Encouraging families in following Jesus and His words, to love God & love Others
Author: Linsey Driskill
Hi! I've been married more than 15 years, have triplets, and love encouraging families in following Jesus and his words: to love God and love others. I love spontaneity, simplicity, and authenticity. You can find me on Facebook and Instagram Page @BeautifulHeartedParenting and at LinseyDriskill.com.
This was a recent article I had published in Christian Parenting Magazine!
1. “Sunday Serving Surprises”
I want my kids to help someone not because they have to but because they care about the person. “Sunday Serving Surprises” can make it second nature for our kids to love others. With your kids, come up with ways your family can love others, and write them on small slips of paper or notecards.
Consider trying these ideas: Write notes about why a neighbor is awesome and put them in their mailbox or on their front door throughout the week (but don’t sign them, so you can encourage in secret!).
Ask an elderly neighbor if they need help with yard work or simply visit with them. Leave a note for the mail carrier in the mailbox saying you appreciate them. Surprise family members throughout the week by helping them with chores—do all the dishes or make their beds.
Bring first responders a poster thanking them for their service, along with a big batch of cookies.
Put all the ideas in an envelope and continue adding new ideas as you think of them. Sunday night, hide one of the “Sunday Serving Surprise” slips under a family member’s dinner plate.
Whoever has the slip gets to read the serving idea to do with the family that week and also gets to decide what dessert to have that night! The next Sunday, that person picks an idea from the envelope and hides it under someone else’s dinner plate, and so on. As our kids learn how to love others in practical ways, it will become a regular part of their lives.
To read the rest of the Article, click on the Christian Parenting Link below:
My book was featured in the magazine, For Girls Like You, this month! It’s a fun “Quiz” with activities about 5 women in the Bible from my Devotional – see if you can guess who’s who! (Click on the Article below to make larger & zoom in so it is easier to read.)
For Girls Like You Magazine speaks so much life & encouragement to 6-12 year old girls. Subscribe to the magazine here and use the discount code BHEART10 for $10 off!
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When one of our kids does something wrong, isn’t it easy to want to prolong their consequences? To continue giving them one after the other after the other?
My ten-year-old son said something very hurtful to his sister. I was surprised and very upset. I told him that out of the heart the mouth speaks, and that he needed to check his heart and what he’s been putting into it (something I can say to myself often as well!)
I gave him a few natural consequences that I felt got to the heart of things. After a while of being in his room, he came downstairs and asked for forgiveness from his sister and they worked it out.
She was watching a TV show and he wanted to join her. At first I said no, but then I thought, Wait! He already had several consequences – why I am dragging his forgiveness out. It’s been worked out.
I needed to show him how grace gives new opportunities and lets go of the wrong. The consequences had gotten to the heart of the issue. And, he was remorseful.
As parents, it can be quite easy to give consequence after consequence when we are so upset with our child. Don’t get me wrong, consequences are important, and some need to be big and some small. But, once they have had the consequence we decided upon, and we still harbor bitterness in our hearts toward them, that’s just hurtful to both of us.
What if God held onto every fault we had, every mistake we had, and disciplined us again and again and again for the same bad decision we had made? Eeks, we’d be disciplined constantly.
Our kids need to have a standing of grace and forgiveness and newness afterward, just like we have with God through Jesus.
As I was standing in the kitchen with my son and stirring the dinner, I changed my answer, and chose not to dish out more consequences. I gave him a hug, and I said, “You can watch the show. This is what grace looks like. You’ve had your consequence and now we’re moving on. You’re forgiven and I love you.”
I had a new mindset, and let go of what was said and looked forward.
I could see relief in his heart. He’s got such a great heart, but sometimes, he says or does hurtful things. I also try to love well, but I sure say and do hurtful things sometimes as well.
God, I am so thankful for the grace that comes with Jesus. I need it so much.
And, my kids need it so much.
We all need it so much.
I want my kids to experience what grace looks like. After they’ve done the wrong thing and had a consequence (or a simple redirection if that’s what’s needed), I want to show them what it looks like to move on, to do our best to forget and forgive, to give a clean slate, and then to call out goodness in them, to see goodness in them, and to see them through Jesus’ eyes.
Lord, help us do that. Help us to have wisdom in parenting, in giving consequences, and in loving our kids like you love us. Help us offer the beautiful, freeing, accepting, and redeeming grace you have so graciously given to us. In Jesus’ Name we ask this. Amen.
Today is a new day. Let’s start over and go love our kids and our families.
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Check out my New, Fun Mother-Daughter Devotional (geared to 6-10 year old girls)!
Some of you might have heard the phrase, “Give It to Jesus.” You’re venting or expressing your heart, and then you hear, “Give it to Jesus.” As though you haven’t done that because you’re still struggling.
I think that phrase can mean a number of things.
Yes, you might experience immediate freedom from something when you “give” it to the Lord, sharing it with him with open hands. Or, the freedom might come only for a moment once you “give” it to Him, or pray about it, only to find yourself struggling once again with that thing, that heartache, that pain.
That doesn’t necessarily mean you haven’t “given it to the Lord.” It could just mean that you’re human and feel and have emotions, and that some things just take time.
If the Lord thought we didn’t need to come to him daily about things, I think he might have said, “Give us this year our yearly bread.” But, that’s not what he says at all. Jesus says, “Gives us THIS DAY our DAILY bread.”
We are meant to come again and again to Jesus.
So, then, what does it mean to give it to Jesus? I think it means that when that heartache, that pain, that struggle rises in our minds and hearts, we ask the Lord to walk with us, to help us, to free us, to restore us, to strengthen us, again, and again and again. And, that, is where the healing comes.
And, that, is giving it to the Lord.
Yes, the Lord can work a miracle by setting you free in an instant, but he can also work a miracle by setting you free a moment at a time as you walk step by step with the Lord, and that is beautiful.
And, that, is giving it to the Lord. Even if some pain and struggle remain.
That is just what he wants of us – to simply keep coming to Him.
Jesus, set us free. Thank you that you have set us free to live in eternity with you when we ask you to be our Savior. Lord, set us free here and now too. Moment by moment, we give our pains and struggles and heartaches to you. Lord, release us. Help us experience the freedom you have come to give us. In Jesus’ Name, amen.
“It is for freedom that I have set you free.” Jesus
This is a picture I took a few years ago – Martin Luther King Jr.’s words from 1963 speaking so much life and hope into despair years ago and today: “[With this faith we will be able to hew] out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope.”
In the spirit of unity, hope, and Jesus, I would love to pray together…
Lord, we thank you for Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream that we would see people for the “the content of their character” and that the “jangling discords of our nation” would be transformed into a “beautiful symphony of brotherhood.”
Thank you for his vision of bringing people together and for the change he made. In a time where it seems like so much has gone awry, Lord, bring us to that “beautiful symphony of brotherhood” that honors you.
You said in 1 Samuel 16:7 that “The Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”
Lord, we confess times we haven’t looked at the heart. Would you give us hearts to see how you see? Lord, would we care more about the heart of a person than all else? Would you bring people together in your Name, as we lay down discord, pride, disagreement, and come together in peace, selflessness, and kindness by the power of Your Spirit?
Oh, God, would you move in a mighty way? You say that if we have faith the size of a mustard seed that we can move mountains and that nothing will be impossible for us.
Lord, we ask you to move mountains in our world, our country, our hearts. We pray there would be great change in our world by the power of your Name.
Jesus, would you bring Your peace here and now?
We pray you would change hostility to selflessness.
We pray you would change anger to kindness.
We pray you would change pride to humility.
Would you move us to let go of anger, arguing, name-calling, and hatred?
Instead,
would we see Jesus in others?
would they see Jesus in us?
would we love as you have loved us?
would we be lights for our world, our nation, our community, our family, our children?
Lord, would you be our center, our strength, so when we feel weak, helpless, not enough, that we would remember we are enough in You, our Rock, our Deliverer?
We thank you that out of a mountain of despair, there is indeed a stone of hope.
You are our greatest hope, Lord. Our rock, our refuge, our strength.
With You, all indeed will be well.
In Jesus’ name, amen.
“The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge..” Psalm 18
Linsey Driskill 