Steven Gibbs

Parenting Through Kairos

Once you have oberved the moment, as well as what God has said on the subject, the time comes for reflect.  Kids don't reflect as well as adults :). However, it is good to give them a little space to think about the moment so they aren't just listening to a lecture from their parents.  Kids can always say what a parent wants to hear, so it is good to give them time to process by themselves.

So, your kid shares something with a friend.  You celebrate the good.  Point out 2 Corinthians 9:7, God loves a cheerful giver.  Have them think about how God loves their generosity or sharing.  Why did they share? How did it make them feel? Would they do it again? 

Or your child cheated on a test.  Point out Psalm 51.  God desires truth.  Why did they cheat?  What did they get out of it?  How do they feel about it?  Would they do it again?

Reflecting is very important.  It helps the truth to sink in and determine the why behind the what.  Why is the motivation, the heart issue.  Jesus is always concerned about the heart.  If you miss the why but get the what, that is legalism.  What is the older brother from the prodigal son.  Why is the heart of the father.  That is the target.  

 

John Update

All went well today for John.  He had a flex-bronch and also an MLB.  This does require him being put to sleep.  All went well, and we are on schedule for another appointment in 2 years as long as no symptoms arise.  Thanks so much for praying.

John Update

It's been a while for an update on John, which is good!  He's doing great, but we do head back to Cincinatti this week for a checkup.  It's a regular thing, but they do "check up" for a reason.  He'll have a scope on Tuesday, with a lung wash to check on his swallowing.  We'd appreciate your prayers.

You may have no idea what I'm talking about.  Check this link out and it will bring you up to speed.

Parenting Through Kairos

So, I posted on Kairos moments previously.  These are just moments where you have an opportunity to help your kids process what God is doing in their life.  It may be a comment from the backseat as you're driving (don't you love those), something that happened at school, a moment with a sibling - the possibilities are endless.  

Some of these moments will be positive.  Maybe he helped someone at school; she stood up for someone; she encouraged someone; he got a good grade, etc.  

Some of these moments can be negative.  (Of course the disclaimer goes here, my kids never have negative moments :)).  Maybe she got points off at school for behavior; he neglected to tell the truth; she didn't obey when asked to, etc.  

That's when we engage the circle - starting with Observe.  I usually find where God has spoken on the issue in the Bible.  Then I assign that to be read, and we observe how their behavior either contradicted or fell in line with what God has spoken.  

In short - observe what happened and talk about how it intersects with what God has spoken.  

Next - Reflect.

Parenting

One tool that we've been using in our family, and that we've introduced to Stonecreek, is the learning circle.  The cirlce helps process kairos moments.  A kairos moment is a significant opportunity to process what God is doing.  So, when my kids have something come up, we use the learning circle to process it. The explanation of the shape is based on Mark 1:14-15.  We'll update more on the process as a series of blog posts shortly.

 

 

Super Bowl

Well, it's the week after the Super Bowl.  A huge event.  Over 111,000,000 people (including me) watched this year's Super Bowl.  The Super Bowl was second in single day food consumption behind Thanksgiving.  The average party-thrower spent $118 on a Super Bowl party.  A Super Bowl ticket averaged almost $4000.  A 30 second commercial ran about $3,500,000.  Over 50,000,000 cases of beer were consumed.  The amount spent by Super Bowl fans was $11,000,000,000.  

Those are pretty massive numbers.  Guess what?  It's over.  That fast.  The only people talking about it are a few Giant fans.  Most people have moved on to anticipating the Grammy's this week.  

Let it be said that we invested our lives in something with more staying power than the Super Bowl.