It was my turn to teach the kids this past Wednesday night at our church. We are doing a summer program on the heroes of the faith. This week’s lesson was on Daniel in the Lion’s Den.

When I first started thinking about this lesson, I was wondering how to make the lesson stand out to the kids as they all already knew the story. I also went to Pinterest to look for craft ideas.

On Pinterest, I found this bulletin board idea, that I converted to a craft. I used this craft as the springboard for the direction of the lesson; and after the lesson, we did the craft.

Since our craft talked about “not staining their reputation”, I started the story of Daniel 6 talking about Daniel’s reputation.

I had 3 papers of large print that I shared with the kids during the lesson. The first page talked about what the word “reputation” means: (Access all three papers HERE.)

REPUTATION

• Is what others think about you.
• Is what a person is known for.
• Is based on someone’s behavior.
• Could be bad or good.

I then asked them the following questions that was on the 2nd paper:

• What was Daniel’s reputation?
• What was he known for?
• Was it good or bad?

Since no fault could be found in Daniel, the presidents and princes that Daniel was over had the king pass a law that they knew Daniel would disobey. Daniel’s reputation was that he always obeyed his God. We see this in verses 4 and 5:

Then the presidents and princes sought to find occasion against Daniel concerning the kingdom; but they could find none occasion nor fault; forasmuch as he was faithful, neither was there any error or fault found in him. Then said these men, We shall not find any occasion against this Daniel, except we find it against him concerning the law of his God.

We also see the Daniel’s reputation in verse 16.

Then the king commanded, and they brought Daniel, and cast him into the den of lions. Now the king spake and said unto Daniel, Thy God whom thou servest continually, he will deliver thee.

So we see that even the presidents and princes that did not like Daniel considered him to be faithful, without fault, and obedient to the law of God. The king knew that Daniel served God continually. What a great reputation!

I ended the lesson asking the following questions that I had on the 3rd piece of paper:

• What is your reputation?
• How can you have a reputation like Daniel?

We discussed how that Daniel was without fault because he relied on God to help him do right daily. He prayed at least three times a day for God’s help and He knew God’s laws. If we want to have a good reputation, a reputation that we serve God, we have to first of all know God as our Savior. Then we must daily rely on God for His strength through prayer and getting into God’s Word.

After the lesson, we went to do our craft. I gave them this sheet of paper that was printed on cardstock: (You can print it out HERE.)

I had them color below the green line green, and  color the area above the green line blue. They could color the sun yellow.

Then they cut out the three articles of clothing on this sheet of paper. (You can print it out HERE.)

They made markings on two of the paper clothing items, and left one completely unmarked. After cutting the three pieces of clothing out, they glued them on the clothesline so that the perfect robe was in the middle. Here is a picture of one completed craft from last night:

I also made this coloring sheet to go along with the verse for them to memorize with this lesson: (You can print it off HERE.)

Thanks for coming and reading these Thoughtful posts! I will highlight some posts from the last few parties next Thursday!

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It’s been a super busy and tiring week — but a wonderful week as we are having VBS at our church this week.

As it is now past midnight, I will share a printable I made for MomStrong book study that we did last week. We had to skip this week due to VBS.

Last week, we finished chapters 8 and 9 of Becoming MomStrong. I really liked chapter 8, so I made this printable for the ladies. You can click HERE to print it off.

This chapter talks about how we must be strong enough to live out the truth, which means we must not be afraid to let others see our weaknesses. We have to live our lives in the light of God’s Word.

Yes, we are weak many times as moms, and only when we realize our weakness do we become strong through Him.

And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. 2 Corinthiahs 12:9a

Heidi St. John also talks about how God must prune us before He can use us. Many times that means that He takes us through times of suffering so that we can be transformed when we allow God’s truth to shine onto our suffering. On the printable, I included many verses from John 15 as that chapter talks about how we must abide in Him if we are to bring forth fruit and to have fullness of joy.

The wonderful truth is that even in the bad times, even in the difficulties, even in the suffering, we can be assured of the fact that God is good! We can trust Him!

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28

So during those difficulties and struggles, remember to keep your eyes on Him! He promises that His mercies are new every morning. He has proved that He is faithful. He tells us to abide in Him and we will experience fullness of joy. We just have to not get distracted by the cares of this world. Keep looking up instead of around!

Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:2

The thoughtful topics for your posts could be related to but not limited to the following topics:

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In  many of my Thoughtful Thursday posts, I’ve shared how I’ve been doing a mom’s book study in our church this summer. I am loving meeting with these ladies weekly and the encouragement we can get from each other.

This summer, we have been reading the book, Becoming MomStrong:  How to Fight with All That’s in You for Your Family & Your Faith by Heidi St. John.

I feel like every other chapter is one that I love. The other chapters are good, but probably resonate better with someone who has different life experiences than I have had.

In a previous post, I made a printable that I gave the ladies from chapters 1-3.

I did not make a printable for chapters 4-5, but I did love this quote from chapter 5:

Your great accomplishment may not be something you do but someone you raise. — Heidi St. John

I loved chapter 6 as it was on trusting God during the hard times and the trials we face.

All of us face hard times. Trials will come. How we respond to those trials will teach our kids whether or not we truly trust God. In all of the chapters, Heidi St. John brings us back to the fact that we need to have a strong relationship with God if we are going to raise strong kids. So in the hard times, we need to run to God and to the promises in His Word. Here are some of the references Heidi shared in the book that can help us during the tough times. I typed out the verses and shared them in another printable for my ladies so that they have a little “cheat sheet.” During those hard times, they now can run to the sheet and claim those promises and pray those verses to their God. You can print out the sheet at the bottom of the post.

Here are some verses you can claim during trials:

Go to God during your trials:

• I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust. Ps. 91:2
• The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid. Ps. 27:1
• Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the Lord our God. Ps. 20:7
•  The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; and with my song will I praise him. Ps. 28:7

Claim these promises when you are struggling:

• Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:37-39
• Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore. Psalm 16:11
• Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Matthew 11:28
• He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. Isaiah 40:29
• But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. I Cor. 15:57
• Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. Jn 14:27
• This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. Lamentations 3:21-23

I also loved this quote from chapter 6:

God is big enough, wise enough, and good enough to be trusted. Heidi St. John

You can go HERE to print out the worksheet.

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It’s been an incredible busy week! We arrived home from our trip to Illinois, Michigan, and Canada (Niagara Falls) in the middle of the night Friday night. Saturday was spent unpacking, doing laundry, and getting ready for church on Sunday. I had my first Mom’s book study meeting on Tuesday morning, and I had to teach the children’s group on Wednesday. Plus there was the restocking of food supplies, dog-sitting responsibilities, getting my 8th grade daughter started on a FLVS (Florida Virtual School) Spanish I class, and trying to get my high school daughter finished with a few of her classes from last year.

For our Wednesday night children’s program, we are using a curriculum that talks about some super heroes of the faith. This week, the lesson was on Joseph.

The curriculum is very simplistic, and the lesson was only centered on one part of Joseph’s life; but the overall theme was that having faith in God means staying positive even when bad things happen to you. One idea the lesson gave was to start off with an object lesson of a half-full glass of water and ask the children if they saw a half-full glass or a half-empty glass. The half-full glass is the positive way to look at the glass.

I had the kids help share with me all the bad things they remembered that happened in Joseph’s life. I had prepared sentence strips to go in my pocket chart of 5 bad things that happened in Joseph’s life. As the children told me the different circumstances they remembered, I added them to the chart. Then, I went back and shared how we know from Scripture that Joseph stayed positive in all of those circumstances. I added the sentences that showed how Joseph stayed positive or trusted in God next to the bad circumstances. The bad circumstances I had printed on blue cardstock, and Joseph’s responses I had printed on green cardstock so the kids could easily see how Joseph responded positively to what we would consider awful things that happened to him.

Here are the five life bad life circumstances of Joseph that we talked about in class:

1. Joseph’s  mother probably died when we was a young boy. This can be debated, but the Bible says that Joseph’s mother died in childbirth when Benjamin was born. Many scholars believe that Joseph was around 4-7 years of age. Now Joseph is left without a mother and 10 brothers who do not like him. Of course the children did not think about this circumstance as this wasn’t talked about much in the Bible.
2. His half-brothers hated him because he was Jacob’s favorite son.
3. He was sold into slavery. (This was mentioned by the children — or that he was thrown into a pit.)
4. He was lied about by Potiphar’s wife and put into jail. (The children also mentioned his being put in jail.)
5. He was forgotten about by the cupbearer and had to remain two more years in jail after interpreting the cupbearer’s dream.

Next I showed some ways that we can see that Joseph was positive or showed that He trusted in God:

1. #1-2 go together. Even though he was motherless and even though he was hated by  his brothers, he stayed obedient to his father and was spiritually in a place where God could give him special dreams to show Joseph how God was going to use him one day. He didn’t get bitter, complain, and put himself in a position where God would not be able to use him. I read Genesis 37:13-17 where it showed his obedience to his father.
   Next to #1, I put the strip: “He was obedient.“
2. Next to #2, I put the strip: “He listened to the Lord.“
3. After he was sold into slavery, we know he stayed positive and trusted in God because we see the passage Genesis 39:2-5 where Potiphar’s house was blessed because of Joseph. Potiphar knew that God was with Joseph. Next to #3, I put the strip, “He trusted in God.“
4. Joseph trusted in God and did what was right even when he knew he could be killed. The punishment for being with the captain of the army’s wife was death! We did not go into detail here, but we did talk about how he knew that by not doing what Potiphar’s wife wanted him to do, he knew that he would be punished; yet he chose to obey God. I read the end of Genesis 39:9 and Genesis 39:21 and 23. Next to #4’s sentence strip, I placed the strip, “He did what was right.“
5. When the Pharaoh was finally told about Joseph, Joseph did not take the glory for being able to interpret the dreams. He immediately gave glory to the true super-hero, his God. I read Genesis 41:16 where Joseph gives God all the credit and then verse 38 which shows how Pharaoh realized that the Spirit of God was in Joseph. Next to #5, I placed the strip of words, “He gave glory to God.”

Under all of the strips, I put the final strip, “He stayed positive.” Then I quickly shared three sentences where Joseph actually speaks that show his positivism and trust in God:

1. He names his first son Manasseh which means, “God has made my forget my toil (work or hardship).” Here he is acknowledging that life had been hard, but that God was good to him and he could trust God to do what was right.
2. He names his second son Ephraim which means, “God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction.” Again, we see his positive outlook on life. Even though he had been afflicted in Egypt, God made him to be fruitful or blessed.
3. When Joseph’s brothers were afraid that Joseph would harm them after their father died, Joseph tells them,

But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.

Here, he acknowledges that sinful people do harmful and evil things, yet God is in control and can be trusted to do what is right. He saw God’s positive plan in his life because he trusted God’s sovereignty in his life completely.

I closed the lesson by discussing that life is not always easy. There will be hard times. People may die when we are not ready for them to die. Car accidents happen; people get sick. Sometimes parents fight and maybe even get divorced. This world is a sinful place, and bad things do happen. However, God has a plan for our life and we need to trust Him and know that He loves us.

We finished the lesson with Romans 8:28. Then we went and did the coffee mug craft that you have probably seen on Pinterest. I bought 15 mugs at thrift stores, washed them in the dishwasher, bought some Sharpie oil based  markers, and had the children decorate their own mug. Every time they drink out of it, they were to remember that their cup was half-full and to be positive, to trust God even in the bad circumstances of life.

(If you want to do the craft, have the children decorate their mugs using the oil-based Sharpie markers and then bake in the oven at 250 degrees for 2 hours. I left them in the oven overnight after turning the oven off.)

If you would like to print out the sentence strips I used, you can access them HERE.

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Last week, I shared some printables HERE that we have been using this week to keep our focus on thankfulness.

This week, I made 5 more printable leaves you can use. Our kids are enjoying cutting them out, coloring them and hanging them on our walls. It is fast and easy to do!

This week’s verses I went back and looked at my old Thanksgiving posts and Thanksgiving printables. From those posts, I found these 5 verses to use on the leaves I am sharing this week. I hope you enjoy using them!

You can print these printables out HERE.

Today, you can also see my annual DIY Christmas gift round-up post. I have done it for 4 years now, and have compiled over 100 Christmas gifts that can be made for kids! There are also 25 other Christmas gift guides for kids linked up to that post.

I also shared on Wednesday about Money Saving  Mom’s 15 Days to a Healthier You course that was just revamped and relaunched. For today only, you can get it for $10!

Tomorrow, there will be a big Christmas cash giveaway going up, so come back and enter it! It’s a busy time of the year, but we have much for which we can be thankful.

Here are the rules for this linky:

The thoughtful topics for your posts could be related to but not limited to the following topics:

* homemaking * homeschooling * devotional or Biblical posts * Christian in nature * family/marriage * inspirational *

1. Do NOT link up recipes, reviews, giveaways, diy, or crafts.
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I love November because of the emphasis on being thankful.

For most of Americans, our children grow up in a privileged society taking what they have for granted. My children do; in fact, I often take my life for granted and find it easy to complain. Yet God wants us to be content with what we have and to rejoice even in tribulation. Every year, I like to take the month of November to focus on being thankful.

Even though I had done my own Thanksgiving printables a few years ago, I scoured the internet looking for easy Thanksgiving devotionals for our kids to use this month.

Here are a few resources I found:

• I found these easy devotions that I am retyping in a different format and using for my children.
• WriteShop has a really cute gratitude journal that I was able to download after subscribing to their emails. A pop-up should appear on the right hand of the screen.
• faithgateway has these printable verse cards that include a verse and a prompt for discussion.

Even though I have devotions the kids are doing for Thanksgiving, I wanted something they could continue to see after they did it. So I made these little leaves; and for six days, we will do one leaf a day and put them on the walls around our desks. Next week, I will try to make 6 different leaves.

You can download these leaves and use them for your own house or school by clicking on the picture below!

Some of my favorite posts from last week’s party:

• Acceptable in Your Sight by Happy Gentle Homestead
• The Bible is NOT a Buffet by Sarah E Koontz
• When God Provides in the Good and the Bad by Sun, Sparkle, Shine

Here are the rules for this linky:

The thoughtful topics for your posts could be related to but not limited to the following topics:

* homemaking * homeschooling * devotional or Biblical posts * Christian in nature * family/marriage * inspirational *

1. Do NOT link up recipes, reviews, giveaways, diy, or crafts.
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