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Published 9/17/19 101 Five-Minute Meal Time Devotions: Fun and Creative Ways to Teach your Kids Spiritual Values By Greg Johnson What If... You’re watching TV early one Sunday morning. There’s not much on besides religious programming, and you watch it as you get ready for church. The first show you turn to has all of these young, happy, good-looking singers. The minister who comes on between songs talks a lot about God doing something miraculous in your life today.

Published 9/16/19 101 Five-Minute Meal Time Devotions: Fun and Creative Ways to Teach your Kids Spiritual Values By Greg Johnson What If... “Do I have the dumbest sister in the history of sisters or what?” says the obnoxious eleven-year-old. Both parents look at each other and the mom says, “Now, now. You shouldn’t say things like that.” “Mom, get a life. You know she’s an airhead as well as I do. Are you sure she wasn’t left on the doorstep? She can’t be related to

Published 9/15/19 101 Five-Minute Meal Time Devotions: Fun and Creative Ways to Teach your Kids Spiritual Values By Greg Johnson What If... You’re having a great time with your friends on the playground on a warm summer evening. You were bored, so you called them up and told them to meet you there. So far, you’ve played basketball, wall ball, and you just finished finding out who can jump the farthest in the long jump pit. Everyone has worked up a sweat, so you head

Published 9/15/19 101 Five-Minute Meal Time Devotions: Fun and Creative Ways to Teach your Kids Spiritual Values By Greg Johnson What If... You’re a basketball player for your school’s sixth-grade team. The team is pretty good and you get to play a lot. The reason: you’re a good passer, and the coach likes having guards who can get the ball to the big guys. You don’t shoot a lot—unless you’re wide open. Quite a few fans show up to your games. This game has been a tou

Published 9/14/19 101 Five-Minute Meal Time Devotions: Fun and Creative Ways to Teach your Kids Spiritual Values By Greg Johnson What If... Our church has just finished its Sunday evening service. Along with singing and a message, it included a short business meeting. Though I was bored out of my skull, we sat through it. I noticed, Dad, that you and Mom were looking at each other and whispering in each other’s ears. The meeting lasted only about fifteen minutes, but

Published 9/13/19 101 Five-Minute Meal Time Devotions: Fun and Creative Ways to Teach your Kids Spiritual Values By Greg Johnson What If... In order to get you to do things, we have to motivate you properly. And what motivates you the most (much of the time) is money. To get you to read during the summer we pay you a dollar or two a book (depending on how thick it is). During the school year, whenever you get an A in a class, we give you three dollars! And then, of c

Published 9/12/19 101 Five-Minute Meal Time Devotions: Fun and Creative Ways to Teach your Kids Spiritual Values By Greg Johnson What If... Mom gets a part-time job for a couple of weeks, but it means that you can’t come directly home after school. Instead, Mom makes arrangements with Jill’s mom to have you go over to her house every day until about 5:15. Then you can ride your bike home. Jill is a good friend from school, though not your best friend. Her family doe

Published 9/11/19 101 Five-Minute Meal Time Devotions: Fun and Creative Ways to Teach your Kids Spiritual Values By Greg Johnson What If... It’s Sunday afternoon and you just arrived home from church. The weather doesn’t look too promising and there’s not much on the tube. Dad comes to the rescue for a while by getting out the Scrabble game and keeping it lively. That kills an hour and a half. But even you know you can’t let him entertain you all day. Time for Plan B

Published 9/10/19 101 Five-Minute Meal Time Devotions: Fun and Creative Ways to Teach your Kids Spiritual Values By Greg Johnson What If... There are always a few guys at school who like the girls. They talk about them, write notes to them, call them on the phone, and hang out at the mall hoping to see them. Up until this year of school, you haven’t paid much attention to it. You had more important things to think about. It’s not that you didn’t notice the girls; you

Published 9/9/19 101 Five-Minute Meal Time Devotions: Fun and Creative Ways to Teach your Kids Spiritual Values By Greg Johnson What If... Dad, you’re a busy man. You’ve been working long hours lately, not to mention coaching your daughter’s soccer team, attempting to catch up on the yard work, leading a small group once a week with other adults from the church, and being a good husband and father. It’s not easy being a dad. As usual, you and Mom make sure we’re off t

Published 9/8/19 101 Five-Minute Meal Time Devotions: Fun and Creative Ways to Teach your Kids Spiritual Values By Greg Johnson What If... It’s the Saturday before Mother’s Day. Dad comes into your room and asks if you’ve bought or made anything for Mom. After giving him a blank stare, you say, “For what?” “For Mother’s Day tomorrow. Don’t you remember?” “Oh, yes, Mother’s Day,” you reply. “Not yet . . . but . . . I’m going to the mall later with some friends. I’ll pi

Published 9/7/19 101 Five-Minute Meal Time Devotions: Fun and Creative Ways to Teach your Kids Spiritual Values By Greg Johnson What If... Our family attends church regularly. In fact, we’re the church and Sunday school variety family. While Mom and Dad hit the adult Sunday school class, you go to yours. You’ve been doing this for years and it really hasn’t been all that bad. But this year... well, let’s just say the teacher hasn’t been able to put much time into maki

Published 9/6/19 101 Five-Minute Meal Time Devotions: Fun and Creative Ways to Teach your Kids Spiritual Values By Greg Johnson What If... You have three friends with whom you spend all of your time at school—and after. The whole school year you’ve been inseparable. Whenever you’re on the playground at recess, all four of you are doing something: soccer, football, swinging from the monkey bars, making up imaginary games, all sorts of stuff. As you’re heading home from s

Published 9/5/19 101 Five-Minute Meal Time Devotions: Fun and Creative Ways to Teach your Kids Spiritual Values By Greg Johnson What If... You and your sister both like music... a lot! You each have your own I-Pod that you constantly have plugged into your ears. The problem, from your point of view, is she has a better I-Pod than you. Hers has stores way more songs. She got it for Christmas last year. It was a big present, true, but she didn’t get much else. You, on th

Published 9/4/19 101 Five-Minute Meal Time Devotions: Fun and Creative Ways to Teach your Kids Spiritual Values By Greg Johnson What If... You are twelve again and living with your parents. You have just entered junior high and you enjoy getting older and becoming more independent. The only problem is you need your parents’ permission to do a lot of things. For the following situations, answer these two questions: 1. What would your parents say about this? Why? 2. Ho

Published 9/3/19 101 Five-Minute Meal Time Devotions: Fun and Creative Ways to Teach your Kids Spiritual Values By Greg Johnson What If... Summer is great! No school, no homework, no getting up or going to bed early. The problem is some of the time you drive Mom crazy. She’s trying to get stuff done, but you’re bouncing off the walls. One day, a girlfriend calls and says that she and some friends are going to the mall theaters to see a movie and want to know if you can com

Published 9/2/19 101 Five-Minute Meal Time Devotions: Fun and Creative Ways to Teach your Kids Spiritual Values By Greg Johnson What If... You really love playing the trumpet. In fact, since you picked it up in fourth grade, you have improved a lot. Though your parents sometimes have to remind you to practice, for the most part you don’t mind taking thirty minutes or more a day to do your scales and practice assigned pieces. You carry your trumpet to school proudly, knowing

Published 9/1/19 101 Five-Minute Meal Time Devotions: Fun and Creative Ways to Teach your Kids Spiritual Values By Greg Johnson What If... Our family has just arrived at the local mall. You can’t wait to look around one of your favorite stores. There’s a sweatshirt you’ve been wanting, and you’ve saved up your allowance to get it. As you enter the store, you notice four teenagers taking clothes into the side room to try on. After finding a couple of sweatshirts that might fi

Published 8/31/19 101 Five-Minute Meal Time Devotions: Fun and Creative Ways to Teach your Kids Spiritual Values By Greg Johnson What If... It’s Friday after school and you’ve spent a long week trying to keep up with your homework. You don’t have any over the weekend and all you want to do is relax. After you throw your backpack into your closet, Mom reminds you that you’ve put off practicing your saxophone all week. “I know I promised to do it after school today,” you tell

Published 8/30/19 101 Five-Minute Meal Time Devotions: Fun and Creative Ways to Teach your Kids Spiritual Values By Greg Johnson What If... It’s a Sunday afternoon and the family car has pulled into the driveway at home. You took the family out for brunch after church and it’s almost 2:00. After changing clothes, everyone quickly heads in different directions. Dad, you trudge off to the garage to work on the car. The brakes have been squeaking a lot lately, so you’re pulling

Published 8/29/19 101 Five-Minute Meal Time Devotions: Fun and Creative Ways to Teach your Kids Spiritual Values By Greg Johnson What If... It’s the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. You’re walking home from school thinking, Four days of freedom! Four days to eat turkey, watch TV, do stuff with friends, sleep in, stay up a little later. Yes! When you get home, you toss your backpack into your room and head into the kitchen for a snack. Mom is already getting food together for T

Published 8/28/19 101 Five-Minute Meal Time Devotions: Fun and Creative Ways to Teach your Kids Spiritual Values By Greg Johnson What If... It’s Thursday. One more school day until the weekend! All of a sudden, your teacher announces you’ll be having a pop quiz that you haven’t studied for. A quiz! you think. Since you haven’t even looked at your books, there’s no way you’ll do well. The girl next to you pulls out some paper and says, “I’ve got this one aced. I’ve been stud

Published 8/27/19 101 Five-Minute Meal Time Devotions: Fun and Creative Ways to Teach your Kids Spiritual Values By Greg Johnson What If... Your Sunday school class is planning a Saturday hike up in the mountains. Though you don’t know the kids in your class very well, you are actually looking forward to it. Neither Mom nor Dad can go, so it is sort of a day to be on your own. When you arrive at the church to head up into the hills, you look for someone to hang out with. You

Published 8/26/19 101 Five-Minute Meal Time Devotions: Fun and Creative Ways to Teach your Kids Spiritual Values By Greg Johnson What If... This is what happened at our house: It was the same routine every day. The Flemming mom and dad got up at 6:30 A.M. At 7:30, they awoke their two children. ‘Good morning,” they said. “It’s time to get ready for school.” Matt and Mary got up, changed into their school clothes, ate breakfast and left for school. Dad and Mom went off to wor