look at the signup sheet. Find a night that works for you and feel free to put down your name. If you have any questions feel free to give me a call or catch me sometime.

Thanks,

Joe

New Blog

Guess What - Becky's blogging has spilled over into church!! We are going to start a Children and Family Ministries blog. Our main goal is to have a place for you to check online if you need to know what to bring, where we are meeting, what time, etc. BUT it will also be a great place for PICTURES and MORE!!! If you ever want to ask a question or leave a comment - we'd love it. Just click under a post to leave a comment or question and we will get back to you SOON with an answer.

So plan on stopping by often - we will keep it updated regularly and you will know what is happening with your children and their ministries!! (In case you aren't familiar with Blogs, they update every time we make a new post and the most current post will always be first - if you want to see older posts, just scroll down or look along the right hand side at the sidebar and there will be a square called "Labels" - that will separate each post by it's label - which might make older news easier to find too!!)