Read Online Not Alone: Trusting God to Help You Raise Godly Kids in a Spiritually Mismatched Home by Lynn Donovan, Dineen Miller - Free Book Online

Christ. More than anything, I go back to the truth of 1 Peter 3:1: win them over without words. Win your kids, your husband, your friends, your neighbor and a world that is lost and broken. Win them over with your boundless, crazy, passionate, fervent, zealous and adoring love for Jesus. When you love Jesus with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, over time it is irresistible to people. And that’s a promise.
    Jesus modeled humble leadership. Doing what He did is the key to leading your children when Dad doesn’t believe. A happy marriage, whether it’s comprised of a believing husband and wife or only a believing wife, begins with love and respect. When we make Jesus our center, then add to that a sense of humor, sprinkles of grace and heaps of forgiveness, we have a winning combination that will gently lead our children to faith.
    Teachable Moments
    Tiny hands clutched the plastic egg. My daughter turned her six-year-old face up at me, her eyes filled with anticipation. What would she find inside this Easter egg? She turned her attention back to the blue egg. Gently she separated the halves, only to discover that the egg was empty. Her surprised face looked up at me again, this time waiting for my explanation. “Caitie,” I said, “the last egg is empty. This egg represents the empty tomb. It’s empty because on Easter morning Jesus rose from the dead. Jesus is alive.”
    Every year since my daughter was small, I’ve pulled down the bin of Easter decorations from the closet, and together she and I have searched for the Resurrection Eggs.® 1 We open up the egg carton to 12 brightly colored plastic eggs that contain symbols of the Resurrection story. Opening the first egg reveals a simple donkey. And thus we share the story of Jesus entering Jerusalem on a donkey’s colt. Each successive egg contains another symbol of the Passion Week, which we animate as we talk, leading us to the last egg: the empty tomb. This is one of my daughter’s all-time favorite holiday traditions. Even as a teen she still loves to open the eggs and walk through the story of Easter.
    This simple carton of eggs provided a profound teachable moment.
    Teachable moments come in all shapes and sizes and can be age appropriate, impactful, funny and so often life-changing. These moments with our children can be created with intention, and some are spontaneous, catchable moments. As the believing parent in our home, I discovered a few creative ways to share biblical truths with my kids as well as to keep the peace with my unbelieving husband. These took the form of purposed moments in which I told the stories of Noah and the ark, Moses and the burning bush, the Good Samaritan, and the many fantastic stories about Jesus. It’s my prayer that my kids will carry these stories in their hearts forever.
    Teachable moments can be purposely created, but I’ve found that some of the most impactful and powerful opportunities to impart my faith to my kids often arrive quite by accident. They come about when we least expect them and usually arrive at the least convenient times. They occur in moments when I may be supervising several pots on the stove, rushing to get dinner on the table, and haven’t one minute to spare. Yet that is the exact minute my young daughter might walk into the kitchen and ask me an unexpected question such as, “Why doesn’t Dad believe?” Yikes. That’s a
big
question, but it’s in that precise moment that my daughter is open to discussion. I have only an instant to pour truth into her in a meaningful way, because attention spans fade quickly and kids zone out fast. What are we moms to do?
    In those scenarios, stop what you are doing. Get on your kids’ level and whisper a quick prayer under your breath, “Jesus, help me to say the right thing here.” Then speak honestly and gently into your children’s lives. “Dad isn’t quite ready yet. He’s still trying to figure out who Jesus is. But I believe he will figure