Happy Thanksgiving

The Blessing of God

XVII. Train them, lastly, with continual prayer for a blessing on all you do.

"Without the blessing of the Lord, your best endeavours will do no good. He has the hearts of all men in His hands, and except He touch the hearts of your children by His Spirit, you will weary yourself to no purpose. Water, therefore, the seed you sow on their minds with unceasing prayer. The Lord is far more willing to hear than we to pray; far more ready to give blessings than we to ask them; — but He loves to be entreated for them. And I set this matter of prayer before you, as the top-stone and seal of all you do. I suspect the child of many prayers is seldom cast away. . .

"...Mark how Abraham intercedes for Ishmael...See how Manoah speaks to the angel about Samson...Observe how tenderly Job cared for his children's souls...  Parents, if you love your children, go and do likewise. You cannot name their names before the mercy-seat too often. . ."

[ I hate to leave this wonderful little book and I've put off this last installment, but I do implore you to read the entire writing, but particularly this last section. I would encourage you to find the booklet itself; it's not expensive at all, but I have found a pdf  of the text in its entirety here. You can then print it out and read it all for yourself. Mr. Ryles' concluding words are just so precious. The final quote after this pretty much sums up the heart of the writer, and of mine, with regard to Christ and our children. Heed the words well, and God bless. ~ mr]

"The Lord teach you all how precious Christ is, and what a mighty and complete work He hath done for our salvation. Then, I feel confident you will use every means to bring your children to Jesus, that they may live through Him." ~ J.C. Ryle

 ~ From the Duties of Parents, J. C. Ryle, See the first post in this series. 

What To Put On

"Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; . . ." (Colossians 3:12)

Another important verse to teach the children. Learning more about humility will never harm them to be sure. We all need to have it impressed often on our hearts.

Being Humble

I have the above image listed in one of my pictures folders as "BG children" because it's the image I chose to put on the cover of Bright Gems for His Crown years ago. I was delighted to see it on this Facebook page today, a lovely page I follow because of the many sweet pictures and art that you see there as well as well as great quotes. The page, "Life's Daily Treasures" chose a perfect verse for this picture, Eccl. 9:10 which expresses the need for us all to do whatever we do with all that we have.

However, today at our HCG Facebook page we have a theme, and it's humility. So I'm going to share that picture from the LDT page in a short bit, with a link to this blog post. Being humble is the theme for the day (every now and then we're going to have a theme to coincide with the morning Bright Gems prayer), as the date is the 20th and the Bright Gems topic for Day 20 is "Being Humble." I would like folks to remember, if they don't have the book, that each particular topic has three separate devotions, one for each of the three months, depending on when the book is started. So, I thought it would be nice to copy here the introductory thoughts for Day 20, written to the children. Remember also, the introductory thoughts are to be read for each of the three devotionals:

"Now we have some thoughts to share about being humble.  God tells us in His Word that we must be humble.  To be humble means that you do not think too highly of yourself. Yes, we know that you are yet a child. You probably feel that we do not need to tell you to be humble. And yes, we know that Jesus once said that people should humble themselves like little children. But that does not mean that children are never proud. What Jesus was saying was that grown-ups should have simple faith, like children often do. But when God teaches in the Bible that people should be humble rather than proud, He is talking about children too. So today, let's think more about this." ~ From Bright Gems for His Crown

Yes, our children do indeed to learn humility like the rest of us. Let's teach them, shall we? And I'm sure that you and I both know that all our teaching is in vain if it doesn't include our example.

Lovingly,

Maxine, a/k/a Nanna

The Best Training Book

Post by Codeblack Life.

This is another painting/picture I needed to share because the message is so there for us all. I was blessed that as of this writing this picture had been shared 9,750 times and counting. This gives me hope.

The Soul of a Child

The soul of a child is the loveliest flower

That grows in the garden of God.

It climbs from weakness to knowledge and power,

To the sky from the clay and the clod.

To beauty and sweetness it grows under care,

Neglected 'tis ragged and wild,

It's a plant that is tender and wondrously rare,

The sweet wistful soul of a child.

Be tender, O gardener, and give it its share,

Of moisture, of warmth, and of light,

And let it not lack for painstaking care

To protect it from frost and the blight.

A glad day shall come when its bloom shall unfold,

It will seem that an angel has smiled.

Reflecting a beauty and sweetness untold

In the sensitive soul of a child.

~ Author Unknown

Hug for the Philippines

(Photo: Snoopy on Facebook)

Savior Like a Shepherd

Mirror, Mirror

"If you stood in front of a mirror holding 11 roses, you will see 12 of the most beautiful things in this world." ~ Unknown

As I said on Facebook, what a wonderful thing a parent could say to his or her daughter. I was really taken by this very precious quote. Never heard it before. Another thing. I would hope the parent could say it truthfully, and I also hope that this beauty if far more than skin deep.

A Child and Your Stomach

One thing for sure, if we give our stomach everything we can afford to, IF we can afford to give it the many things we know are not the best for it, it will surely be spoiled in more ways than we can count. So it is with our children. And who wants spoiled children?

The Eyes of Children Around the World

Post by The Eyes of Children around the World.

I am posting this video directly from a page on Facebook called "The Eyes of Children Around the World." I follow this page because of what it is and the why of it. If I directly quote here what the administrators of the page said respecting this video you'll understand better the why of it and what it is I wish more of us would capture in our hearts, and not only become more aware of the children of the world, but that our Lord would impress them on our hearts more heavily and so much so, we're more constrained to help and less comfortable going on with our lives of relative ease without giving them a thought. Hear the message of their quote:

"This video does not pursue any kind of economic benefit; it's only goal is to raise awareness about the reality of our world, its people and its children. The close bond that springs out from looking at the innocence of these eyes transcends the judgement of the mind, and puts us in contact with an essential part of ourselves, a part where the real values of the human being live: love, compassion, gratitude, empathy, solidarity... The values of the world are falling apart; We hope that these children help us rescue them." 

From the heart,
Maxine, a/k/a Nanna

Happy November!

Source: Snoopy on Facebook