Month: August 2020

“How I trained my little ones to sit still and quiet” (by Jessica Burrell)

by romans122life, posted in Bible, Christianity, Church, Discipleship, family

This is a follow-up post to my previous post “Help, The Church Nursery is Closed!” in which I reference training your children at home to be content to sit quietly.  Once you are out in public, it is too late to ask them to behave in some new way that you have never taught them.  This post is an effort to convey how I trained my little ones in the peace and comfort of our home.  The Lord says to train up our children in the way they should go (Prov. 22:6), to train them in the discipline and instruction of the Lord (Eph 6:4), and to teach them to have a quiet and gentle spirit, which the Scriptures say is “precious in God’s sight” (1 Pet. 3:4).  I have tried to apply these Scriptures in some practical ways at home while teaching my children to sit quietly and respectfully.

So how do you start? Start slowly.  Start with 5 minutes, maybe less.  Sit on the couch with Mommy and children together reading a book or singing a hymn, all engaged in the same activity.  The purpose is to stay in the designated place for the duration of the time.  Most children love this quality time of having Mommy’s attention to themselves, and they rarely have any trouble complying.  The next step is to tell the child that they must read (or look at) their own book while Mommy reads a book separate from the child or works on something independent from the children, while still sitting on the couch right beside them.  In the first step, the child is the central focus.  In this second phase, the child will begin to realize that the point of being on the couch is not for Mommy to cater to their wishes, but rather for them to find contentment on their own.  While you need to be instructing the child in step one, this second step is more where reinforcing and teaching the child your expectations really comes in.  Tell the child “you may not squirm around and climb down to the floor.” And “Mommy has a timer set for 5 minutes. When it beeps, we will be all done.  Then you may get down and play.”  The child may not ask “how much longer” or similar questions.  The child must learn to be content to wait patiently until the time is done and Mommy says that it is time to get down.

I should clarify that “Still and quiet” time in our home meant no talking or moving around.  You stay in your place and entertain yourself with one quiet toy or book.  If this object was used to harass a sibling, it would be taken away, and the remainder of the time would be spent with hands folded neatly in the lap.  I do not exaggerate when I say that I can count on one hand how many times objects had to be taken away from my children in public.  They learned this lesson very well at home!  Consider anything a small child will normally do when they do not want to be still…roll around on the seat, scoot down to the floor, then they end up under the seat, or army-crawling to a nearby location.  Their innate intent is to push the limits and see how far is too far.  You as the mother need to decide what will be acceptable for your children while in public.  Are you okay with them sitting on the floor at the doctor’s office or crawling on the floor down to the end of the pew at church?  If not, be sure that you are firm in your training at home.  For us, no arm waving, clapping, or moving off the seat was permitted.  Depending on age, lying down quietly in one’s spot (not rolling) was permitted.

After the children have gotten the hang of a 5-minute interval of being quiet and occupying themselves with Mommy on the couch, the next step is to have Mommy get off the couch and do something else nearby, while leaving the children on the couch having their “still and quiet” time.  For example, I will tell the children to come and sit. Then, once they have been reminded of the rules of “still and quiet” time, I will step away while warning the children that I will be watching to make sure they do a good job.  I might sit in another area of the same room and make a call to schedule dental cleanings, while maintaining frequent eye contact with the children so they know I am paying attention to their behavior.  If a little one decides they aren’t interested in the training session, their behavior is quickly dealt with and they resume their time on the couch.  Quick and consistent discipline is necessary in this training time.  You will be training your children regardless of how you handle the situation.  While they are in the living room, it might be easy to warn them, “Mommy said get back on the couch… I mean it!”  But consider if this method will be an option in church or in the doctor’s office.  You want to train them to listen the first time, not the second or third.  They must learn to obey immediately and to realize that there will be swift consequences when they do not.  There will be no “easy out” if they disobey.  The training session will continue on after discipline has been handed out.

Once the children are able to sit quietly while you perform other tasks in the same room, the real test comes.  “Still and quiet” while Mommy leaves the room!  This was always our children’s favorite part of the training times.  I would have the children sit (they were permitted one quiet toy) while I left the room to set a timer and then come back in to check on them and see if they were still in the same place and quiet.  I might go put a letter in the mailbox but quickly return and pop in the room to surprise the children.  This can be a very fun activity.  The children never know what corner you might pop out around or what you might be wearing on your head when you return.  The “away” might be anywhere from 5 seconds to 15 seconds to begin with.  You want to help them keep their attention on the task at hand.  Don’t make this sitting session a miserable thing for them.  My children would often forget the toy they had in their lap and prefer to watch out for when I would pop my head back in the room to see how well they were doing.  I would give silent accolades whenever I peeked in and saw that the children were still doing as I had asked.

You may notice a natural progression in this: very small and familiar steps to begin with, then moving up to bigger steps.  This will not happen overnight.  I would recommend having a practice session every day, or a five-minute session in the morning and another one in the afternoon, depending on the age and personality of your child.

After the children can manage a 5-minute segment of time on the couch on their own with Mommy in and out of the room, it is time to add more time to the clock.  I would graduate them to 10-15 minutes on the couch with one quiet activity of their choice, whether it is a toy, a reading book, or a notebook with a pencil or crayon.  If the children are misbehaving or not obeying the way they should, the offending child must be removed and disciplined and brought back to resume their sitting time.  Meanwhile, the other children are expected to continue sitting quietly.  This has helped immensely during the years that my husband has been in a pastoral position and has been unable to assist me in the pew with the children.  I have been able to take the rowdy child out of the service to address behavior while leaving all of the other children (yes, even a two-year-old) sitting quietly in the pew without me in the room, knowing that they would sit still because they dare not be the next one leaving the sanctuary with me.

I have one last comment on praising your little ones for doing well.  Rewarding our children when they do well is not the same as bribery.  Bribery is a parent’s last attempt at getting what they want from their child.  It is a negotiation that puts the child in control of the situation and puts the parent at their mercy.  Rewards and positive affirmation for good behavior are very different than that.  When I ask my child to do something and they do it right away and with a cheerful heart, rewarding them in some way is a great way to help encourage and motivate the child to do it again.  They have honored me, and I want to bless them because of it.  This is a good and wholesome way to encourage good behavior in our children.

In my other post, “Help, The Church Nursery is Closed!” I talk about preparing for Sunday morning by starting on Saturday.  I mention that “less is more” when packing activity bags for kids in church or the doctor’s office, and I give a few other ideas like finding a seat near the exits and arriving early to claim it.

I hope this post has been an encouragement to you!  It is not always easy, and it is never a fast process to train up our little ones in the way they should go.  But, as the Lord commands us to do it, I hope this will be of some small encouragement to you as we strive to please Him!

Jessica E. Burrell

“Help! The Church Nursery is Closed!” (by Jessica Burrell)

by romans122life, posted in Christianity, Church, Discipleship, family

Today has brought about many changes in our culture: schools shutting down and mask-wearing becoming a requirement in most establishments, to name a few.  Many of these changes in recent days affect our everyday life, even for the stay-at-home mom.  While we may be inconvenienced by some of the new CDC requirements, like trying to keep masks on our squirming children while in public, there are some challenges that prove more difficult than others.  As Christian mothers, one of the greatest difficulties we face may be that of the closing of the church nurseries.  Due to the light-speed way that children can transfer germs from one person or surface to another, most churches have closed down their nurseries for the time being.  This leaves parents with younger children only two options: stay home and live-stream the service from the living room, or attend church as a family, all in one pew, squirming children and all.  I will be approaching this issue as a sister in Christ, loving mother, and wife of a pastor.  This is a difficulty facing many young families today, and there is no easy answer.

Don’t Stop Going To Church

As hard as it may seem to take your family to church and sit in the pew with the entire family while you try to keep the young children quiet as the pastor preaches, this is your calling from the Lord.  Whether you are a pastor’s wife and your husband has to sit on the front row or stand in the pulpit while you try to manage the children in the pew alone, or whether you have two parents with grandparents able to help share the load, whether you are a single mom or dad bringing your children to church who have never once sat through a church service because they always go to nursery or children’s church, your God-given calling and obligation is to have your family in church – assembling together with the saints.  We might think that live-stream is an easy “out,” or a suitable alternative, but I would suggest that this is not the case.

Many churches are re-assembling with caution and are keeping live-stream available for those who are at risk and for those who are maintaining a “shelter-in-place” lifestyle.  For the rest of us, families included, we are in some part back to the grocery stores, vacations and outings.  If this is the case for your family, it stands to reason that you should be back to church as a family, as well.  There are many factors that could cause difficulties with bringing children into the church who are not used to sitting in the pews.  Regardless of the factors involved, this is no excuse to forsake God’s commands (Heb 10:25); this is simply a new growth opportunity that the Lord has placed in your path.  There is nowhere in the Scriptures that makes provision for the church to forsake the assembling together until nursery or children’s church is available.  No matter the age of your child or children, you need to be in church, and so do they.  As much as it is difficult to adjust to this (whether by choice or for lack of any other options), many of us are being required to turn “family integrated” for a time.  I know these are not easy words to speak, and I can say from experience that it is even harder to live out.  It can be a very difficult thing to adjust to, but just because it isn’t easy, doesn’t make skipping church an option.

How I Got Started on this Journey

For me, this journey started when I had four young children.  Our oldest was 6 years old (a girl). After her, we had three boys in a row (5, 3, and 16 months).  Our youngest son had seriously injured his hand and was in need of multiple surgeries and frequent doctors visits.  It was an hour drive to the Pediatric Hand Specialist’s office, and after having four young children strapped in their car seats for an hour, they were then expected to wait in a waiting room and accompany me into the patient room where the three oldest would have to be left without my watchful eye as I took their little brother to a nearby room for x-rays.  After we returned to the patient room, we would wait until the doctor arrived to discuss this very serious situation with me.  All the while, there were four children, 6 and younger, going completely stir-crazy and one frazzled Mommy trying to control the situation and have a coherent conversation with the doctor.  This was a very rude wake-up call for me when I realized that I had no choice but to somehow survive this situation again and again at every doctor’s visit, every x-ray, and every consultation.  It was impossible for my husband to take more time off work to help me after he had already taken time for two hospitalizations and hand surgeries for our little guy.  My only option was to train my children at home to behave the way I needed them to so that we could make it through all of these trips without chaos and tears for all five of us!

It may sound crazy to expect so much from a little one who many say can’t even reason yet, but there is nothing ridiculous at all about teaching your child to sit relatively still and occupy himself quietly for a little while.  As a matter of fact, I would go so far as to say that the parent who never trains their child to be still for a length of time is actually depriving their child of learning self-control at a younger age when it comes a little easier.  The practice of sitting “still and quiet,” or whatever you will call it, will be a blessing to you as the parent, as well as anyone you encounter.  You will also find that God rewards your child with a more content spirit when they are taught to be still for short periods of time.

Trust me when I say, “You can do this.”  But while you are sitting in a church service with 100 other people trying to listening to a 30-45 minute sermon, you will realize that this is NOT the time to teach your child how you expect them to behave.  This will only frustrate you and your child (Eph. 6:4).  You must work on training your child to sit quietly while in the comfort and safety of your own home.  If you are interested in the way I trained my children at home, please look for my follow-up post.  “How I trained my little ones to sit still and quiet”

Keeping Your Kids in the Pew Begins At Home

I would like to give a few practical pointers to help you wrap your mind around this concept.  From the early infancy age through toddlers and preschoolers with the wiggles, it is not easy to ask children to sit “still and quiet,” as we say in my home, for an hour-long service.  But they can do it.  It is also important to be considerate of those around you and not insist on keeping a screaming toddler in the service during his entire tantrum.  My first suggestion would be to find an area in the church that has easy access to one of the exits.  Next, plan to arrive at church early enough to claim this area for your family so that you ensure an easy exit if someone gets too rowdy or disruptive.

Next, you must plan for Sunday morning the night before.  You don’t want to show up to church frazzled and frustrated before the service has even started.  This will not help you to have the patience and grace needed to guide your children through the worship service.   Saturday night, be sure that all baths are taken care of, clothes are picked out and ironed if needed, shoes are found and matched, hair bows are selected, etc.  In our home, everyone must have Mommy approve their outfit before dinnertime on Saturday so that there is not “whoops” on Sunday morning.  Sunday morning your only goal should be to make sure everyone is clothed, fed, and ready to leave.  Once in the pew, I have found that less is more as far as busy activities go.  I used to pack a full bag of books, toys, snacks and crayons, only to find that at the end of the service I had an entire half-acre of mess to clean up.  Not to mention needing to offer apologies for the new “art” on the underside of the pews.

When thinking about your child’s needs for the service, pack appropriately according to their age.  If your child is able to write, give them a few writing tools and a notebook.  You can draw a word, for example: “God,” and your child can copy it.  Then you can draw a picture on one side of the page and your child can write it on the other side.  At this point their imagination usually takes over and they will doodle quite happily for a while.  If you have a young child, be sure that you pack pacifiers, quiet (and not messy) snacks, and a select few books and toys in a small bag that the child can access easily on their own to play with quietly.  As you make all of these preparations on Saturday night, remember that your training begins at home.  Be sure that your children understand your expectations before you get to the church.  We now have seven children in our home and can easily fill an entire pew.  There was a season when we had to assign each child their “spot” and tell them which siblings would be sitting on either side of them so that we would not have any arguments or disruptions in the pew.

Don’t Grow Weary – You Can Do This

Last of all: do not grow weary in doing good (Gal. 6:9).  There have been Sundays in church or weekdays in a doctor’s office that I wanted to throw my hands in the air and say, “I’m done training today!  We’ll be waiting in the car!”  We have had a few days when I had to abandon the grocery cart in the middle of the store and head to the van to deal with behavior that couldn’t wait.  What I came to realize was that the grocery shopping was not my highest priority.  Taking that moment to train my child would last a lot longer than those groceries did.  I would encourage you to keep the same perspective when sitting through worship.  Is it fun to take a child out and deal with behavior, walk back into church, only to have to leave and deal with them again?  No.  But what you are doing is training your child that this behavior is not an option.  No matter how many tantrums he throws, the result will be the same: correction and re-entering the service.  I would caution against staying in the foyer to allow the disruptive child to play for the rest of the service.  If your child is having a day where he is completely uncooperative and is a distraction to everyone else in the sanctuary, look for a bench in the foyer to sit on.  But still practice sitting quietly during this time so he sees that his defiant behavior is not rewarded with playtime.  If this level of disobedience in public is common, maybe this is a sign that more time needs to be dedicated to training at home.

Although this task seems at times insurmountable, it is doable!  Trust me; I didn’t start until I already had four children.  Talk about challenging!  There were many times I wanted to give up.  I often felt as though there would never be a break and that I could never get a thing out of the worship service unless all of my children were tucked away in their classes and I could just focus on the pastor alone.  This is not true, though.  And as soon as we thinking that “just one thing” will make it all better, we need to make sure we aren’t manufacturing an idol in our hearts.  God didn’t give you a quiet pew without children.  God gave you those adorable rowdy children to love and care for, and He still requires you to come and worship Him.

I know that this may only be a short-term goal for you.  Perhaps you are only going to keep your children in the service until nursery becomes available again.  You must understand that this is a worth-while effort and a God-required effort you must make to bring your children to church.  We have to expel the notion that we are coming to church for our own selfish good.  First, we do this because the Lord commands it (John 14:15).  He gives us the desire for it, which is a blessing, but more than that, He requires it.  If it’s “no fun,” or “I don’t get anything out of it right now,” that’s okay.  You are honoring the Lord with your self-sacrifice.  Just remember that it’s not all about you.  It’s hard to live this out, but it’s true.  And for most of us, this season will get easier.  Our children don’t stay little forever.

We don’t have it all figured out.  And if you come to the church where we worship, you will see squirming kids, hear rustling papers, and probably even see a little one being taken out for a “talk.” And that’s a good thing.  Actually, if you were to come to church this week, you wouldn’t even see our whole family in the pew.  One of my children has a medical condition that has prevented her and me from returning to church yet. It is at this time more than ever I am so grateful for the Providential situation all those years ago when I was forced to teach my children how to be content to be still.  My husband is a pastor and elder in our church and cannot sit with our children during the entire service.  When he is on the platform, it is such a blessing to us both to know that our children have been trained to obey us and sit still and respectfully while he does what he needs to do.  That little 16-month-old with the hand injury is now six years old and sits quietly, taking what notes he is able to, or drawing a picture of his Daddy reading Scripture from the pulpit.  We don’t have it all together, and we never will.  But God has been faithful to do a work in our children, little by little.  We are weak vessels through whom the Lord has been pleased to exhibit His strength.

I hope this article has encouraged you and caused you to consider your responsibility for raising your children before the Lord.  If you are interested in a more how-to based article where I describe how I practically trained my children in these concepts at home, please look for my follow-up post.

Jessica E. Burrell

Why We Are Going Away From AWANA

by romans122life, posted in Baptism, Christianity, Discipleship, family, The Gospel

If you have been a Baptist in the United States over the last 50 years, it is likely that you have heard of the discipleship organization known as AWANA.   Not only are they a popular discipleship program for Baptist churches, but according to their web site they are used in over 100 denominations worldwide.  Pray’s Mill Baptist Church in Douglasville, Georgia (where I am the pastor of families), has used AWANA for some two decades.  Hundreds of children have learned the Roman’s Road, John 3:16, Genesis 1:1, Psalm 19:1, the books of the Bible, the 10 Commandments and a whole host of other biblical information during this time.  What a blessing to have God’s Word hidden in the hearts of so many over the past 20 years.  However, as is with every good program, they should regularly be reevaluated.  We shouldn’t just do something because “that is the way we’ve always done it.”  Every program or every tool that we use needs to be measured by its usefulness in any given season.  There are times when a once good tool is found to no longer be as effective as it once was.  This is part of the reevaluation process.

As I, as well as other pastors and key leaders, have been thinking, evaluating, and praying about our discipleship and family ministry we have come to the decision that it is time for a new season in the life of our church.  As we looked at the scope and sequence of what we believe would be the best for our kids and their families we came to the conclusion that it was time to retire our AWANA ministry.  Our next season of ministry will focus not just on scripture memory but theology as well.  Instead of simply memorizing scriptures from different parts of the Bible each week, we want to help our children know the Word in a more systematic way. . . . in a more historical way.   We want our children to understand the “whole counsel of God.”  Our new ministry will help them to do that as well as teach them how to rightly interpret the scriptures in their context.

So, what caused us to make this shift away from AWANA? Well, there are some practical reasons and some theological reasons for making the shift.

The Practical Reasons:

Just to be honest, this pandemic has hurt us.  We knew that this year was going to be very difficult on our Wednesday ministries because some of our volunteers are not even back at church yet.  There are a variety of reasons for this, but it is simply a reality. Because of this reason, in God’s providence, we felt like this was the right time to make the changes that we had been talking about for a few years.  The pandemic has caused us to fast-forward those plans.  As we looked at our children’s ministry landscape, we noticed a few things that have led us to this point that I would like to share.

  1. The sheer number of volunteers needed to make this ministry run smoothly.

We are not a massive church.  On any given Wednesday night we run 100-125 total people.  On average there are at least 25 volunteers needed for AWANA.  Many have been working in AWANA for two decades (what a blessing).  Yet, in that time some have expressed their desire to also be in the adult class.  Many of our AWANA workers also work with children on the Lord’s Day and this keeps them from any meaningful small group opportunities with adults.  With our new format, we will likely only need half the number of volunteers.  We consider this to be a win for our people in light of our current circumstances.

  1. We desire to streamline our children’s ministry so as to be intentional about connecting what they are learning.

When we looked at what all our children were learning we saw a very sporadic approach to their learning. There was intention behind it, but it was a very broad approach.  There is a disconnect between what our kids are learning in AWANA and in their Sunday School class.  If they went to Children’s Church (K – 2nd grade) they got something different. When they were in corporate worship and or family worship . . . you guessed it . . . all different.   We understand that children are able to take in a lot of different information on different subjects.  They do it all the time in school.  However, it is our desire to streamline this for our children.  We want to connect what we are doing on Wednesdays to what they are getting in our sports ministry, our Wednesday night ministry, and in the home for family worship.  We want a more systematic approach for our kids and families instead of a more sporadic approach that we have been doing.  While these are some of the more practical reasons, there are also theological reasons for this shift away from AWANA as well.

The Theological Reasons:

  1. A doctrinal shift

Over the past few years, we have seen that some of AWANA’s convictions do not line up with ours.  Are they heretical positions?  By and large, they are not.  Yet, they are some concerning secondary doctrines that we very much disagree with.  Though their “What We Believe” section on their website seems to be broadly orthodox, their social media presence appears to be heading into the deep waters of the Social Gospel movement. One article that sheds light on this subtle shift was entitled, “How to Talk (With Our Kids) About Racial Equality.”  In this article, the author props up Martin Luther King, Jr. as a near hero of the faith.  While I am grateful that the Lord used King for some much needed social reform in the United States, I cannot, as a Christian, look at him as a hero of the faith due to his liberal theology and his known marital infidelity.  Even more troubling than the lauding of King is the suggested reading at the end of this article.  The author, and AWANA (by virtue of allowing the article to be published), believes that James Cone’s book “The Cross and the Lynching Tree” is quality Christian literature.  The truth is – it’s heresy.  James Cone is the founder of the modern “Black Liberation Theology,” which is a false gospel, and antithetical to the true gospel.  It is troubling that AWANA would tout this as something profitable for Christians to glean from.  This is just one example of why we cannot support these decisions and this new direction from AWANA.

  1. We want our kids to not just know the Bible, but the God of the Bible.

We are told that it is good to “hide the Word in our heart” (Psalm 119:11), but we are told to do more.  In 1 Corinthians 14:19 Paul says, “In the church I would rather speak five words with my mind, in order to instruct others, than ten thousand words in a tongue.”  In Acts 18:25 Apollos said that, “He had been instructed in the way of the Lord.”  The word “instruct” in the Greek is katecheo. This is where we get the word “catechism” from in English. Catechism simply means to teach Biblical truth in a systematic fashion in the form of a list of questions and answers to be memorized.  If we put the commands of Paul together and marry them with his admonition to Timothy in 2 Timothy 1:13, (“Follow the pattern of sound words which you heard from me“), we find the purpose of the catechism. We want to help our families to hide the word of God in their hearts, but we also want them to be “instructed in the way of the Lord” in light of the whole counsel of God.

  1. Catechisms have long been used by the church to teach the Word and theology.

There are several historic catechisms that we could choose from.  Have you ever heard the question asked, “What is the chief end of man?”  The answer is, “The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.”  Many Christians over the past 300 plus years have answered this question in the same way.  Why do so many know this answer?  It is because it is the first question in the Westminster Shorter Catechism (one of the most popular catechisms ever written for Protestants).  There is a reason why the church has used this method of teaching and Bible study for hundreds of years.  These catechisms are great tools for helping to hide God’s Word in the hearts of God’s people and they provide a means of understanding deep theological truth in a methodical way. Our plan is to use them in this way as well here at Pray’s Mill.  We will use, “A Catechism for Boys and Girls” for our K – 3rd-grade children and the “The Baptist Catechism” for 4th – 6th grade as we start our new season of discipleship on Wednesday nights this fall.

AWANA has been good for us over the past two decades.  Yet, in God’s providence, we believe that it is time for something new for our families.

The New Season: T&G Kids  

Our new Wednesday class will be called T&G Kids.  What exactly does T&G Kids stand for?  T&G stands for “Truth and Grace.”  Founders Ministry produced three books called Truth and Grace.  These three books are meant for three different age brackets.  Our plan is to use book 1 and 2 for kindergarten – 6th-grade children.  Each book has, the catechisms (with scriptures that coincide with the catechisms), selected Bible memory verses, Bible basics (10 commandments, Lord’s prayer, historic creeds), hymns (old and modern) for use in family worship, and a worksheet to track the children’s progress.

Our plan is for each child to receive a book.  Each Wednesday the child will come prepared with their Bible, book, memorized catechism question and answer, and their verse memorized as well. Each Wednesday we will meet for an exciting time filled with interactive games, Bible lessons based on the catechism question, and a time for our adults to hone in and help our kids learn their catechisms.  As we do all of this it is our hope that in this process our parents will use this opportunity to ask these catechism questions to their children during family worship each week.  This will not only help the child to memorize the catechism but it will help the parents as well. Part of our jobs as pastors is to “present every person mature in Christ” (Colossians 1:28).  We believe that T&G Kids will help us to accomplish this for our people.

At the end of the day, our job as the church is to do our part in fulfilling the Great Commission.  Part of that commission is the maturing of disciples (“teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. . .”).  There are a variety of tools that can help us accomplish that goal.  AWANA was a successful tool for many years in the life of Pray’s Mill to do just that.  However, it is now time for us to walk away from AWANA as we seek to continue to fulfill the Great Commission.  The right tool for this season we believe is an old tool . . .the tool of the Q&A session . . . the tool of the catechism.  It is now time for T&G Kids to be used to help our families grow in the knowledge and holiness of God.  May the Lord use it for his glory, the growth of our families spiritually, and the Kingdom of God as a whole.

Soli Deo Gloria,

Adam B. Burrell

T&G Kids Slide (Blog)