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Published 11/5/19 101 Five-Minute Meal Time Devotions: Fun and Creative Ways to Teach your Kids Spiritual Values By Greg Johnson What If... The topic of faith in Jesus Christ doesn’t come up too much with you and your friends. Occasionally, belief in God will be mentioned—and a few of your friends do go to church. The ones who don’t go know that you’re a regular attender. One thing’s for sure: most of them don’t really understands what it means to be a Christian. At soccer

Published 11/4/19 101 Five-Minute Meal Time Devotions: Fun and Creative Ways to Teach your Kids Spiritual Values By Greg Johnson What If... You’re home alone on a Saturday afternoon. We have taken your brother to a birthday party and then are going to do a little shopping. We said we wouldn’t be gone long. Since you rarely get the chance to be alone in the middle of the day, you feel like you should take advantage of the freedom. So you go into the kitchen to get a soda and

Published 11/3/19 101 Five-Minute Meal Time Devotions: Fun and Creative Ways to Teach your Kids Spiritual Values By Greg Johnson What If... You are with your friends and this conversation takes place: “Hey, where’d you get that bike, the Salvation Army kiddie store?” one friend asks you. “As a matter of fact, no. My parents got it for me at Olympic Bikes,” you say. “But Jones over there told me you were hoping to get some Barney underwear for Christmas. I’ll be sure to tell

Published 11/2/19 101 Five-Minute Meal Time Devotions: Fun and Creative Ways to Teach your Kids Spiritual Values By Greg Johnson What If... You wake up one morning not feeling good at all. You’re feverish, but even with all of the covers on, you still feel chilled. When we come into your room to get you up for school, we see you don’t look so hot. You’re not faking anything to stay home... you’re sick with the flu! Staying home from school is normally pretty fun, but when y

Published 11/1/19 101 Five-Minute Meal Time Devotions: Fun and Creative Ways to Teach your Kids Spiritual Values By Greg Johnson What If... Mom, you receive a phone call from your dad right at the end of the dinner hour. Dad and we kids notice that you’re quiet for the first few minutes. Then you start asking questions in a low, broken voice. We can’t hear them all, and we know you’re trying not to cry. When you hang up the phone you tell the family that Grandpa says Grandm

Published 10/31/19 101 Five-Minute Meal Time Devotions: Fun and Creative Ways to Teach your Kids Spiritual Values By Greg Johnson What If... It’s lunch recess again, so it’s time for everyone to line up to be selected for the softball game. The routine is always the same: everyone lines up while the two captains pick their teams. Since you’re a pretty good athlete, you’re always one of the first few to get picked. No one ever seems to complain, but you’ve wondered how Cheri

Published 10/30/19 101 Five-Minute Meal Time Devotions: Fun and Creative Ways to Teach your Kids Spiritual Values By Greg Johnson What If... You like this family a lot. You like our home, our neighborhood, our church, even your school. The one thing you’re not that crazy about, though, is chores. Those little jobs that always seem to get in the way of your fun... at the exact moment that it’s the funnest! Every week it’s the same thing: clean your room, take out the upstair

Published 10/29/19 101 Five-Minute Meal Time Devotions: Fun and Creative Ways to Teach your Kids Spiritual Values By Greg Johnson What If... You’re not known for being smart. Oh, your report cards aren’t ever bad and you participate in class discussions a lot, but you’re not known as The Brain. The best you’ve ever done is two A’s and the rest B’s. However, this year you decide to try your absolute hardest to see how high you can get your grades. All of the studying cuts i

Published 10/28/19 101 Five-Minute Meal Time Devotions: Fun and Creative Ways to Teach your Kids Spiritual Values By Greg Johnson What If... Since you were in kindergarten, soccer has been your sport. You haven’t missed a season, spring or fall. Playing competitively, you know soccer as well as anyone your age. You know the positions, the penalties, how to hit the far post goal; you know the game. You also know how to play in a controlled, aggressive way. That is, most of

Published 10/27/19 101 Five-Minute Meal Time Devotions: Fun and Creative Ways to Teach your Kids Spiritual Values By Greg Johnson What If... Your son has been playing basketball out in the driveway for years. You go out and rebound for him when you have time. Once in a while, you give him a few pointers on how to dribble and shoot a lay-up. As he’s grown, you’ve gone to his games all through his grade school years—almost every one! As he improves his play, you are always th

Published 10/25/19 101 Five-Minute Meal Time Devotions: Fun and Creative Ways to Teach your Kids Spiritual Values By Greg Johnson What If... It’s discussion time again in science class. You are studying old civilizations and archaeology, how cultures developed from having no written language to having an advanced written language. “Millions of years ago, well after human beings evolved from the sea,” your teacher says, “they still communicated by a primitive form of languag

Published 10/24/19 101 Five-Minute Meal Time Devotions: Fun and Creative Ways to Teach your Kids Spiritual Values By Greg Johnson What If... It’s Saturday afternoon and you’re on your way to the store with a few friends from the neighborhood. You know them pretty well because you’ve been playing with them for years. They don’t go to church, but for the most part, they’re good friends. When you hit the store you go straight to the ice cream section. You’ve got a $1.80 in you

Published 10/23/19 101 Five-Minute Meal Time Devotions: Fun and Creative Ways to Teach your Kids Spiritual Values By Greg Johnson What If... Dad is in the military. That means our family has to move around a lot. About every three years Dad gets a new assignment and we have to sell our home and find another—usually in another state. That also means you have to make all new friends at a new school. Just as you finish fifth grade, you find out you have to move. The new schoo

Published 10/22/19 101 Five-Minute Meal Time Devotions: Fun and Creative Ways to Teach your Kids Spiritual Values By Greg Johnson What If... Saturdays usually provide you with a few good choices of things to do: relax, do chores, spend time with the family. Most of the time you end up doing all three. This week, you’re faced with two different choices. On Wednesday you get a call from the head of the deacon board. He says that since it’s the holidays, there is an unusual nu

Published 10/21/19 101 Five-Minute Meal Time Devotions: Fun and Creative Ways to Teach your Kids Spiritual Values By Greg Johnson What If... One of the girls from your neighborhood started coming to church with you a couple of months ago. At first, she just came to the fun events: parties, hikes and so on. After she got to know a few of the other kids, she wasn’t so shy. Even though her parents didn’t go to church, she eventually started coming to Sunday school and church s

Published 10/20/19 101 Five-Minute Meal Time Devotions: Fun and Creative Ways to Teach your Kids Spiritual Values By Greg Johnson What If... You have asked us for a pet for years. You can’t understand why we won’t get you a dog or something. As you get older, you keep asking us. Finally, we look at each other and say to you, “If we get you a pet, it’s your pet. That means you must feed it, bathe it and take it out. Whatever it takes to take care of the animal, you have to

Published 10/19/19 101 Five-Minute Meal Time Devotions: Fun and Creative Ways to Teach your Kids Spiritual Values By Greg Johnson What If... You’re one of eight players on your YMCA basketball team. This is only your second year of playing competitively, but you’ve picked it up fairly well. You can dribble with your right hand without looking, and can almost dribble left-handed. You’re good a lay-ups and free throws, but not too hot on the shot from the side. As one of the

Published 10/18/19 101 Five-Minute Meal Time Devotions: Fun and Creative Ways to Teach your Kids Spiritual Values By Greg Johnson What If... It’s getting close to Christmas and you’ve been giving us hints about what you want—a bike! Not just any bike, of course. A red twelve-speed. Since you’re getting older, you think you’re ready for something bigger, something you can ride to visit a friend who lives a long way away. While at Sears last week, you even showed us the exact

Published 10/17/19 101 Five-Minute Meal Time Devotions: Fun and Creative Ways to Teach your Kids Spiritual Values By Greg Johnson What If... You are always looking for ways to get to know our neighbors better. Why? Though you don’t see them as targets, you realize how important it is to live your faith in front of them—and perhaps even tell them about it if they ask. One Saturday night you invite the Hayden’s over for dinner. They’re an older couple and all of their childre

Published 10/16/19 101 Five-Minute Meal Time Devotions: Fun and Creative Ways to Teach your Kids Spiritual Values By Greg Johnson What If... It’s Wednesday, the night you go to Kids Club at your church. You play games, memorize verses and work your way through a Kids Club handbook that has a lot of Bible stuff in it. The leaders work pretty hard at making it fun for all the kids—and most of the time, it is fun. But there is this one kid named Steve who drives you crazy. He

Published 10/15/19 101 Five-Minute Meal Time Devotions: Fun and Creative Ways to Teach your Kids Spiritual Values By Greg Johnson What If... Collecting sports cards is your favorite hobby. You love getting them, opening up the packages and seeing what treasures await within. Mostly you collect baseball and basketball cards, but lately you have been buying football and hockey cards, too. Your collection is incredible. You have boxes of cards you never look at anymore because t

Published 10/12/19 101 Five-Minute Meal Time Devotions: Fun and Creative Ways to Teach your Kids Spiritual Values By Greg Johnson What If... Driving isn’t one of your favorite activities. When the traffic gets heavy or if the weather’s bad, you tense up. On one particular day you’re taking us kids to a movie at one of the mall theaters. As you’re going down the freeway in the left-hand lane, you see that you need to take the next off-ramp. You take a quick look

Published 10/13/19 101 Five-Minute Meal Time Devotions: Fun and Creative Ways to Teach your Kids Spiritual Values By Greg Johnson What If... Ah, lunch time. Your favorite half hour. As usual, the cafeteria is a madhouse. The kids who bring their lunch head for the milk line; the hot-lunchers get to stand and wait a little longer. On this particular day, your class has arrived a little early. A younger grade is still ahead of you in line. As everyone crowds, some

Published 10/11/19 101 Five-Minute Meal Time Devotions: Fun and Creative Ways to Teach your Kids Spiritual Values By Greg Johnson What If... It’s your birthday... your favorite time of the year. Not only does it mean you are one year older, but you will also score a lot of great presents from Mom and Dad and friends who come to your party. The best part about this day, however, will be when Mom gives you all of the birthday cards that come in from relatives. Why?