Published 11/29/19 101 Five-Minute Meal Time Devotions: Fun and Creative Ways to Teach your Kids Spiritual Values By Greg Johnson What If... There are a lot of things that make you happy. Some of these last for a short while, others for a longer period of time. In all honesty, say which things would make you the most happy: • Getting a new bike or taking a trip to the beach with the family for a whole week. • Becoming best friends with the most popular person i

Published 11/28/19 101 Five-Minute Meal Time Devotions: Fun and Creative Ways to Teach your Kids Spiritual Values By Greg Johnson What If... “Your dad and I are going shopping for a few hours,” Mom tells you. “You and your big sister have a good afternoon. Oh, and don’t forget to do your chores.” A few hours with just my sis and me on a beautiful Saturday afternoon, you think. Hmmm, what can we do? I’m going into the family room to watch TV,” your sister announces

Published 11/27/19 101 Five-Minute Meal Time Devotions: Fun and Creative Ways to Teach your Kids Spiritual Values By Greg Johnson What If... One thing you’ve noticed is all girls are different. Not just in looks, but also in what they think. Some of your girlfriends are still having a good time playing with their Barbies, while others are talking about the guys they want to “go with.” A few are “going with” guys and brag about the guys they’ve kissed! Like Brenda.

Published 11/26/19 101 Five-Minute Meal Time Devotions: Fun and Creative Ways to Teach your Kids Spiritual Values By Greg Johnson What If... As a father you’ve always been motivated to provide for your family. You work hard and have given us a good measure of security. No, not everything can be planned for–life on earth doesn’t hold many guarantees–but you do your best. That’s why when you notice a newspaper ad talking about an insurance plan that is also a college

Published 11/25/19 101 Five-Minute Meal Time Devotions: Fun and Creative Ways to Teach your Kids Spiritual Values By Greg Johnson What If... It’s Saturday night and Mom and Dad are out on a date. That’s right, we’ve hired a sitter and left you and your little sister home. We don’t do this very often, but when we do, we always seem to look forward to it. The sitter says she wants to take your little sister across the street to the playground for a while and asks if yo

Published 11/24/19 101 Five-Minute Meal Time Devotions: Fun and Creative Ways to Teach your Kids Spiritual Values By Greg Johnson What If... You’ve lived next door to Amy ever since you can remember. You went through kindergarten and most of grade school together. But in fourth grade, Amy’s parents got a divorce. Her dad moved out one day and now Amy only sees him about once a month. Amy’s mom tried hard to keep family life normal, including going back to work to ke

Published 11/23/19 101 Five-Minute Meal Time Devotions: Fun and Creative Ways to Teach your Kids Spiritual Values By Greg Johnson What If... It’s Monday morning and you’re heading to your classroom—as usual. As you get closer, you see a couple of your friends, so you run to find out what they did over the weekend. Walking into class, you notice that things aren’t quite right. The sentence on the blackboard that you usually have to correct isn’t there. There’s also no

Published 11/22/19 101 Five-Minute Meal Time Devotions: Fun and Creative Ways to Teach your Kids Spiritual Values By Greg Johnson What If... Our family is a week or so away from going on a campout together and you are really looking forward to it. Dad borrows a propane stove, some cots and other gear, but he does something really cool: he buys this huge six-person tent! When he brings it home and takes it out of the box, he suggests we all try to put it up in the si

Published 11/21/19 101 Five-Minute Meal Time Devotions: Fun and Creative Ways to Teach your Kids Spiritual Values By Greg Johnson What If... One of us kids is a handful. Since you’re such a great parent, the kid isn’t bad or anything, just... preoccupied. His mind is always on a different planet. Whenever it’s time to clean his room, he goes in and finds other things to do instead. It doesn’t matter what—pencil games, reading a book, building forts or just looking arou

Published 11/20/19 101 Five-Minute Meal Time Devotions: Fun and Creative Ways to Teach your Kids Spiritual Values By Greg Johnson What If... Your older brother is a good basketball player. You’ve been playing against him for a while to improve your game, but he’s naturally way ahead of your ability. You know you should play more, but you’re the type who gets bored easily. Unless someone’s shooting with you, you usually don’t bother practicing. After the season ends, yo

Published 11/19/19 101 Five-Minute Meal Time Devotions: Fun and Creative Ways to Teach your Kids Spiritual Values By Greg Johnson What If... One of the best parts about being in grade school is the chance to spend the night with friends. You get a measure of freedom, can eat all night, watch movies... and be crazy (with limits, of course). One Friday night, you’re at a birthday sleep-over. It’s just like always: pizza, presents, cake, games, videos, soda. Yep, you’re ha

Published 11/18/19 101 Five-Minute Meal Time Devotions: Fun and Creative Ways to Teach your Kids Spiritual Values By Greg Johnson What If... Waking up and getting ready for school has always been tough. It’s not that you stay up late, it’s just that you’re not a morning person. When the alarm goes off at 7:15 you sleep right through it. Then when Mom comes in at 7:20, you wish you could continue sleeping—but you know you can’t. “Breakfast is in ten minutes,” she always

Published 11/17/19 101 Five-Minute Meal Time Devotions: Fun and Creative Ways to Teach your Kids Spiritual Values By Greg Johnson What If... Your softball team is on a losing streak. You tell yourself it’s not like it’s life or death or anything. But losing all the time and not getting to play the position you think you should... well, it’s hard to take sometimes. The coach is a hothead, too—not only at games, but also at practices. He has high expectations, and since y

Published 11/16/19 101 Five-Minute Meal Time Devotions: Fun and Creative Ways to Teach your Kids Spiritual Values By Greg Johnson What If... Dad, it’s the end of summer and you’ve been working hard for a long time. In fact, because of some family emergencies this year and last, you used up all your vacation days traveling to other cities to spend time with sick relatives. But you haven’t complained. Even the sixty-hour weeks in the middle of that July heat wave didn’t w

Published 11/15/19 101 Five-Minute Meal Time Devotions: Fun and Creative Ways to Teach your Kids Spiritual Values By Greg Johnson What If... For the most part, your life has gone pretty well. You’ve got a family that loves you, a home that’s comfortable, a good church, a bike, some friends, your own bed... hey, life is pretty good. But then one week everything starts to go wrong. You walk to school and accidentally drop your backpack in a huge mud puddle. Not only is t

Published 11/14/19 101 Five-Minute Meal Time Devotions: Fun and Creative Ways to Teach your Kids Spiritual Values By Greg Johnson What If... Sunday school has its good points and bad points. One of the good things, though, is the Bible challenge game at the end of every class. It’s usually girls versus guys, so that makes it even better. The reason: the girls nearly always win. One particular Sunday, the competition is fierce. The guys have lost for two straight weeks an

Published 11/13/19 101 Five-Minute Meal Time Devotions: Fun and Creative Ways to Teach your Kids Spiritual Values By Greg Johnson What If... You’ve been getting a two-dollars-a-week allowance a couple of years now. All you have to do is keep your room clean, take out the garbage throughout the house the day before trash day, put the dishes away every other time and fold clothes when Mom asks. Now you are ready to move up. “Dad, can I have a bigger allowance?” you ask one

Published 11/12/19 101 Five-Minute Meal Time Devotions: Fun and Creative Ways to Teach your Kids Spiritual Values By Greg Johnson What If... As one of the more social kids at school, you have lots of friends. Nearly every week someone calls and asks you to come over to play. You, of course, love to go. Basketball, soccer, baseball, army, sports cards—whatever your friends want to do, you’ll join in. Naturally, you have four or five who are closer friends than all the res

Published 11/11/19 101 Five-Minute Meal Time Devotions: Fun and Creative Ways to Teach your Kids Spiritual Values By Greg Johnson What If... We’ve lived in our house for a number of years... but now it’s time to move. Dad, you got a different job in another town, so we are going to have to sell this house and find a new one. We have a few months before we have to move and we need every bit of it to get the house fixed up. We do lots of yard work, paint a few rooms and ge

Published 11/10/19 101 Five-Minute Meal Time Devotions: Fun and Creative Ways to Teach your Kids Spiritual Values By Greg Johnson What If... Having the relatives over for Christmas Day is always... interesting. Mom’s family members aren’t Christians, so your cousins don’t always say or do things that are normal for your home. Oh, they’re not bad kids, but every once in a while they will cut loose with a swear word, and they don’t even think about praying before a meal...

Published 11/9/19 101 Five-Minute Meal Time Devotions: Fun and Creative Ways to Teach your Kids Spiritual Values By Greg Johnson What If... It’s Tuesday night and you’re kicking back, watching TV. The phone rings, and you jump to answer it. It’s a friend from class! She wants to know if you can come over to her house after school tomorrow. Laying the phone receiver down, you race upstairs to Mom. She says it’s fine as long as your friend’s mom is home. You go back to the p

Published 11/8/19 101 Five-Minute Meal Time Devotions: Fun and Creative Ways to Teach your Kids Spiritual Values By Greg Johnson What If... It’s Friday night and your favorite TV shows are on. You’ve been waiting all week to see them. When your brother comes in, though, it’s a different story. “We’re not going to watch those shows again this week,” he says. “I’m sick of them and it’s my week to watch what I want.” “No way, we always watch these shows on Friday nights.” “For

Published 11/7/19 101 Five-Minute Meal Time Devotions: Fun and Creative Ways to Teach your Kids Spiritual Values By Greg Johnson What If... Every school year you have to get used to a new teacher. You also have to: • Do more homework. • Worry about looking good in your class pictures. • Get to know a few more kids in your class that weren’t there last year. OK, so it’s not major stuff, but that last one often causes the most excitement... and stress. But what if you were th

Published 11/6/19 101 Five-Minute Meal Time Devotions: Fun and Creative Ways to Teach your Kids Spiritual Values By Greg Johnson What If... You are walking downtown with our family on a Saturday morning. There is a farmer’s market street sale every weekend where fruit and vegetables and other types of good food are sold. We go to it two or three times a year. It is approaching fall and the weather isn’t all that warm. After we walk through the market a couple of times, we a

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