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"But seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added onto you as well."   Luke 18:30

As a mom of three children, I have received a great number of treasured gifts that my children have made and given to me over the years. I still have a 22 year-old ceramic tile jewelry box made by my son in first grade that sits on my dresser and continues to lose a few pieces of tile each year. I have an angel ornament on our tree that was made many years ago in Preschool by my daughter that still has a ton of glitter on its halo.  I have a glazed piece of pottery on my night stand that has "I love you" carved in the bottom, and I also have a hand-drawn and framed picture that my daughter painted of the two of us where we both have our arms and legs coming out of our heads!
 
As my children grew older, the gifts became a little more unique...

For the past twenty-three years, my children have provided me with a wealth of writing material for my weekly devotionals.  However, now that they are older, it is even more enjoyable when they even realize that their own antics or bizarre experiences would make a great correlation to a Biblical truth!  Last week, I knew it was going to be an entertaining story when my daughter's text message started out with the words, "Have I got a great newsletter story for you!" Thus...enjoy and see if you can relate...

"Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of Mine, you did for Me." Matthew 25:40

Many years ago, a student of dear friends of mine decided to use his guinea pig as the focal point of his 8th Grade Science Fair project. Starting in September, he wrote his hypothesis revolving around the research that he planned to perform, and throughout the remaining months, the guinea pig was the focus of all of his data. Weeks before the final January submission date, he woke up and discovered that the Lord had taken his beloved guinea pig to Heaven while he slept. His scream caused both parents to rush into his bedroom, where everyone was frozen with shock at what they saw. Finally, the young man broke the silence by saying, "Well this is very unfortunate timing!"...

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord. "Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11

One of the most fascinating aspects regarding working with children is watching God grow and cultivate their individual gifts, talents, and personality traits throughout their lives.  Often, teachers will notice certain qualities and wonder how God is going to develop and use that characteristic in the future.  For example, we've watched students fascinated with science and space grow up, attend MIT, and work for NASA.  We've watched children who were fabulous at fixing broken items around the school grow up and become engineers or accomplished mechanics.  We've had students, who were wonderful tutors, attend the Concordia colleges and now are high school math teachers.  We've had kids that were fascinated with dissection become surgeons; while one student who was famous for doodling is now employed as an animator for Sony and Play Station...