Outstanding reviews for ‘A Perfect Pet for Peyton’

May 4, 2012 by Rick Osborne
Filed under Resources for Kids

Wow, the positive reviews to our latest book have been overwhelming! Amazon reviewers have given us 5 Stars so far and we have even hit Amazon’s top 25 Childrens’s Books (that contain animals) a few times.

For those of you who may have heard about the book but not yet purchased it, we’ve put together a small portion of reviews (yes, this is the small portion) that have been published since the book was released. Feel free to click on the reviewer to read their entire review. And as some reviewers have commented…perhaps one day the Perfect Pet Pal Emporium will be a reality ENJOY!!

REVIEWS for ‘A Perfect Pet for Peyton’ (Release date March 1, 2012)

From Rick Osborne: Thank you to all the Mom Bloggers out there who took the time to review our book. We are so glad that you and your children are enjoying it as much as our team enjoyed creating it. Thank you to Wilson Williams Jr. for your beautiful Illustrations. They are certainly capturing both children’s & parent’s attention. And lastly, thank you to Jill Ronsley for designing the interior. Your use of placement, color and fun fonts pulled this book together in the most fantastic way.

Reviewers:

momlovesbooks.com

I read this book to my Littles, and the creative illustrations by Wilson Williams, Jr, captured their imaginations with hidden surprises and little puzzles to work out. It was hard to read without getting a little choked up (I’m an emotional reader, I’ve learned) over Peyton’s building worries, and true tears of happiness as he is matched in the end with his perfect pet. It helped concrete some of the discussions we’d been having of late about Love Languages and how people feel that others love them… and sparked a discussion on how we need to think of (put) others before ourselves.

There is one warning, if you are an emotional reader like me (does Robert Munsch’s I Love You Forever book choke you up?) then you might want to get Daddy to read it to your Littles. My throat was killing me from swallowing back tears!!! But it’s an EXCELLENT book, and I HIGHLY recommend it for introducing (and reminding) children to the subject of Love Languages and the importance of speaking someone else’s love language to them.

The book includes a short quiz at the back to help a child identify their primary love language.

Chaeli’s best thing about it? There is a BUG hidden on all the pages with full pictures. She wouldn’t let me turn the page till she’d found it! Greyson’s? Well, he loved that all the children received a pet. He then went on to say that HE wanted to build a Pet Emporium when he grows up “so that I can help other kids find their perfect pet too!” (there’s those Acts of Service at play again, LOL!)

Only downside? It got both Littles back on the topic of getting new guinea pigs (ours died last spring, and they’ve periodically brought up the subject of getting new ones… I thought it’d blown over… but thanks to Mr. Chapman, guinea pigs are back on the table… well, you know what I mean. *grin*)

Highly recommended!

emileeschristmasjoy.blogspot.ca

In my opinion, I loved this book! It was a clever story and a wonderful teaching tool. I loved the illustrations and thought that the pictures were interactive. There were many activities within the book as well. I enjoyed helping Eli find the insects, birds, reptiles, dinosaurs, etc. It was exciting and a way to teach the animals to my son. It was also fun to spend some time with twins, Peyton and Penny on their birthday. They go to Mr Chapman’s Perfect Pet Pal Emporium for their birthday which was on their wish list. I definitely wanted to take Eli to this exciting place. This book was engaging and will definitely be on our favorite book list.

A Perfect Pet for Peyton is a discovery book and a way to learn the five love languages. Do you know your love language? At the end of the book, there is a quiz for the kids to discover their own love language. My love language is gifts. I love giving and receiving gifts. Now I understand why this book received the #1 New York Times Bestselling Author recognition. It was a fantastic story!

myhomeschoolgarden.com

I absolutely LOVE this book! It is just the cutest book I have seen in awhile. I love the colorful illustrations and how the book is so interactive. There is something to do on every page, besides just reading the cute story. If your kids enjoy seek and find activities, they will love this book. This will be a book we will treasure for many years to come and will be proud to have it on and off of our bookshelf. I know it will be off of our bookshelf often because someone will be busy reading it!

mamamanuscripts.com

The children (ages 8, 6, and 2) cuddled up with this book as soon as it arrived. The kids were happy to sit quietly to look for the hidden details on each page (which was a relief, as we were getting antsy after weeks of illness but weren’t really well enough to get out there in the real world, yet. Anything to occupy their time was a plus). However, the special part was that the kids really did get the 5 Love Languages after reading this book and we had a lovely discussion on how different people feel love differently. Liam (8) was quick to tell me that his Love Language was quality time and Morgaine (6) said that her love language was probably gifts. These are absolutely the languages that I would have chosen for them so the really did get it!

By Romana Moidl (Amazon)

My niece loves this book. For her, the story is exciting and she can relate to Penny and Payton. Each page is chock full of vibrant pictures and activities we can do together. It isn’t just an average story time, there is a lot of discussion around the unfolding story and the games we get to play. We look for bugs and dinosaurs and she squeals in delight when we find that silly lady bug that has been hiding.

But what I love about this book is not only how imaginative it is, and how much it allows us to do together, but the message it gives her and the lesson it teaches her. It helps me teach her how to put her needs and emotions into words, label them and express them. It helps to lay a foundation for how to care for herself and others for the rest of her life. I love this book.

kathysclutteredmind.com

As soon as A Perfect Pet for Peyton arrived the kids were excited and begged for me to read it to them… and that is just what I did. The illustrations are absolutely wonderful and my kids loved all of the animals throughout the book (if a book has animals they are hooked).

I love interactive books that get the kids involved and A Perfect Pet for Peyton does that too. On each page of the book there is a hidden insect. My kids just loved searching for them as I was reading and they found every single one. There are also animal scavenger hunts on the pages where the twins and their friends are exploring the emporium attractions.

This is definitely a book we will be reading a lot since this year one of our primary goals is working on character, virtues and behavior. Since I already knew about the 5 love languages and already know what each of their primary love languages are I can tell you that speaking your childs love language will result in better behavior. Believe me knowing what your spouse and childs love language is will change your lives and relationships.

Gwyns review (6 yrs old):

My favorite part of the book was at the end where Pennys perfect pet rides around the house on Peytons perfect pet. I also like the cute ferret.

Rowyns review (4 yrs old):

My favorite part was looking for the bugs.

mamajennblogs.com

As soon as the book arrived, my 8 year old daughter curled up and began reading it with one of the boys. I later cuddled up and discussed the book with her. We looked at some of the questions in the 5 Love Languages Quiz in the back of the book to help her identify her own personal love language. She quickly told me, “Mom, I know what my love language is. Quality Time…because I like to spend time with the boys [my brothers].” Of course, I have to remind her of this when she gets upset about her brothers coming in her room. {grins} The Love Languages Mystery Game for Children even confirmed her love language! The kids and I really enjoyed A Perfect Pet for Peyton! It provides a fun, engaging way for kids to identify how they give and receive love best!

broadhorizonsschool.blogspot.ca

I have to admit, I didn’t even read the description of A Perfect Pet for Peyton before I signed up for this review. I knew I wanted to review the Five Love Languages, and my kids love books, so sure, I’m always up for reviewing a good kids’ book!

So I was THRILLED to see just what an AWESOME book this was when it came! This is not your typical picture book! The pictures aren’t just PICTURES!!! Every page has something to look for, or something else fun to do, plus the story is great! Even my “we’re too old for picture books” 9-year-olds loved it, and happily listened to it a second time!

The story is about twins who go to Mr. Chapman’s “Perfect Pet Pal Emporium” for their birthday party. As they visit the petting zoo, aquarium, etc etc etc, and have their party, the book shows how each of the children at the party shows their love for their friends in different ways. At the end of the party Mr. Chapman presents each child at the party with a new pet that is perfectly matched to that child’s love language.

MiniMe is completely enthralled with the concept of Love Languages, and HER primary love language(s). Sassy, not-so-much, but both enjoyed the story and figuring out each of the character’s love language. The concept of love languages was, naturally, over Little Bit’s head, but she loved the pictures and being able to find things in the pictures. So this book was an all-around hit!!!

It was a great way to open dialogue with the older girls about not only accepting love, but showing love to others in a variety of ways to meet everyone’s needs. The back of the book includes some questions to help parents and children determine each child’s love language.

lovez2read.blogspot.ca

This book is based on The 5 Love Languages series by Gary Chapman. It is an entertaining adventure. My kids and I followed along with Penny and Peyton as they had a very special birthday party at the “Perfect Pet Pal Emporium.” It is a place that is, as the book describes, “like a zoo, a museum, a theme park, and a birthday party palace all in one place.” Peyton wants a special pet, not a boring pet. He thinks it will be hard to find the perfect pet for him, but he is in for some surprises.

My kids loved the characters of Penny and Peyton, but even more love the variety of animals and “pets” throughout the book. My four year old wants to “read” it herself several times a day. She continues to find new and interesting things on each of the wonderfully illustrated pages. Even as I’m typing this review, she’s trying to grab the book out of my hand to “read” again! lol

I personally love the amazing illustrations, the lessons the story has, as well as how entertaining it is for me as a parent to read over and over with my children. I also really like the 5 Love Languages for kids portion at the end of the book. My kids had fun trying to answer the questions and figure out each of their personal love languages!

A wonderful story for young and old! I highly recommend this book!

wyominggirlcoastiewife.com

This book would be great for young school age children. Amber absolutely *adores* it and we’ve been reading it over and over and OVER for bedtime each night. It’s a little on the longer side–but the amazing sounding pet emporium and all the different animals keep her entranced! Even though she’s a bit young to grasp the concept of love languages it’s still great for her to be learning the different ways we have to show people that we love them!

itsoktobeweird.com

A Perfect Pet for Peyton came to our house at just the right time. We’ve just brought our youngest son home to do home schooling for the rest of his Grade 4 year. This book is another step in our journey to helping him (and us) to understand how he’s wired, and to help him to be able to thrive in as many ways as possible.

The book is hard cover, brightly illustrated, and wonderfully written. My oldest son, our artist, noticed details in the children’s faces in the book, like shiny eyes that make the characters look alive, and hand placement showing real movement, etc.

I like that there are little things to do throughout the book – find insects on the pictures, count how many of these things you see, etc. It wasn’t important for my big kiddos, but while reading the whole book with MrCutie out loud, he did much better when we could stop and look around at things. It helped to keep him IN the book and not get overwhelmed.

I had a general idea about what my kiddos Love Languages were, but reading the book with them and talking through the languages has helped me to understand where they see themselves. They all liked the book a lot. Here’s what they had to say about it:

MrCutie - I thought that this book was very inspirational. Don’t ask me how though. HAHA! It was a bit funny. I thought the monkey and the parrot were cute. And the dolphin was really neat. The book was really full of surprises. I liked it when Mr. Chapman said, “Oh, our Moose Mortimer probably got into the pantry again.” I thought it was cool to learn about the 5 love languages. I think my #1 language is Gifts and #2 is Words of Affirmation. I think my brother’s language is Quality Time (with his Legos). I think my sister’s language is Physical Touch or Words of Affirmation. I would recommend this book to other kids.

BudBud - It’s a good book for if you’re trying to figure out which love language you are. It’s cool about what different pets can do, too, and if they are trained properly. Alex [the dog] is helpful and can do tricks. Monkeys can hold lots of stuff, so it would be able to give lots of gifts. Parrots are very smart and some can talk so it would be good for words of affirmation. Cats just like to be snuggled, so that would be good for quality time. I really liked it how there was a separate animal for everyone and Peyton didn’t think he was going to get one, so he was scared and sad. And the guy came back out and he was like You’re Right [about Peyton getting his own special pet]. I liked it where the dog is helping him clean up because he looks so cute an innocent, and it’s a nice thing to do. I think my love language is #1 Words of Affirmation and #2 Gifts. I think my sister’s language is Quality Time. I think my brother’s language is Gifts. I would recommend this book to my friends, and anybody 12 and under.

Sweetheart - I liked this book. It’s very cute, but I feel bad for Peyton when he doesn’t think he can get a perfect pet pal. I liked when Peyton finally got his pet. I wish we could get perfect pet pals. That would be so cool. I think my top love language is either Words of Affirmation or Quality Time. I think BudBud’s language is Physical Touch. MrCutie already told me that his language is “Gifts”. I would recommend this book to my friends. I think the book would be great for people old enough to understand (like 7 year olds and over).

I would recommend this book for parents who are wanting to learn more about their kiddos, and to help encourage their kiddos to understand how they are made better. A Perfect Pet for Peyton is a fun, easy-to-read story that teaches a lot about how people like to have love and care expressed to them. It’s a valuable resource in any parents’ toolkit!

hsbapost.com

I was really excited for the opportunity to review A Perfect Pet For Peyton. And the book did not disappoint. My children were hooked from page one. My two youngest were not only fascinated with the story line, but also enjoyed the very vivid illustrations. For added fun there are different things for the children to find that are hidden within the illustrations. This was a favorite for my 3 and 5-year-old sons. My 10-year-old daughter really enjoyed taking the The Five Love Languages For Kids Quiz. This section provides a more in-depth look at what defines the 5 love languages. She really spent some time thinking and asking a lot of questions after reading over this section several times. This is a book we will be reading at least a few times a week as it has prompted some great conversations and prayers in my children!

chicagolandhomeschoolnetwork.com

Dr. Gary Chapman has joined up with Rick Osborne and Wilson Williams to craft a picture book to help children grasp this relationship-altering knowledge. As with the other 5 love languages materials, this book is top notch in appearance and in clear presentation of the material.

My kids always get excited about packages, but sometimes when they see it is “just another book” they head off their separate directions. Not so this time. As soon as my 8yo got it out of the package, her older sister and younger brother were begging me to take a break and read to them. With my toddler copying, “Book, book.” How could I refuse?

The story takes the reader through the birthday celebration of a set of twins, a boy and girl, who are excited about the day ahead when they would celebrate their birthday at Mr. Chapman’s Perfect Pet Pal Emporium. Throughout the day as they interact with the animals and their birthday party guests, you clearly see the various love languages exemplified in each character. An example of each love language comes to life as the children hug, compliment, help, give, and just enjoy each others company. And, in the process they each find an animal that is a living example of their language as well.

My kids completely loved this book and I have read it countless times already. The colorful pictures, the animals on each page, the hidden insect in each picture, and even the conversation about love languages drew them in time and again. The book closes with some conversation starters to begin to help children to see their own love language and that of others as well.

This book offers a great way to draw your family together and is great for any age child. It is a longer picture book, so younger kids might enjoy it more split up over a few sittings. For my 6 and up kids we read it straight through each time. The lesson fits for everyone and can be a great spark to encourage a greater demonstration of love between siblings.

By Moonpie (Amazon)

Gary Chapman’s The 5 Languages of Love is a classic and still much read book. I was very excited when I saw this book because now that same concept could be taught to children. This will not only help them learn to relate to each other but also the adults in their life. How wonderful they can learn and apply it at an early age.

Penny and Peyton have their birthday party with their 3 friends at the “Perfect Pet Pal Emporium.” It is every child’s dream come true because it is a zoo, a museum, a theme park, and a birthday party palace all rolled into one! The 5 languages of love are taught through the special pets each child receives as a gift. The pet each child is given matches his or her love language.

The book itself is beautiful. All the illustrations are brightly colored and well drawn. There are also lots of details in the pictures that not only cause the young ones to want linger, but they serve another purpose. Many of the pages have activities to search for certain items on that page. For example, one page has underwater creatures listed to find, making this a learning experience also. Another fun activity is on every big picture in the book is an insect to find. These are pretty small and it is a challenge! I even had fun with this one. At the end of the book is a “Five Love Languages Quiz for Kids”, with questions to help them identify their love language. A well written, fun book to read over and over!

By MomBlogger (Amazon)

A wonderful story for young and old! I highly recommend this book!

By Sarah J. Bailey (Amazon)

This is a really cute book, I never really gave any thoughts to the love languages that so many have talked about for so long, but after reading this book it made me think how I can better relate to my children. The colorful illustrations and hide and seek activities through out kept even my 10 year old’s attention (she enjoys me reading aloud but something that would be perceived as a too young book isn’t always listened to). The animals are of a wide variety and for the boy in my life the brief area about dinosaurs was an attention grabber. I’d like to take more time to read through it again and do all the activities that are scattered throughout and my children enjoyed trying to guess what their love language was – I have one whose primary is gifts and secondary is quality time while I have two others whose primaries are physical touch and secondary is quality time.

By Noelle the Dreamer (Amazon)

If you are not yet familiar with Gary Chapman’s ‘The 5 Love Languages’ series I can only say you will enjoy finding more about his children book!

In ‘A Perfect Pet For Peyton’ you will find a hands on interactive story describing the many personal ways we receive and give love!

The joy of ‘rediscovering’ these love languages! So simple and so precious! Quality time, words of affirmation, physical touch, acts of services and gifts!

A wonderful way to reach out and share with young children (and not so young!) reading time! You will notice special highlighted words matching activities and clues to a ‘love language’ whilst also having opportunities to look for hidden objects together!

A quiz for kids (and their parents!) is included at the end certain to make this a rewarding time for all!

With its beautiful and eye catching illustrations this large hardback children story is sure to allow for plenty of imagination and I can see why any child would love this book! Each will soon find his/her favourite pet in this wonderful story whilst learning about those special gifts!

‘A Perfect Pet For Peyton’ is the perfect gift for any child! 5 Stars!!

By Kathleen (Amazon)

Readers and pre-readers alike will enjoy A Perfect Pet for Peyton as you do searches for hidden objects on a page. Text colors highlight words to match activity and clues to a love language. You will look forward to reading over and over together, discussing why the pets and children in the story are a good match, and anticipating what is on a following page. The illustrations are bright and colorful.

After the story, a “Five Love Languages Quiz for Kids,” is included to discover personal love languages in each unique way. I am looking forward to gifting A Perfect Pet for Peyton to a young family I am visiting tomorrow!

By Pirate2240 “Kat” (Amazon)

If you have ever heard about the 5 Love Languages for Children, then you will love the introduction that “A Perfect Pet for Peyton” by Rick Osbourne and Gary Chapman gives young children. In this amazing and beautifully illustrated children’s book, the story involves the hints that Peyton and his sister penny have been providing as hints to their parents in preparation for their birthday. Hoping that they will get tjust the right pet for their birthday, their parents begin their day with a party at The Perfect Pal Pet Emporium. Along the way, Peyton and Penny along with their friends learn about what they each love about how the celebrate their day and in so doing so show what each of the 5 Love Languages are and how they relate to the children.

Besides just a beautifully illustrated story book, there are activities for the kids to do as they are reading through the book, a scavenger hunt of sorts that begins at first page and lasts til the very end. It’s a great way for parents as well as their kids to understand the meaning behind what the 5 Love Languages are and how they relate to what the kids appreciate from life and others. In the back are questions for parents to ask their kids as they re-read the story. It helps both parents and their kids to understand what is truly important to speak the language of “Love” to our kids and in return is a great way to share quality time together.

By Maureen (Amazon)

The boys and I, ages 4 and 6, spent a really fun time reading and enjoying this great book. They loved that the twins were a boy and a girl…Peyton and Penny, and were celebrating their birthday!

Besides the delightful story there are so many interactive pictures for them to participate with! One of the first fun activities was to find a very small insect in each of the big pictures. For their party they are going with their friends to Mr Chapman’s Perfect Pet Emporium. The boys both decided they wanted their next parties there!

We have been through this book a few times now, and it has become a real favorite! They also like it when we get to end and get to the Quiz!! There they are introduced to the Five Love Languages for Kids..we talk about Gifts, Words of Affirmation, Quality Time, Physical Touch, and Acts of Service.

I really recommend this book for a good quality time with your children!

By Cindy Navarro (Amazon)

Younger kids will love this day spent with twins, Peyton and Penny, as they celebrate their birthday with 3 friends at Mr. Chapman’s Perfect Pet Pal Emporium!! The bright colors and invitations to search for the various animals on the picture make this book one that younger kids will eagerly want to become engaged in and is sure to provide a lot of fun. Plus, as they play, and the story unfolds it gives the adult a chance to gain a better understanding of the child they are sharing with, and for the child to become more aware of the various ways of receiving and expressing love and appreciation. Based on the popular 5 Love Languages, this creative story is a great teaching tool, enjoyable read, and bonding experience that is sure to be an unforgettable experience.

pixiedustedhomeschool.com

I will be the first to admit that I did not read this book to my children. No, I did not. Now, I know you are asking how I can review this book if I didn’t read it to my kids… I sat and watched my husband read this to my kids, and I thoroughly enjoyed the interaction that occurred. DS9 was so interested as the story unfolded. I could see him thinking hard about what his “love language” would be.

Just tonight, DS9 came to me and said, “My love language is Physical Touch.” “Yes, it is!” I said. I think this book is wonderful for all children but especially for those who are on the Autism Spectrum or who don’t have an awareness of how to feel or express their love for their family. I feel that both of my kids have benefited from this story, and we parents have, too. I hope that you have a chance to read this book to your child or grandchild.

whatsthatbuzz.myweeklybeef.com

As a wife & mother I always strive to be a better person. I want the best for my marriage and my daughter. I think the best way to keep a relationship strong and healthy is by constantly growing, together.

I’ve been a fan of Dr. Gary Chapman’s ‘The 5 Love Languages’ for many years and was thrilled when I was offered the chance to read and review his newest book that is directed towards children, ‘A Perfect Pet for Peyton’ which has overthrown all the books we have for my 4 year old daughter and we’ve read it nightly since it arrived.

The book is well written with catching illustrations. My 4 year old reads it alone (in her own version) and begs me to read it with her multiple times a day. The book shows children, in a way they can understand what the 5 Love Languages are and how they apply to each person. This book helps to discuss what Love Language best fits your child. I can attest that as soon as you understand the Love Language of the people close to you, your relationships will skyrocket.

bearrabbitbear.com

The illustrations in this book were lovely. The story-line was awesome for children. After the story, there are two pages of questions to ask your child to reinforce the love language lesson.

This is a longer book, so I had to break it up into sections for my toddler. The book does have “thinking” questions throughout the book (for example, can you count the birds on this page?) that are a nice way to involve toddlers in the book. If you are a fan of Gary Chapman and The Five Love Language concept, this is a must-have for your children! It is a wonderful way to express the five love languages across the age barriers. My little one adored the book, as you can see here!

bassgiraffe.com

The book has lots of neat hidden things and games to do throughout. Lee’s favorite was looking for the hidden insects on each page. I loved pointing out each animal and naming them. And with each child in the book we learn about what each Love language is and means. At the end of the book there is a mini quiz to help you determine your child’s love language. Lee is only 5 and ended up saying “yes” to every question, which didn’t help me. But from what I’ve seen of her, her languages would be “gifts” and “physical touch”. I’m going to be reading “The 5 Love Languages of children” next so hopefully it will help me recognize more of what her languages are and help me figure out Moo too.

“A Perfect Pet for Peyton” is a bit longer book then my kids are use to sitting down for and reading all at once. Lee, who is 5, had no problem sitting though it all as long as we played all the games on each page. But Moo wouldn’t last two pages, but she’s only 2.5. I would recommend this book for ages 6-12 because of the length. But Moo did love looking at all the illustrations, and I know she understood some of it. This is one book I am happy to have in my library.

simplemomreviews.com

Dr. Gary Chapman has a new book (his first ever children’s book), A Perfect Pet for Peyton. The instant I heard this news, I knew I had to have the book. Before reading it I knew that I would enjoy it simply because of the principles that Dr. Chapman has in the other book I religiously read every year.

I was not disappointed one bit. This book is for kids the age of 5-10 and it is designed to help them discover their own love language based off of the same principles that Dr. Chapman has in The 5 Love Languages. In order to know why it is so important to not only know your love language, but your kids’…and for your kids to know their love language, well, you just need to get the book and read it After all, there must be something to it. He has sold over 7 million copies of it.

thatbaldchick.com

I was excited to read this book with my kids. It is 64 pages long, and chock full of fun, colorful pictures. There is a hidden details in every large picture, which makes it a seek and find game for the kids, too. There is also a list of animals every couple of pages that the kids are encouraged to find in the illustrations. The book isn’t just a great lesson, it’s a great story, which makes this teaching tool a whole heap of fun for them to listen to, and fun for me to read, too. There are a LOT of sentences with P’s in them. You know how the old rhyme from Mother Goose, “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,” could cause your tongue to stumble if you are not careful? Yep. THOSE kind of fun and hilarious sentences are scattered throughout the story.

Both of my kids enjoyed the story, and wanted me to read it a second time right away.

soyoucallyourselfahomeschooler.com

I really knew that this book would bless my children to learn about the different ways the different ways that people express love. And the book did not disappoint. My children were hooked from page 1. My two youngest were not only fascinated with the story line but also enjoyed the very vivid illustrations. For added fun there are different things for the children to find that are “hidden” within the illustrations. This was a favorite for my 3 and 5-year-old sons. My 10-year-old daughter really enjoyed the part at the end of the story where she could read more in depth about the 5 love languages while taking the The Five Love Languages For Kids Quiz. She really spent some time thinking and asking a lot of questions after reading over this section several times. This is a book we will be reading at least a few times a week as it has prompted some great conversations and prayers in my children!

mommysmemorandum.com

We found the book to be engaging and unique. I loved helping my children explore the importance of love! The book is basked on best-selling author, Gary Chapman’s successful The 5 Languages of Love. Now, thanks to the pets at the Pet Emporium, children can discover The 5 Love Languages of Children.

The book is quite an adventure and my children wished they could visit the pet shop in the story! As the story was read, they enjoyed searching for the insect in the big pictures and doing the small tasks in the story, like finding various birds. It made the whole story an interactive experience. Kudos to Wilson Williams Jr. who did an outstanding job of illustrating the book.

There are some fun animals throughout the book and my children enjoyed sharing their experiences with these animals and learning about new ones. I appreciated the animals and the friends at the party delivering such a great message.

goodreads.com

The boys and I, ages 4 and 6, spent a really fun time reading and enjoying this great book. They loved that the twins were a boy and a girl…Peyton and Penny, and were celebrating their birthday!

I really recommend this book for a good quality time with your children!

modest-mama.org

This is an all-around feel good book. The authors do a wonderful job exploring each love language within the book. The text is simple enough for my six year old to read independently, yet mature enough to hold my ten year olds’s interest. The hidden details of the pictures allow even the younger children to get involved in the text.

WHAT DID MY PRODUCT TESTERS THINK?

1 – I liked it. I liked how their was gurls (girls).

2 – I liked it because, well, every page you are supposed to find at least one insect. I really like trying to find things. I also really liked how it was a theme park mixed with a pet store mixed with a petting zoo mixed with a museum mixed with a birthday palace.

3 – I thought the book was really good because it was educational but it wasn’t boring. I especially liked how Peyton didn’t think he was going to get a pet but then at the end he got the perfect pet and was really happy. I liked how it was by Gary Chapman and the man who owned the pet palace was Mr. Chapman.

4 – I liked the parts where they are in the buildings and by the map and they are having their cake and riding the roller coaster. I also really like the dinosaur rooms.

centsablemomma.com

I had a fun time cuddling with my boys on the couch reading the book. It’s a fun read so they were entertained, and then we had fun talking about the five love languages and guessing which one might be their primary love language.

Plus, there are hidden pictures and extra activities on each page of the book, so my kids have had a great time looking at the book long after I read it to them.

gricefullyhomeschooling.com

When I first opened this book…I was surprised at how beautiful it was inside…very colorfully illustrated.

My kids immediately wanted to read the book. We’ve heard of the 5 Love Languages but never really discussed them as a family. This book helps any family to put those love languages into words…and into practice.

After my son and I read the book together, we tried to figure out his love languages. The questions in the back of the book, help with that. One of his main love languages he is, is “personal touch.” He learned that he feels loved when we cuddle, hug, and even from wrestling with dad. He’s a hugger and snuggler. He also learned that he is showing love with his “acts of service.” He said he also likes it when someone does something nice for him. And he enjoys just spending time with people. I love that homeschooling allows for all these things…knowing he is loved. He could care less about words or gifts…because those are not his love language. This works well for me…because I am similar in my love languages.

I think this is how I get through, this season that we are in, where I don’t get much time to myself. I feel love from the “quality time” I get with my family. I think this is very important to kids. They need to feel their loved ones near…bonding and forming lifelong relationships.

I think this book is a great book to add to any child’s bookshelf. Your kids will enjoy reading it…and finding the hidden objects on the pages. What a fun added bonus.

texaskitchen.wordpress.com

I was given a copy of a fabulous new book called “A Perfect Pet for Peyton” I love this book. Not only is it a real fun read it is also beautifully illustrated. I like how there are small activities strewn throughout the book to keep it fascinating for the little ones. A perfect book for bonding with your favorite kids. Reading together is a great way to spend quality time with your loved ones. This book also teaches kids about the five love languages. We all love and feel loved differently. It is important to learn these way so we can love and share love to our fullest extent. Amazing how the authors and illustrators keep your attention while teaching.

sunshinepraises.com

When I first pulled the book out of my bag, Eph grabbed it and wanted to read it. He is an emergent reader and after trying to read a couple of pages by himself, after about a minute he loudly declared he “didn’t like the book” and handed it back to Lu and I. Lu, my lover of animals, was instantly enthralled and caught on quickly to the seek and find.

Now, don’t let Eph’s quick dismissal of the book fool you. As soon as Lu found that first little dragonfly, Eph was listening intently while drawing and by the time that Peyton and Penny reached the The Perfect Pet Pal Emporium, he had discreetly made his way to the couch so he could see the pictures.

The book does a fantastic job of weaving the traits of each of the five love languages throughout the book. By the time you get to the end, the pet placings, you are very aware of each character’s love language. The kids and I had a great talk about the different characteristics and we even compared them to our dog, cat and fish.

I haven’t really had a chance to work with the kids to determine their love language. The book counsels not to put too much emphasis on one or the other but I feel pretty certain that Eph leans towards physical touch and gifts. Lu seems to be more quality time and words of affirmation. I plan on reading the book a few more times and talking them through the questions in the back.

Overall this is a great book to help you understand your child more and to help them understand each other. I highly recommend this book for my readers.

susansdisneyfamily.com

My daughter just loved this book she loved trying to find the hidden characters on the pages, and she had so much fun trying to find the hidden insects, she was so happy when she found them, she had to come and show me.So we now read the book together, and I love the time we spend together, and it is great for her to read to me. My daughter is in 1st grade and it just amazes me each day how big she is getting, and it is just amazing to me that my “baby” can read this book to me.

My little niece also loved this book she is 3 and loved the pictures and thought the animals were great.

I loved all of the animals that are featured in the book, and I love the great messages that the book taught. It was nice for my daughter to have a book that is religious. Now this is not an overtly religious book, it just a great message.

And the animal fun place in the book, I just wish this existed this would be the most awesome birthday party ever!

The book is beautifully illustrated and written well. I would recommend this book for family reading, this is a great book that your little one will love. This book will make a great addition to an Easter basket this year.

theoldcrowsemptynest.com

grettajohns.blogspot.ca

Our kids loved this story and especially liked the bright, colorful illustrations that are found on each page. The story not only teaches the kids about the 5 different love languages but also shows them what speaking their love language means. Each child at the party gets a specific pet that is speaks their exact love language. There are also fun mini-activities scattered throughout the story in the form of “seek and find” activities. On several pages, your child is challenged to find specific animals hidden in the illustrations. This book is one that our son (who loves animals) has actually asked to read several times already. Overall, we really enjoyed this book and it was a fun way to teach our children about how different love can be shown and felt.

yousaytoo.com

This is a wonderfully imaginative hardcover storybook by authors Gary Chapman and Rick Osborne. My husband commented on just how beautifully illustrated it is. The story features four-color illustrations by Wilson Williams, Jr. that includes hidden details. The story is a great story that, I believe, all children will enjoy. It’s about five children who each, with the help of Mr. Chapman and the unique pets at his special emporium, discover their own personal love language. Join twins Peyton and Penny on their amazing birthday adventure! Children and parents alike will experience firsthand the power of the love languages as they cuddle up and spend precious time together reading this book over and over again. The pictures are so bright and beautiful that it really grabbed my boys attention and kept it for the entire story. There is also a 5 Love Languages Quiz at the end of the book that will help kids discover their unique love language. In addition to being a great story and the beautiful illustrations there are hidden details and fun extra’s throughout the story that get your children to interact with the story. They ask the kids to find things on certain pages like the hidden insects in every big picture in the book.

growingforchrist.wordpress.com

theiemommy.com

What a delightful book and a fabulous way to teach children that everyone “loves” a different way. Taking cues from Gary Chapman’s 5 Love Languages of Children… A Perfect Pet for Peyton brings the same concepts to a younger level and explains to kids that everyone has a special “love language”.

Just upon reading this simple child’s book…it was clear that many of my family members have completely different languages then I do.

The illustrations in the book were bright and colorful. They drew your child’s eye to them and brought the story alive. As a mother of twins…it was great to see that the main characters were twins. Penny and Peyton are fraternal twins and it was a delight to show my identical twin girls how each child had a different love language…even though they were twins. It would have been ideal if the main characters had been identical twins.

Penny and Peyton are having a birthday at a fantastic pet emporium that is so much more then just a pet store…boy do I wish a place like this really existed. How exciting!

You’ll enjoy reading this book with your child…and your child will enjoy all the little “seek and find” games that are on various page of the book. It gives the story an interactive vibe and helps younger children stay involved.

This will definitely be a book that will be part of our family for a long time to come.

jsknowlton.blogspot.ca

I absolutely loved this book. It was very interactive with lots of fun things to do on each page like find the insects or identify the birds. This was such a creative way to introduce children to the 5 love languages. There is even a 5 Language Love Quiz at the end. The illustrations are beautiful and will capture your child’s eyes. I read it to my 3 year old and he soaked in all the colorful pictures and even started pointing out things I didn’t see.

groovinmoms.com

If you have been looking for a book for your grandkids, have I got a book for you. A Perfect Pet for Peyton by Rick Osborne and Gary Chapman is an amazing birthday adventure story. Both you and your children will enjoy this fun story celebrating Peyton and Penny (twins) birthday and the full-color illustrations. Starting from the special breakfast, the ride to the pet store and meeting all the wonderful animals. Visiting the aquarium, bird world, the petting zoo and of course the reptile area. What’s a party without pizza and ice cream and opening presents?? The birthday fun goes on to a jungle safari, but all is not as easy and perfect as it seems. Kids (and the grown-ups who love them) learn about what really is important and what really makes them happy. This book includes a 5 Love Language Quiz to help kids identify their unique love language – gifts, words of affirmation, quality time, physical touch, acts of service. This is a very special book to be shared with the ones you love – children and adults too.

growingababyreviews.com

The kids and I recently had the chance to review a new kids’ book that is a little different from other books in their library. This new book is called A Perfect Pet for Peyton

We like this book for a number of reasons. First off, the kids just liked the story and loved the idea of a wonderful pet emporium/theme park with lots of animals wandering around! The illustrations are nice and the story is fun. I like that, beyond the basic story, it’s also a search-and-find book, with animals hidden on many of the pages for you to find!

At the end of the book, after you’ve been introduced to the basic idea of the five love languages, there’s a quiz to take with your kids to identify their main love language. If you’re new to the five love languages concept, it’s a way to identify how you feel loved and make sure that you are communicating love in the way that your family members and friends best understand. I hadn’t thought too much about how my kids most feel loved before I read this book, although I was familiar with the idea. This book was definitely an inspiration to take some time and identify my kids’ different love languages!

All in all, this is a fun book for kids and parents alike. We’ve been reading it often and I know we will continue to read and enjoy it in the future.

snowluvnferret.blogspot.ca

I love children’s books that teach life lessons and that have a positive theme running through it. When I was a child, my mom read with my sister and I and instilled a love of books in us. I received a copy of “A Perfect Pet for Peyton” to review. It is a wonderful children’s emphasizing God and also teaching life lessons while entertaining with a great story and detailed illustrations.

This book is well written and beautifully illustrated. I love how the author also has activities throughout the book to share with your kids, such as “find how many insects are on this page.” I also liked how the illustrator drew children of different ethnic groups so all children could identify with the characters.

The book starts out with twins Penny & Peyton’s birthday adventure and party at Mr. Chapman’s Perfect Pet Pal Emporium. Both the twins and their three friends were going to receive their own pet pal. As story progresses, each child finds adventure, celebrates the birthdays with insect covered pizza, an ice cream sundae of their dreams and open their gifts. But the best part of all is they receive their perfect pet pal based on their own specific love language. Each language is explained and how the pet match is perfect.

Not only does the author discuss the type of animals but he also gives the readers the specific breed, for example African Grey Parrot and Ragdoll Cat. I love the fact it will stimulate the child’s interest in these specific animals. We have an African Grey Parrot so having one as a central character was awesome for me!

The book teaches the kids about the “5 Love Languages” and how each of them are different and how we all need to love everybody in every way. The author also emphasizes that God made each person special. There is a 2 page quiz in the back of the book where you and your child can determine your child’s own love language

abettermedaybyday.com

I have been familiar with Dr. Chapman’s 5 Love Language series for a while now. My husband and I have enjoyed getting to know more about each other and the girls through some of the books based on this. I love that this book makes it easier for kids to start learning about this earlier on. I think it’s important to recognize that different people perceive love and affection differently. It’s important to understand that what be a loving gesture to one, is not necessarily so to someone else, and avoid conflicts by nothing other than misunderstanding of how our words, actions, or lack there of “speak” to others. And, I think that as with so many other things, it’s never too early to start learning… with age appropriate guidance.

The book has been a hit in my home. The girls are REALLY enjoying learning more about the love languages. They seem to be paying more attention to the other’s love language, on their own! I love that there will be a tool now to go to when conflict comes about and we need to go back to making sure we’re “speaking” in the other’s love language so the other person “gets us”.

The girls and I highly recommend this book for a kids’ home library!

onebighealthyfamily.com

I have been MIA lately in bloggerland as I am sure you have noticed. We have some big things happening in our lives right now and big things for a big family become HUGE and all encompassing! I have had some amazing books delivered to me for review in recent weeks that I have squeezed into my reading time and I am looking forward to sharing with you. The first is the children’s book, A Perfect pet for Peyton written by Gary Chapman and Rick Osborne, a book to teach children about love languages.

Many years ago, my husband and I went though The 5 Love Languages book with our weekly bible study group. We did not personally own the book and simply went through 45 minutes of discussion about each of the 5 love languages each week for 5 weeks, so it ended up not really having an effect on us and we didn’t truly figure out what our love languages are because we didn’t fully understand each one at the time. However, in just one reading of A Perfect Pet For Peyton, I understand more about each love language than I did by attending the bible study so many years ago and it has finally dawned on me exactly why I feel loved by some people and unloved by others. My younger children loved the beautiful illustrations by Wilson Williams Jr. and enjoyed searching for the hidden details in each picture which make the book even more interactive. The back pages have a quick overview of each love language so that children (and parents) can figure out what their love language is and most importantly, how to better give love to others. We have now begun the slow process of implementing the main love languages of all 11 children into our lives!

taunyasplace.com

My girls initially said the book was “boring”. I think this was a combination of their age and the fact that I requested them to read it out loud. I did find that once they reached the part where the kids were discovering their pets/language that they found the book interesting. The end of the book is a quiz and I found my girls completing the quiz on their own.

grandmascookiejar.net

Okay, first of all, I absolutely have to say I could have totally done without the illustrations of spiders. Just flat creepy – and completely unnecessary – having bugs, including a tarantula, on a pizza. I thought the story was a bit long-winded, but my grandson enjoyed the story and did want to have it all read to him more than once. It does do a good job of explaining the five love languages and giving examples of what they look like in people . . . if children and parents and grandparents understand the five love languages, they will be able to better understand how they, and others, give and receive love! When we know these things, we are better able to love and serve others, making this a book which all families will enjoy and learn from!

community.babycenter.com

I loved how the book was interactive and the kids spent time trying to find the bugs on each page. I am looking forward to exploring what Love Language fits with each of my children. At 9 & 11 I think the older two will help me figure it out as well. The book itself has a great story and the illustrations are bold and beautiful. The back of the book helps outline the 5 love languages which is a huge help in seeing what characteristics fit each child.

inspiredbysavannah.com

I was recently sent a copy of Gary Chapman and Rick Osborne’s new children’s book, A Perfect Pet for Peyton, to read and review. Unfortunately, my daughters are too young to enjoy this book at the moment, but when they are able, this will definitely be a book worth sharing at it explains the 5 languages of love ( gifts, words of affirmation, quality time, physical touch and acts of service) and how everyone loves differently. Through beautiful illustrations done by Wilson Williams Jr., children will not only enjoy a entertaining story about 5 young children who visit Mr. Chapman’s pet emporium to find the pet that is right for them, but they will also learn about how they love. Even though there are a lot of words on each page, and younger children may get overwhelmed with the text, they will be drawn back into the story, as there are fun hidden pictures on various pages of this book. So, just when they are about to get bored, they are given the task to find a certain # of items on the page.

Once you are done reading this book with your little, they may have questions, or you may want to spark up a conversation about what they learned. Either way, this books provides an outlet for commuting further about being and showing love. I am so glad I had the opportunity to read this book, and can’t wait to share it with my girls. I wonder what love language they will identify with?

rubyslippersschool.com

A Perfect Pet for Peyton has been enjoyed at our home. I read it through on my own first so that I could be familiar with it before reading it to the children. As we were going through it together the first time I felt that the point of the love languages was a little over their heads. I asked them at the end of the story which Perfect Pet they liked/related to more. They gave me their answers but didn’t say much else. I think that the depth of this book will require multiple readings before my brood takes in the full importance of its message.

I believe that the book has been well written and makes it’s message very clear, though I believe it is better suited for kids 10 and up only because of the depth of the message.

That being said my 3 year old enjoyed taking in the bright pictures and hearing the book read aloud. All of my children have looked through the book on their own.

I would recommend this book to any parent, grandparent, aunt or uncle who have young children in their lives. Any who desire that the language of love be opened up to that young someone special.

Tags: a perfect pet for peyton, children, five love languages, gary chapman, kids, picture books, rick osborne

5 Love Languages for Kids

March 12, 2012 by Rick Osborne
Filed under Family

1 Comment

Sometimes, something as small as a very short email can start something very big. I received such an email from a friend at Northfield Publishers.

Most of you are probably familiar with the New York Times Best Seller, The 5 Love Languages. It has sold over 7 million copies and is still going strong. It’s been on the NY Times best sellers list for 240 weeks and as of right now is #1 on the appropriate list.

A profile of its author, Dr. Gary Chapman, aired on NBC’s Today show on February 25th. Shortly after the piece–guided by Janet Shamilian–wrapped up, the book skyrocketed to the top of book charts again as viewers scrambled to get their own copies.

It’s a simple but profound book that has changed people’s lives. Elisabeth Hasselbeck of the television show the View held the book up on the show last year and said that it had forever changed her marriage.

Briefly, the idea behind the book is that we all give and receive love differently or we all speak different Love Languages. When we know someone’s Love Language we can more easily and effectively show them our love. The languages are; Words of Affirmation, Gifts, Acts of Service, Physical Touch and Quality Time.

One of the examples that Dr. Chapman uses in his book is of a couple that came to him for counseling when they both felt completely unloved by each other. The husband felt he was doing as he should; he helped with the chores, remodeled the house constantly to match his wife’s vision, kept up the yard and garden and did anything else he could think of to make his wife happy, yet she wasn’t.

Her complaint was that he didn’t spend time with her. Dr. Chapman showed them that the husband’s love language was Acts of Service and the wife’s was Quality Time. The husband was screaming “I love you” in a love language his wife didn’t understand. With the doctor’s help the husband learned to stop doing so much and put aside Quality Time to spend with his wife. She in turn learned to do more things for him and to appreciate the things he was doing for her. Their marriage was not only saved, but a few months later they reported that they were both feeling loved and their marriage was better than it had ever been.

As Gary Chapman traveled the country teaching tens of thousands of couples just like that one about the 5 Love Languages, one question was consistently asked him by parents who’s marriages had been strengthened; “How can we teach our kids about the 5 Love Languages?”

Gary knew that the emotionally healthiest and happiest adults are those who are not only loved as kids, but also taught how to give and receive love. I didn’t know it, but Dr. Chapman was walking around with a passion to develop a book that he could hand to parents that would help them sit down and teach their children how to give and receive love. The problem was–and in his words–“I didn’t know how to do it and I knew I needed someone to work with, who did.”

Dr. Chapman talked about this vision of his with his publisher who is also a friend of mine. The short email I talked about earlier was sent to me from that mutual friend soon afterwards.

The result is a wonderful children’s picture book written by Dr. Gary Chapman and myself called ‘A Perfect Pet for Peyton’.

All those parents who talked to Gary can celebrate; the 5 Love Languages for Kids is here. A book specifically designed to help parents raise kids who know how to give and receive love. Kids will love the engaging story and the amazing illustrations done by Wilson Williams Jr. Parents will love the content and the introduction their kids will get to the 5 Love Languages. There’s even a 5 Love Languages quiz for kids in the back of the book that will help the whole family identify their own love language.

I greatly enjoyed working on this book with Dr. Chapman and we both know that a little email has turned into a big thing for kids and families everywhere. Thank you to everyone involved!

Buy this book at AMAZON

Tags: 5 love languages, 5 love languages for kids, a perfect pet for peyton, acts of service, dr. chapman, gary chapman, gifts, physical touch, quality time, rick osborne, words of affirmation

Christians and The Oscars

March 6, 2010 by Rick Osborne
Filed under Rick's Rants

How To Twitter The Bible

July 20, 2009 by Rick Osborne
Filed under Rick's Rants

14 Comments

Here’s a piece of trivia that I discovered while writing this post which every Christian Tweep will enjoy. The average Bible verse is 25 words in length and the average number of characters needed to Tweet a Bible verse properly is 140.

There is a huge and growing Christian presence on Twitter and it has become a great place to publish God’s truth. It’s an awesome platform for Christians around the world to speak God’s Word to each other, building each other up and encouraging one other. However, the 140 character limit means that there are many verses in the Bible that cannot be tweeted easily. If we want to leave room for retweeting and a small amount of personal commentary, we are left with even fewer verses that can be tweeted. Therefore, certain shortcuts are being taken to reduce the number of characters needed to tweet a verse.

Which brings me to the primary reason for writing this article. As more and more Christians get on Twitter and join the wonderful and unprecedented global Christian conversation, it would be valuable for us to have some guidelines for tweeting Bible verses. As most of you know, the Bible wasn’t written with chapters and verses, they were added later to help facilitate the reading, studying, referencing and sharing of God’s Word. In other words, they facilitate our conversation over the Bible. Social networking is enhancing that conversation, but with its preference to brevity, it is also changing the conversation’s format and structure. With these changes come the need for new shared guidelines.

For that we need to talk about several things; shortening the text of Bible verses without compromising them, shortening the Bible references (and the importance of tweeting the reference), dealing with Bible versions and their copyright requirements and also how to add helpful commentary while making it clear which words have been added.

1. Using Twitter Shorthand To Tweet The Bible

The acronym-style abbreviations used in texting are obviously not very useful for condensing Bible verses. The words that 143, lol, rofl, btw, etc shorten, do not occur very often in the Bible’s text.

What we can use is the language of Twitter. Twitter language incorporates simple devices that reduce the number of characters needed without compromising readability. Here are the basics:

When possible replace words with a single number. (one = 1, to, two and too = 2, four and for = 4 etc.)
When possible replace words with a single letter. (be = B, see = c, are and our = r, you = u, why = y)
Of course there are combinations of the above. (before = B4 etc.)
Hybrid words using the above work as well. (4tune, 4got, 4get, gr8)
Don’t forget to use the symbols when you can. (and = &, at = @ etc.
As long as it’s still immediately obvious what the word is, feel free to leave out letters. (the = th, that = tht, work = wrk etc.)
Spell phonetically when it allows you to save characters. (luv, giv, sry, thx, thru) We need to use this sparingly on only the obvious and secondary words or the reading becomes laborious.

The great thing about Twitter language is that you don’t have to learn or memorize it. Once you understand the concepts, they’re easy to apply; use numbers, symbols and single letters when you can and shorten words by eliminating letters and/or spelling phonetically when possible.

These rules don’t compromise the scriptures integrity or readability and since just the words to, for and be occur in the Bible a total of more than 35,000 times, these shortcuts really help.

2. Twittering Bible Verse References in a Compact Way

Including the reference for the Bible verses that you tweet is important. If a person is encouraged by the verse, they may want to look it up and benefit from the context and a deeper reading. If the person reading it is not familiar with the verse and you’ve left off the reference, then the tweet no longer carries the authority of scripture because the reader doesn’t know where it came from.

Traditionally, if you wanted to quote the first verse from Ecclesiastes 3, you’d need to follow the verse with (Ecclesiastes 3:1) That’s 18 characters. Fortunately you can use the abbreviation (Eccles. 3:1) or the even shorter one (Eccl 3:1). We have these shortened versions because in the past an ever increasing need for brevity has called for their creation. Now a new need calls for even shorter abbreviations.

If we remove the parenthesis, which aren’t necessary, and eliminate the spaces, we save characters without losing clarity. Further, most Bible book abbreviations can be reduced down to two or three letters. That would reduce our example reference to Ec3:1, down from 18 characters to five.

Here’s my table of Twitterized Bible book abbreviations:

Genesis	Gn	Job	Jb	Habakkuk	Hb	Colossians	Cl
Exodus	Ex	Psalms	Ps	Zephaniah	Zp	1 Thessalonians	1Th
Leviticus	Lv	Proverbs	Pr	Haggai	Hg	2 Thessalonians	2Th
Numbers	Nm	Ecclesiastes	Ec	Zachariah	Zc	1 Timothy	1Tm
Deuteronomy	Dt	Song of Songs	Sg	Malachi	Ml	2 Timothy	2Tm
Joshua	Jo	Isaiah	Is	(New Testament)		Titus	Ti
Judges	Jg	Jeremiah	Jr	Matthew	Mt	Philemon	Pm
Ruth	Ru	Lamentations	Lm	Mark	Mk	Hebrews	He
1 Samuel	1S	Ezekiel	Ez	Luke	Lk	James	Ja
2 Samuel	2S	Daniel	Dn	John	Jn	1 Peter	1P
1 Kings	1K	Hosea	Hs	Acts	Ac	2 Peter	2P
2 Kings	2K	Joel	Jl	Romans	Ro	1 John	1J
1 Chronicles	1Ch	Amos	Am	1 Corinthians	1Co	2 John	2J
2 Chronicles	2Ch	Obadiah	Ob	2 Corinthians	2Co	3 John	3J
Ezra	Ez	Jonah	Jon	Galatians	Gl	Jude	Ju
Nehemiah	Ne	Micah	Mi	Ephesians	Ep	Revelation	Rv

If you’d like to see a table that shows all of the Bible books and all of their abbreviations (as they’ve got progressively shorter over the years) you can find it here.

Another very obvious way to Twitter Bible verses and keep the character count down is to only tweet part of the verse. Many verses contain more than one sentence and it’s alright to just tweet the one that you’d like to share. (Remember the verse divisions were added later.) Galatians 5:6 has two sentences and the second one is short and can stand alone as an inspirational tweet, “What is important is faith expressing itself in love.” When we chop up a verse some feel it’s necessary to add a letter to the reference to let people know that you are not quoting the whole verse. To do this (if you feel so inclined) identify the first sentence with the letter ‘a’ the second with a ‘b’ etc. So the above verse would be referenced Gl5:6b.

If we chop a verse up in the middle of a sentence we shouldn’t add an arbitrary period. Some use three periods (…) to show that the sentence continues but since that uses 3 characters, I suggest an underscore (_).

3. Bible Versions & Copyrights

The copyright holders of all modern Bible translations allow us to quote from their version without using a full copyright notice as long as we publish their logo acronym with the verse (NIV, NLT etc). However, Tweeps are not including the required copyright notation merely because it uses up an additional 3 or 4 characters. I’m going to go out on a limb here and suggest a compromise. The key word, the one that makes the version’s name unique is often represented by the middle initial(s). If we use only these one or two letters, it is still clear which version we are quoting from and I’m thinking that the copyright holders would rather have that than nothing.

Here are my suggested new logo abbreviations for some of the most popular Bible versions:

New International Version	NIV	I
New King James Version	NKJV	NK
New Living Translation	NLT	L
The Message	MSG	M
New American Standard	NAS	NA
New Century Version	NCV	NC
Today’s New International Version	TNIV	TI
Amplified Translation	AT	A
New Revised Standard Version	NRSV	NR
(Copyright © 2009 Lightwave Publishing Inc.)

4. Bible Commentary (Twittertary)

I find that adding personal Bible commentary helps make your Bible tweets more relevant to Twitter. They don’t get scan-read as quickly, they can be made relevant to the current trending topics and they start conversations more readily. For us to ensure that the readers know which words are ours, we should use this order; verse, reference, twittertary. This order clearly separates the Bible’s words from yours. Here are a few examples:

What is important is faith expressing itself in love. Gl5:6bL When R love is showing so is R Faith. : )

As iron sharpens iron as a friend sharpens a friend. Pr27:17L _or as a follower sharpens a follower. : )

If Bible Twittertary is all we are tweeting, we should still include the reference that supports the comment. In this case we can simply use the letter ‘C’ for ‘see.’

When we R not acting in love we R not expressing & living R Faith. : ) C Ga5:6

Just for fun I did an online search of over 25 versions of the Bible and found the word ‘twitter’ twice; once in the NASB and once in The Message. In both verses the authors (David and Hezekiah) were praying and they compared the noises they made while praying to God for help to the twitter of a bird.

Like a swallow, {like} a crane, so I twitter; I moan like a dove; My eyes look wistfully to the heights; O Lord, I am oppressed, be my security. Isa 38:14 NASB

Insomniac, I twitter away, mournful as a sparrow in the gutter. Ps 102:7 The Message

David and Hezekiah twittered before the Lord and now we all benefit from reading about it. Likewise, our tweets should benefit and minister God’s truth to our readers. This new system for brevity can help us all do that well in 140 characters.

Two last tweets:

Let everything U say B good & helpful, so tht your wrds will B an encouragement 2 those who hear them. Ep4:29b Words & tweets. : )

Insomniac, I twitter away, mournful as a sparrow in the gutter. Ps102:7M Apparently twittering kept David up as well. : )

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Heaven’s Tears

May 21, 2009 by Rick Osborne
Filed under Encouragement, Rick's Rants

1 Comment

A popular song called, ‘I Can Only Imagine’ invites us to imagine what it will be like when we meet up with Jesus after our death. Although I absolutely love the song, there’s one thing I wonder about when I hear it. The song doesn’t contemplate or mention the possibility of tears. Probably because of a certain verse in the book of Revelation.

He will remove all of their sorrows, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. For the old world, and it’s evils are gone forever. (Revelation 21:4 NLT)

There will be no sorrow or crying or pain because the old world will have passed away. In other words, there will be nothing to cause sorrow, pain and tears. No sin, no selfish hurtful people, no fallen planet with it’s disasters, no sickness or disease, etc.

That will be wonderful! However, again I wonder about the tears. Doesn’t it seem to you like there’s a place in Heaven for the good kind of tears? This morning during my prayer time, I felt a wonderful connection with God that brought me to tears. Sometimes when I hold my wife or hug my children, attend a wedding or even think of how much I love my granddaughter, I’m moved to tears.

Yes, I’m a sentimental guy, but I’m in good company. The Bible records David crying a lot and once he’s mentioned as weeping until he had no strength left to cry. Then there’s Jeremiah the weeping prophet who wept over God’s people, their refusal to listen to God and their coming destruction.

Out of all the weeping Bible characters though, my personal favorite is Joseph. When his brothers (who had sold him as a slave and thought he was dead) came to Egypt, he secretly overheard them lamenting what they had done to him and he wept. Joseph wept again when he was reunited with his younger brother Benjamin. When he finally told his brothers who he was, forgiveness and love flowed. The Bible said he wept so loudly that he was heard throughout the palace. When he was reunited with his dad, the Bible says that Joseph hugged him and wept on his shoulder for a long time. When his dad died, Joseph threw himself on his body and wept over him and kissed him.

David and Jeremiah cried mostly as a result of sin – and the sorrow that it left in it’s wake. Joseph’s weeping came mostly when relationship was restored, needed to be restored or because it was (in the case of his dad’s death) temporarily suspended.

Let’s not forget the Bible’s most famous verse about tears, ‘Jesus wept’ (John 11:35). A verse recorded when Jesus arrived on the scene to raise His good friend Lazarus from the dead and saw everyone else weeping. The Bible records that twice during this event, Jesus was deeply moved. So was that just something Jesus did as a man? Jesus said, “If you’ve seen me you’ve seen the Father.” Jesus represented God in everything he did, even in his tears. The ability to be deeply moved and show emotions are something God gave us from Himself.

I love what happened when Mary Magdalene and Jesus were reunited after Jesus’ resurrection.

Then the disciples went back to their homes, but Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?” “They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.”

At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus. “Woman,” he said, “why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?” Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.” Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher). (John 20:10 – 16)

In a moment Mary went from tears of grief, confusion and pain, to tears of joy, amazement and thankfulness. Notice the angels and our Lord didn’t object to Mary’s tears. They only questioned her reason, “Why are you crying?”

Isaiah prophesied that Jesus would comfort those who mourn by replacing beauty for ashes, joy for mourning and praise for despair. (Isaiah 61:3) It’s true that ashes (devastation), mourning (loss) and despair (hopelessness) all cause sorrowful tears. However, beauty (restoration), joy (hope) and praise (thankfulness) also cause tears, but the kind we love to shed.

Before the fall, God created Adam and Eve with tear ducts and the ability to cry, weep and shed tears. Although I look forward to the day that there will be no sorrowful reasons to weep, I believe that tears of beauty, joy and praise should flow now and I’m hoping for all eternity. I believe that the book of Revelation is talking about tears of sorrow and not the tears our tear ducts were created to shed.

For those of you who think that heaven will be relatively emotionless and therefore practicing stoic frigidity now, my advice to you is to stop balling it all up inside and let it loose! God is love and he invented it’s emotion, it’s expression, and it’s tears. When you’re connecting with God and those you love, don’t be afraid to wear your love on your sleeve. Those tears bring God glory!

For those of you who are shedding tears of sorrow, don’t give way to despair. God has promised you restoration and has given you reason to hope and be thankful. He understands your tears and what you’ve been through and he’s there to comfort you. He’s also gently asking you, “Why are you crying?” because he wants you to look to him with hope, faith and expectation, trusting that he will turn your tears of sorrow into tears of restoration and joy.

The fact that the song (I Can Only Imagine) leaves out the possibility of tears becomes ironic when you realize how many of us have cried listening to it. If the very thought of seeing our Lord on that day brings us to tears, what will hold them back when it really happens? I don’t know about you, but I can imagine what I’ll be doing, I’ll be pulling a Joseph and breaking down and weeping tears of joy in His loving arms. And you better hope you’re not in the lineup behind me because I’ll be there for a long time.

For help with teaching your children about their Faith, check out The Singing Bible.

(RICK OSBORNE / Christian Author, Speaker & Dad)

Tags: angel, angels, bible, cry, devastation, egypt, emotions, forgiveness, god, heaven, heaven's tears, I can only imagine, jeremiah the weeping prophet, Jesus, jesus wept, joseph, lazarus from the dead, love, loving, mary magdalene, no sorrow, prayer, restoration, revelation, rick-osborne.com, shed tears, tears, tears of joy, tears of sorrow, weep

Be Still

March 28, 2009 by Rick Osborne
Filed under Encouragement

8 Comments

To say that I had a lot of stuff on the go would have been a massive understatement. I was doing a major renovation on the home that I had just bought, I was trying to sub-divide part of the property and resell it, I was building my ministry/business for which I had several large publishing projects underway, I was the associate pastor of a new church that was growing like a weed and I had just become a new dad. You could say that I was starting to feel like I had perhaps bitten off more than I could chew. Over and above those pressures, I was also getting to know my banker quite well since I was dealing with a mortgage, a second mortgage for renovations and a small business loan and in order for everything to work out financially, I needed to meet my business and renovation deadlines and sell part of my property.

Now I had sincerely and thoroughly prayed about each item on the above list before moving forward and I thought I was trusting God to get me to the other side of my mini Red Sea adventure before the walls of water came crashing back down. However, without really noticing it, I had slipped into worry mode.

I was walking from one thing to the next and my mind was racing, worrying, and trying to figure out how all this could possibly work out when something happened that I had never experienced before or since. I heard God call my name, loudly. I can’t tell you if I heard it outside of me or inside or both, but I do know the voice was stern but loving and I somehow knew beyond any doubt that it was God.

The call was so sudden and loud that all of my thoughts and my legs stopped abruptly at the same time. I was still and God had my complete attention. Here’s what flashed through my mind in the next few seconds. “Did you give your whole life to God and entrust Him with it?” Of course the answer was, “Yes Lord”. Then these words followed, “So are you saying (by my worrying and fretting) that God is not a good steward over the things He’s been given charge of?”

Standing there stone still on the sidewalk of a semi busy street I did not literally go to my knees but I did in my heart. I instantly realized how much worrying and doubting that I was doing and I asked God to please forgive me and to help me keep my mind focused on Him, His promises, His love for me and His amazing ability. When I could get my feet moving again, I carried on calmly and from that moment on whenever I started to slip back into worry mode, I stopped in my tracks and reconnected with God.

Remember the Sunday morning chorus, “Be Still and Know That I Am God?” I loved the song and the verse (Psalms 46:10) but for years I (sadly) looked at in in a very poetic way; you know, as a beautiful thought without much practical application except for in a worship service. I was so wrong. When we start to worry and fret, our minds are anything but still and our trust in God is anything but active. When God stopped me, He made me still and He got me thinking about who He was, what he’d promised and what He was capable of doing. In other words, “Stop, still your mind, stop worrying and know that He is GOD, with all that, that means; He is capable, powerful, faithful, loving, all knowing, trustworthy, with you, for you, willing to help, your Father in Heaven.”

In a nutshell, stop worrying about what could go wrong and start focusing on what God will do.

In preparation for this blog, I looked up the words ‘be still’ in the Bible and found it there seven times and each one shows us something wonderful about the practice of being still.

The first time the two word phrase is mentioned in the Bible Moses and the Israelites were caught between the Egyptian army and the Red Sea.

As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians, marching after them. They were terrified and cried out to the Lord. They said to Moses, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? Didn’t we say to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians’? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!”
Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the LORD will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still.”
Then the LORD said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on. Raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea to divide the water so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground. (Exodus 14:10 – 16)

The Israelites were freaking out and Moses told them to be still and showed them who God was and what He was capable of. Are you between a rock and a hard place right now? Stop and be still, focus on God and His ability to help you instead of the problem’s ability to harm you. God is greater than the problem.

The second time the phrase occurs was when Nehemiah and Ezra were reacquainting God’s people with His law.

Then Nehemiah the governor, Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who were instructing the people said to them all, “This day is sacred to the LORD your God. Do not mourn or weep.” For all the people had been weeping as they listened to the words of the Law. Nehemiah said, “Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is sacred to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the LORD is your strength.” The Levites calmed all the people, saying, “Be still, for this is a sacred day. Do not grieve.” (Nehemiah 8:9 – 11)

Why were they weeping and mourning? Because they and their ancestors had not measured up to God’s law and they were probably not sure that they could. Are you fretting because you feel like you haven’t measured up to God’s expectations and/or you feel like you can’t. Be still and rejoice because the joy of the Lord is your strength. In other words, don’t focus on your inability, focus on the fact that Jesus died for you because you couldn’t do it on your own. He’s promised to work His righteousness in you. It’s the joy of knowing that the Lord died for you and will work in you and help you that is your strength.

The third mention is as wonderful.

Trust in the LORD and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.
Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.
Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him and he will do this:
He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun.
Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him; do not fret when men succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes. (Psalms 37:3 – 7)

When we are faithfully following and trusting God, He takes care of us, keeps us safe, gives us things to enjoy, gives us our heart’s desires, guides us and works His righteousness in us. However, sometimes we lose hope because we don’t see it happening the way we expected it to and we see others who don’t do things God’s way doing well and we see wickedness succeeding. The Word says be still, get your eyes on God and what He can do and wants to do in your life, and then wait patiently. His timing is perfect.

The fourth time ‘be still’ appears it carries a timely message.

Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall; he lifts his voice, the earth melts.
The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. “Selah”
Come and see the works of the Lord, the desolations he has brought on the earth.
He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth; he breaks the bow and shatters the spear, he burns the shields with fire.
“Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”
The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. “Selah” (Psalms 46:6 – 11)

It’s easy to get unsettled when looking at what’s going on in the world, war, genocide, famine, natural disasters and global recession. However, God reminds us here that we should be still and know that He’s in control. His plan for the nations is on track and He is Almighty and well able to care for us His children during tough times. Are you fretting because of what you’re seeing in the news or because of the economy? Be still and know He is The Lord Almighty.

The next Biblical appearance reminds us of why we can be still.

For the day has come to destroy all the Philistines and to cut off all survivors who could help Tyre and Sidon. The LORD is about to destroy the Philistines, the remnant from the coasts of Caphtor.
Gaza will shave her head in mourning; Ashkelon will be silenced. O remnant on the plain, how long will you cut yourselves?
” ‘Ah, sword of the Lord,’ [ you cry,] ‘how long till you rest? Return to your scabbard; cease and be still.’
But how can it rest when the LORD has commanded it, when he has ordered it to attack Ashkelon and the coast?” (Jeremiah 47:4 – 7)

We can be still because the sword of the Lord (His Word, His promise) is not. The Philistines in our lives (whatever plagues us and comes against us) are being pursued and taken care of by our Father in Heaven who cares for us. We can be still and know that He is God and He’s at work!

Are you fretting because the world seems to be going to hell (literally) in a hand basket.

“Shout and be glad, O Daughter of Zion. For I am coming, and I will live among you,” declares the Lord.
“Many nations will be joined with the LORD in that day and will become my people. I will live among you and you will know that the LORD Almighty has sent me to you.
The LORD will inherit Judah as his portion in the holy land and will again choose Jerusalem.
Be still before the Lord, all mankind, because he has roused himself from his holy dwelling.” (Zechariah 2:10 – 12)

God’s salvation plan is on track. HE IS GOD! Instead of worrying and complaining about the direction we see the world around us going in, we can be still and know that He’s in control and with that confidence, get up and start doing our part to further His Kingdom.

Jesus knew the Old Testament back to front when he was here on earth. So although he doesn’t say so, when he used the words ‘be still’ he knew the context. Here’s the seventh and final Biblical use of these two wonderful words:

Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!” (Mark 4:38 – 41)

The disciples found themselves in the middle of a storm and they were freaking out because they thought that they were going to die. They woke Jesus up and He told the wind and the waves to be still. Then he basically asked them why they had not been still. I find it interesting that the disciples were left asking, “Who is this?” Was Jesus saying to his disciples, “Be still and know that I am God”?

When we’re not calm, the storm can overwhelm us. But when we’re still and know that He is God, He overcomes the storm.

We can BE STILL (stop worrying and fretting) in the midst of the storm when personal troubles abound, when a global recession hits, when we don’t think we can measure up or make it through, when we see the world around us taking the wrong course, because HE IS GOD! He is able, He is in control, His plan is on track and He loves us. As we trust Him, His promises and His efforts on our behalf, are never still.

The story I opened with happened long ago but I learned a valuable lesson that I’ve never forgotten. The basement suite was finished on time and the renters moved in and the publishing projects were all completed on time. Through a wonderful set of God arranged circumstances, the property was sub-divided and sold faster than I had imagined possible, the church kept growing and I was able to spend valuable time each day with my wonderful new daughter. Everything worked out perfectly and after my sidewalk encounter, I started to enjoy the process because I wasn’t frantic with fretting.

As an added bonus, years later when I sold that house, I did the math and was amazed at Gods goodness. I added up every expense including mortgage payments, property taxes, renovation costs, maintenance etc. Then I added up the money in rent, the money from selling part of the property, the net proceeds of the sale etc. and it turned out that I not only lived in that home for free for six years, but I also made a large profit beyond that.

More importantly I learned that “be still and know that I am God” isn’t just a wonderful poetic line from Psalms, but a life changing habit and constant reminder that Jesus is in my boat. Whenever I start to slip back into worry, I return to that still moment on the sidewalk, reconnect with God and move forward in peace knowing that He is God.

What are you fretting about right now? Use this moment to start develop the Bible’s diagnosed habit for arresting worry, be still and know that He is God.

For help with teaching your children about their Faith, check out The Singing Bible.

(RICK OSBORNE / Christian Author, Speaker & Dad)

Tags: all knowing, be still, be still and know that i am god, bible, church, complaining, dad, doubting, Economy, faithful, father in heaven, frantic, fret, fretting, global recession, god, Jesus, lord, loving, ministry, pastor, peace, personal troubles, powerful, problems, psalms, salvation, trusting god, trustworthy, worrying

Five Dollar Fridays

February 10, 2009 by Rick Osborne
Filed under Economy

5 Comments

On the morning of February 9th while running stationary on my treadmill, I watched President Obama speak live from Elkhart Indiana where the unemployment rate is now over 15%. That evening I again saw the President live. This time he was addressing the nation about the need for his stimulus package. Later, propped up in my bed, this news junkie watched a show that compared the Great Depression to what is happening in our economy today.

The one thing that struck me, the one continually trumpeted common thread running through it all, was the urgent need to restore consumer confidence. In the great depression, people lost confidence in the banks and began to stuff their mattresses with any remaining cash and hoard it. With everyone hanging on to their money, businesses began to suffer and had to lay people off. As the unemployment rate increased more and more, people sat more firmly on their cash-stuffed mattresses and the vicious cycle continued. In the end, thirteen million people ended up unemployed. According to Wikipedia, that meant that 34 million people were members of families with no wage earner. Even though today’s unemployment figures do not compare with the greater than 25% unemployment rate of the Great Depression, where will we end up if consumer confidence is not restored?

President Obama said that a further erosion of confidence could lead us into deeper economic trouble and the stats testify to this truth. With every passing month, the number of people spending decreases and the amount of layoffs announced increases. Everyone knows that this stimulus package must restore consumer confidence because there just isn’t enough money to turn the economy around without it.

Franklin D. Roosevelt became President of the United States in the midst of the Great Depression and expressed the same thoughts in his famous inaugural speech, “So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear… is fear itself — nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. In every dark hour of our national life a leadership of frankness and vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory.”

I fell asleep with my mind awash with news flashes and facts but three hours later I was staring at the ceiling with my mind more focused on what was bothering me; the math! There’s almost 400 million people living in the United States and Canada. If 700 billion is injected into the US economy, that represents about $1,750.00 per person. If the government wrote checks to every man, woman and child for that amount, would it turn the economy around? More than likely not. Why? Because we’d put it in our proverbial mattresses until our confidence returned.

As I lay wide awake thinking, in the wee hours of the morning, another famous line from an inaugural speech pulled my thoughts in another direction. Nearing the end of his short, but legendary inaugural address, John F. Kennedy said, “And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you–ask what you can do for your country.”

President Obama said that the only organization with enough resources to avert financial disaster is the government of the United States and that brought to my mind even more weighty and historic words, “We the people…” Less than $2,000.00 a person will not guarantee recovery but we the people can if we’re willing to pull together and ask what we can do for our economy and our children’s future.

Laying there, restless and wishing I could sleep, the words ‘Five Dollar Fridays’ repeated themselves over and over until they were etched in my brain and I quietly got up to write this post. What I’m about to propose is simple logic and even simpler math. However, I’m convinced that if enough people catch the vision, we the people, truly the only organization with enough resources, can avert disaster.

Why $5 bills? Because of several amazing coincidences that tie the $5 dollar bill to what we’re talking about.

In 1933, as an emergency response to the Great Depression, tons of money was printed and pumped into the American economy. A special $5 bill was introduced for the task.

The most recent version of the $5 bill began circulating on March 13, 2008 right around the time that this current recession reportedly started.

The President who appears stoic and unmoved on both of these versions of the $5 bill is Abraham Lincoln. A president who some would say led the people of the United States through the greatest internal struggle of it’s history, and most would say played a huge part in preparing the way for Barak Obama to be able to become President of the United States.

February 12th 2009, is the commemoration of Abraham Lincoln’s 200th birthday.

For all of the reasons stated above, I believe that we the people should step up, not relying on what the government can do for us, but what we can do for the country and flood the economy ourselves with this new $5 bill in celebration of President Lincoln’s birthday and use his bill to again fight the internal crisis we face.

If on this Friday and every successive Friday, every individual and family (in the US and Canada) heads out to the market place and spends just $5 (a symbol of the movement) per person, more than what they would have otherwise spent, 2 billion dollars will be injected into the economy in one day. We must not go into debt to do this, that’s a big part of how we got into this mess. Some won’t be able to afford even this, but in the spirit of community, those of us who can afford to spend more, could give more and also give to those around us who can’t so they can get involved.

If those who can afford to spend many $5 bills do spend more, we’ll easily quadruple our one day goal and 8 billion dollars will be injected directly into the blood stream of our economy.

What if businesses small and large were to get involved and help motivate everyone with $5 specials on ‘Five Dollar Fridays?’ We could inject even more cash and more consumer confidence. As an added bonus, Fridays would become a community day-out with everyone having fun while we’re all solving our crisis together.

No one knows how long it will take the economy to turn around and many doubt that trickling down $2,000 per person will help speed recovery in a huge way. However, everyone agrees that restored consumer confidence is what we need. If we celebrate a year of ‘Five Dollar Fridays’, as the excitement and ripple effect spreads, over 500 billion dollars will have been shot right into our local and national economies with probably a far greater economic impact than the 700 billion provided from the government, and all without incurring any further debt.

In President Barak Obama’s inaugural address he said, “For as much as government can do and must do, it is ultimately the faith and determination of the American people upon which this nation relies.”

In Abraham Lincoln’s first inaugural address he said this, “Intelligence, patriotism, Christianity, and a firm reliance on Him who has never yet forsaken this favored land are still competent to adjust in the best way all our present difficulty.”

This Friday, after a good night’s sleep, I’m going out with my family and a bunch of $5 bills and I’m going to do my part. Will you join me for the recovery party?

Yes WE can do this!

For help with teaching your children about their Faith, check out Teaching Your Child to Pray.

(RICK OSBORNE / Christian Author, Speaker & Dad)

Tags: $5 dollar bill, abraham lincoln, americans, canada, christianity, consumer confidence, Economy, five dollar fridays, franklin roosevelt, great depression, inaugural speech, john f. kennedy, president barak obama, president obama, stimulus package, unemployment rate, united states

Super Bowl or Gospel Bowl?

January 28, 2009 by Rick Osborne
Filed under Sports

3 Comments

There are many sports writers who write about Faith when a top athlete is both a contender and a Christian. So I thought that I, a Faith writer, should return the favor and write about sports for the same reason. Especially since I’m an avid football fan and I’ll be watching the Super Bowl.

The outspoken Christian athlete that’s getting all of the sports writers attention is the Arizona Cardinal’s QB Kurt Warner who will be leading his team against the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl 43. When the Cardinals won the NFC playoff game, pretty much the first thing Kurt said in his interview was, “I want to thank my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” Kurt Warner is quite vocal about his Faith. Once, when he appeared on Oprah, he was told that he had about three sentences. So he decided to use the second sentence to talk about Jesus, figuring that it would be harder for them to cut it out. They cut it out, anyway.

However, before talking about Mr. Warner any further, I would like to look at some other ways that we, the Body of Christ, have tried and are trying to use the Super Bowl (and other sporting events) to spread the Word. More specifically, I’d like to start a discussion about their effectiveness and what the Bible says about our efforts. Let me say in advance, I’m filing this post under ‘Rick’s rants’ so be ready for it, and if you disagree, jump on in, your comments are welcome. : )

First let me address something that frankly doesn’t make any sense to me at all, the John 3:16 signs. I’ve supplied a link to a video explaining how these signs became part of our pop culture. Briefly, a man named Rollen Stewart, aka ‘The Rainbow Man’ (because he wore a large multicolored wig) was the one who made the now famous sporting event sign famous. Rollen started out trying to make a name for himself by appearing on camera at sporting events dancing with his wig on. He preplanned his position and watch the game on a small portable TV so he’d know when to dance. He got a lot of press.

One night in a hotel room, he watched a televangelist and gave his life to Christ. Shortly after that, he started showing up with the John 3:16 sign with the same wig and strategy, but this time, his motivation was to promote the gospel with his few seconds of camera time. He appeared everywhere and again got a ton of exposure and the John 3:16 sign became an expected sight at sporting events.

Unfortunately, Rollen got banned from sporting events for his antics, and his gospel publicity stunt ideas started to get weird. His last one involved a gun and a kidnapping. He’s currently serving three life sentences behind bars. Something that seemed like a good thing did not end well.

Something is happening at this year’s Super Bowl that reminds me of Rollen’s sign. This year’s festivities are in Florida and one group of Christians have hired an aerial ad company to fly over the Super Bowl towing this message, ‘The Super Bowl champion is Jesus’.

The Bible says, “How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?” and, “Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.” (Romans 10:14, 17)

There was a time in our culture when there was prayer and Bible reading in schools and tent meetings on every corner. Maybe then, a scripture reference or short sign, might have reminded people of what they already knew and caused them to respond. However, we now live in a society where very few of the people who need the Gospel, know this scripture reference. Those who do, have no idea what it means and more specifically, what it should mean to them.

The gospel isn’t a Bible verse or a slogan. It’s the most incredible story ever told, and the message of God’s grace and salvation. God meant for us to ‘go’ explain it and share it with our neighbors, not flash them a sign. I’m not saying that God can’t use these signs in some way. However, expecting someone who needs to hear the Gospel to get saved, by seeing one of these signs, is kind of like trusting that you can get your teenager to pass his grade ten math exam, just by showing him the cover of the text book.

If you must flash a sign, then how about one that communicates part of God’s message to everyone like ‘Jesus loves you.’ Also, what does ‘The Super Bowl champion is Jesus’ mean? If you must use a football metaphor in the message, how about ‘You are Jesus’ #1 draft choice’. Corny, but at least it communicates a small part of the Gospel message.

I probably have a few of you ready to comment already, but stick with me for a bit. Let’s talk about players who feel that ‘giving God the glory’, for a win or a great play, is their responsibility and somehow makes a difference. Players will either use their words or their index fingers to point to heaven in order to fulfill this obligation.

There are many Bible verses in the New Testament that talk about giving God the glory. I’ll list some of the key ones below so that you can do a study on your own. For now though, let me give you a brief summary of the concept. In John 9:24, the Pharisees confront a man who was born blind, yet healed by Jesus, and they tell him to ‘Give God the Glory’. According to Easton’s Bible Dictionary, at the time this phrase was an idiom that meant ‘Confess your sins’. Or in other words, credit should be given to God for whatever is accomplished in you or through you because you’re nothing but a sinner.

Essentially that sums up the New Testaments position on giving God the glory. We are saved by faith in His grace and we cannot boast because nothing we do or have done puts us in God’s good books. It’s what Jesus did and is doing through the Holy Spirit in us. So as we trust God to not only initially save us, but also to work in us and change us into the image of Christ, we give God the glory (credit) for initiating and completing the work. When we bear fruit as Christians, God gets the glory because others see what kind of people we have become and marvel at the change, and we point towards heaven to assign credit. (John 15:8, 2 Corinthians 3:18, 4:15, Philippians 1:11, Hebrews 13:21) Also, when we go through trouble and let God help us and guide us through it, that also brings glory to God. When we trust him to use the gifts he’s given us to administer his grace, (which is ministering to others), then again he gets the credit for what is accomplished through us. (1 Peter 1:7, 4:10, 11) All of which, I’m sorry to say, have nothing to do with playing football.

Many years ago, I went to watch my younger brother play hockey. He was always good at sports. As he headed for the ice, I told him that I’d pray for him to do well. He turned on me and sternly said. “Don’t! I want to do it, I want to try hard, work hard and get good.” Wow! He set me on my heels. What he had understood was that if I prayed, God would do it for him, or through him. The Bible tells us “The glory of young men is their strength”. ( Prov 20:29 ) God allows us the dignity and reward that comes from working hard at something and doing well at it. What I wanted to pray was that God would help my brother do his best, give him wisdom to learn more about hockey, that sort of thing. Christian NFL players don’t make a great play because God did it. If that was the case, every play they executed would be great and only the Christian players would get the great plays. Also, God doing it for a player would be cheating, and God doesn’t cheat.

These players are good, and even great, at what they do because they’ve worked hard, practiced hard and studied hard. They deserve credit for that. Do we tell our kids when they use their manners well, get an ‘A’ on an exam, or do well at a recital, “Give the Glory to God Junior”? I wonder what message our kids are getting when they see and hear players do that; perhaps ‘You don’t need to work hard, just believe’, or ‘You’ll always be successful if you’re a Christian.’

Now I know when some players point to the sky, it could just be a brief call out to say that God is good, but that’s not what comes across to those who don’t believe. It’s alright to just say, “I had a good game, I’m on a good team and God is good!”

It seems to me that much of what we’ve already talked about doesn’t help promote the Gospel. Often it hurts us because outsiders get the idea that we’re religious nuts who don’t know how to just be normal and enjoy a football game.

Having said that, here are some things I think do help. When players get seriously injured and you see other players go to one knee and sincerely start to pray for their fellow player, that sends a message of God’s love. Have you noticed that the camera operators and production teams don’t avoid these shots like they do the signs? Why? Because even the unbelievers see it as an act of caring and compassion, and not as a sound bite or camera shot meant to steel attention and promote a cause.

How about events like this year’s 10th Annual Super Bowl Gospel Celebration? I’ve never been to one, but I think it would be great. The event clearly states what it’s about and it’s not only a chance for the Christian players to fellowship together, but a chance for them to say (by attending) what they believe.

Finally, I want to talk about what I believe is the most Biblical and powerful way that the Gospel is spread at the Super Bowl, and for that I come back to Kurt Warner as promised. If Kurt was like so many other professional sports players who just point at the sky or thank God after a win, his Faith would not be getting so much press.

It’s who Kurt Warner is, and how he lives out his Faith, that is getting attention. Remember what the Bible says about God getting the glory. Here’s a Christian man who puts family first, loves his wife and kids, attends church faithfully, has his own charity that helps disabled children (see video), he gives back and volunteers, uses his money to further the gospel and help others. When he struggles, he looks to Jesus for strength and help, and credits him for that strength. He isn’t getting attention by what he says, he’s getting attention because he’s trusting God to make him into Christ’s image, and people are marveling at who he is. So when he says his life is about Jesus, glory really does go to God.

How you play on the field (or how you do in any profession) may get you a podium, but it’s how you behave and live your life in Christ that will give you the right to speak from that podium.

No matter what you think of the above methods, it seems to me that the most effective way to spread the Gospel in sports events such as the Super Bowl, is the same way it’s done in every other area of life: by having Christians get involved and let their light shine through their work ethic, character, humility and generosity.

Enjoy, the Super Bowl, I know I’m going to. Go Kurt! Win or lose, you’ve already won!

For help with teaching your children about their Faith, check out The Singing Bible.

(RICK OSBORNE / Christian Author, Speaker & Dad)

Tags: annual super bowl gospel celebration, arizona cardinal, athlete, bible, christian, christian athlete, christian players, christians, faith, football, giving god the glory, god, gospel, Jesus, jesus christ, john 3:16, kurt warner, lord, prayer, professional sports players, rainbow man, rollen stewart, savior, sports writer, super bowl 43

Praying for Obama

January 20, 2009 by Rick Osborne
Filed under Politics

5 Comments

I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone–for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. (1 Timothy 2:1 – 4, NIV)

Some may not be familiar with the actual verses above, but we’ve all been introduced to the idea that every Christian’s prayer list should include the need for praying for our leaders. We even teach our children to pray for us, their teachers, our church leaders, and our political leaders around election time. On special political occasions, such as during an inauguration, we include these prayers in our family prayer times.

Nothing new, however, here’s my challenge. Does the Bible tell us how we should pray or what we should pray and/or teach our children to pray? The standard prayer seems to be one of asking God to guide our leaders and give them wisdom to make the right decisions. Is that what Paul meant when he wrote the verse? Is there more to it? I taught the standard leader wisdom prayers to my own children. However, somewhere down inside I always thought that there must be more to it then that and it turns out that there is.

The point of this blog is to help you understand Biblically what to pray, and how to pray for our leaders so that you can not only do it, but also teach your children to do it. Whether you voted for President Barak Obama or not, we are all called to pray for him and as you’ll see from reading this post, with good reason. At the end of the blog, I’ve included a sample prayer for the new president that you and your family can use as a guide. (Whether you live in the USA or not, Barak Obama’s decisions will probably effect you. So pray for him and also the leaders of your country.)

Let’s start with a basic rule for Bible study; Studying the Bible is like investing in real estate. The most important three things are location, location and location (context, context and context). For clarity of understanding, we must read each passage in its context which includes the intent of the author. In order to discover intent, we must know something about the person writing. One way that we do that is to familiarize ourselves with everything else that author wrote in the Bible. Another way is to know something about when and where the author lived and who he or she was.

Of course the most basic rule (the first ‘location’) is to read each verse in the context of its surrounding verses so lets do that first. In this case, Paul sums up why he tells us to pray for everyone everywhere and to pray for leaders in verse four; …for he (God) wants everyone to be saved and to understand the truth. (NLT)

In other words, the reason God wants us to pray for everyone everywhere, is so they’ll be saved. He also wants us to pray for our leaders so that we have the peace and quiet we need to go about doing what he’s called us to do, which is to grow his Kingdom and spread the gospel without opposition from (and perhaps even with support from) our leaders and government. Again, so everyone can be saved.

Ever notice that in the Lord’s prayer, Jesus did not pray for leaders? Jesus wasn’t giving us a prayer to pray, he was teaching us how to pray. When we pray for our leaders, our prayers must follow our Lord’s example or template, so our prayer would fall under “Your Kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” We pray that our leaders work in agreement and not opposition to His Kingdom and His will.

Moving on to the second ‘location’ or context consideration, Paul wrote these verses when Nero was ruling Rome right around the time he started persecuting the church and doing everything he could to capture and kill Christians. Church history has it that not long after Paul wrote these verses, Nero falsely blamed the Christians and specifically Paul for burning Rome and had Paul put to death. Paul had a dream, he envisioned a time when the government would stop standing in God’s way and Paul called the church to pray to that end.

Let’s look at the verses in Timothy in the New Living Translation; I urge you, first of all to pray for all people. As you make your requests, plead for God’s mercy upon them and give thanks. Pray this way for kings and all others who are in authority..

When I read these verses in the New Living Translation, something jumped out at me. Something that requires the next level of ‘location’ or context to understand.

Before Paul’s conversion, he was a Pharisee and he had been thoroughly trained in the law under a well known teacher, Gamaliel. (Acts 22:3, Philippians 3:5) In other words, he knew God’s Word and most everything he wrote in the New Testament was built on what he knew from the Old.

So was Paul thinking of any Old Testament passages and/or stories when he wrote these verses?” The words that jumped out at me were, “…plead for God’s mercy on them…”.

Take a look at these verses from Daniel’s very well known prayer for Israel found in Daniel chapter nine.

So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes. I prayed to the LORD my God and confessed: “O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with all who love him and obey his commands, we have sinned and done wrong. We have been wicked and have rebelled; we have turned away from your commands and laws. We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes and our fathers, and to all the people of the land. Lord, you are righteous, but this day we are covered with shame–the men of Judah and people of Jerusalem and all Israel, both near and far, in all the countries where you have scattered us because of our unfaithfulness to you. O Lord, we and our kings, our princes and our fathers are covered with shame because we have sinned against you. The Lord our God is merciful and forgiving, even though we have rebelled against him; (Daniel 9:4 – 9)

Daniel pleaded with God, Paul asks us to do the same. Daniel prayed for all Israelites everywhere, Paul placed the prayer in a New Testament context and instructed us to pray for everyone, everywhere. Daniel included Israel’s Kings and leaders, Paul tells us to pray for our leaders. Daniel prayed for God’s mercy, Paul said that we should plead for God’s mercy.

It was natural for Paul to think of the time of the Babylonian captivity because although the Israelite’s were at home in Israel when he wrote these verses, they were being occupied and ruled by a foreign king. The main thing that Paul changes is that he puts it all into a New Testament context. It’s no longer about the Israelites and their leaders, but about all people everywhere and the leaders of all nations.

I believe that Daniel’s powerful prayer was what Paul was jumping off of, but in order to discover more about what Paul was asking us to pray and why, we need to look a little further into what happened with the Babylonian and Persian kings when God’s people prayed. Remember, in the new context that Paul put Daniel’s prayer into, the leaders who need our prayer are no longer only Israel’s leaders, but the leaders of the nations as they were in Daniel’s time.

During the time of the exile, Daniel prayed and God moved on the heart of King Cyrus to agree to let the Israelites go home and rebuild the temple (Ezra 1). The King even paid for the materials. (Ezra 6:1 – 5) Then when the project was being opposed, King Darius (the same king who was involved in Daniel’s lion den experience) ordered those in opposition to not only stop interfering, but also that all expenses were to be paid for by the royal treasury.

Years later when Nehemiah heard that the walls of Jerusalem were still not rebuilt, he prayed and asked God to grant him favor with King Artaxerxes. He got it. The king gave him permission to go and rebuild the walls. He also sent a small army with Nehemiah and agreed to supply the lumber for the project. (Nehemiah 1, 2)

Again, when the Jewish people faced complete destruction, God used Esther and her Uncle Mordecai with the fasting prayers of his people to turn the King’s heart and God’s people were rescued.

One comment by one of these kings paints a wonderful picture of what God does for leaders who cooperate with his plans. When Darius (lions den king) wrote a letter instructing everyone to support and not oppose the rebuilding of the temple, he wrote “…so that they may offer sacrifices pleasing to the God of heaven and pray for the well-being of the king (himself) and his sons.” (Ezra 6:10) He knew Daniel and he knew that if he and his sons were to be blessed as kings, they needed to support the God of heaven’s agenda.

Paul knew that in the New Testament era we’re also building a temple and a spiritual Jerusalem, the Body of Christ, and our mandate is to love and reach everyone everywhere. For that to happen, we need to pray that our leaders understand what King Darius understood.

Praying that President Obama has the wisdom to make the country and economy run well is fine, but it’s not what Paul was talking about. God wants us to come before his throne, focused on heaven with his Kingdom firmly placed as our number one priority and pray that God would have mercy on us and on President Obama, and cause him to make decisions in cooperation with God’s plans, not man’s.

Paul tells us to pray for mercy, because none of us deserve his grace, favor, salvation and/or an understanding of the truth. We receive it when we humble ourselves because he loves us. When we pray for God’s mercy on President Obama, it isn’t a reflection on the man, his Faith or his character. Paul didn’t say to pray for God’s mercy for only wicked Kings or leaders, he said to pray that way for all of them. It’s by his mercy that he intervines and moves in a leader’s life in a way that can change the course of history.

Also, you may think the world of who President Obama is as a leader and a man, or you might not think much of him at all, but whether he is or isn’t great isn’t what matters. The biggest changes for God’s people and his plans came when his people prayed, sought his mercy, and trusted him for the outcome.

Below is a prayer that you and your family can use as a guide in your prayers for President Obama. The prayer is inspired by all that I believe Paul was referencing and thinking about when he wrote his instructions about praying for our leaders. May God have mercy on President Obama.

A Prayer For Obama

(Taken from Paul’s words and inspired by the prayers and stories of Daniel, Nehemiah and Esther)

Father in heaven, we pray that your kingdom is strengthened and grows. That your will be done here on earth as it is in heaven. We thank you for your great love and wonderful plans for us all.

We ask that you would have mercy on the people of this country and around the world that don’t know you, that you would forgive them, cause them to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

We pray also for our leaders and specifically today for President Barak Obama. Thank you for every wonderful thing that Barak Obama becoming president represents in the US. Please pour out your loving mercy on him and his family. Forgive them for any trespasses against you, draw them closer to yourself and help them to understand and walk in the full knowledge of the truth.

Please Father, have mercy on President Obama as a leader and cause him, for the sake of the US and the world, to cooperate with your agenda in everything he does as president. Let your Church and your Kingdom flourish under his leadership and help many to come to know you because of the mercy you pour out on his presidency.

Help us, your children, to live quiet and peaceful lives in all godliness and holiness under President Obama so that we can do your will freely in your vineyard; spreading your Word, reaching the unreached and demonstrating your love. Have mercy on us and forgive us for our slackness in this area. Help us to be more mindful of you and your eternal plans than we are on our needs for today.

Please send wise people from among your children, like you sent Daniel, Nehemiah, Mordecai and Esther, to help President Obama and counsel him in the things that you’d have him do. Guide and direct him and give the Church, your people, and your agenda, favor in his eyes.

Father, as President Obama obeys you and cooperates with your plans, bless him, his family and his presidency. If he sins against you in anyway, we plead for your mercy, forgive him and cause him to turn and support your Word and your work

We ask this sincerely in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. We thank you for all that you’ve done for us and for hearing our prayers. You are a great God and a wonderful merciful Father and we love you!

Amen

Pray sincerely and trust confidently. God hears and moves on the prayers he asks us to ask.

For help with teaching your children about their Faith, check out Teaching Your Child How to Pray.

(RICK OSBORNE / Christian Author, Speaker & Dad)

Tags: bible, biblical, children, christ, christian, christians, church, Economy, god, god's word, gospel, inauguration, Jesus, nations, obama, political, prayer, prayers, praying, president barak obama, salvation, savior, teach our children, teaching, the gospel

A Time for Miracles

January 9, 2009 by Rick Osborne
Filed under Economy

3 Comments

I love reading about Elijah and Elisha, two prophets whom God used to accomplish some marvelous miracles: calling fire down from heaven, conquering enemy armies with the assistance of angelic armies, proclaiming the start and end of famines, outrunning chariots, and much more. In the midst of these mind-boggling acts of God that altered kingdoms, these two prophets also dealt with and talked to God about three mothers.

While that land writhed in a severe drought (which Elijah had announced ahead of time), God told the prophet to visit a widow whom God had commanded to feed him. He found her and asked for food. She replied that she was about to use the last of her oil and flour to make one final meal for her and her son. Elijah had the audacity to ask her to feed him first, but promised that when she did, a miracle would happen. And it did: the flour and oil never ran out – no matter how much she used – until the drought ended. Later, when this same widow’s son died, she took the boy to Elijah, and the prophet prayed and delivered the son alive back to his mother (1 Kings 17).

Fast-forward to Elisha’s time and another widow; she came to Elisha, explaining that she had no way to meet her commitments and that creditors were coming to take her two boys as slaves. Elisha told her to borrow as many big, empty jars as she could and to pour into them the oil she kept in a little jar. When she did this, the oil didn’t stop flowing until she and her sons ran out of borrowed jars. Then she sold the oil and had enough money to pay her creditors, plus extra to live off of (2 Kings 4).

The third woman was neither a widow nor in need of provision. This married woman of means prepared a private room in her home for Elisha so that he had a place to stay when he traveled. Elisha wanted to reward her kindness and tried to find out what she wanted or needed. Elisha’s servant reminded him that she was childless, so Elisha told her that she’d have a son in about a year from that time. She got pregnant, had a son, and one day while he was still young, he died. The distraught woman put her boy on the prophet’s bed without telling anyone what had happened and traveled to see the prophet. He came to her home and raised him back to life (2 Kings 4).

While Jesus ministered in his own hometown, he mentioned one of these widows to help explain why he didn’t perform any great miracle there, where everyone knew him as Joseph’s son.

Jesus said to them, “Surely you will quote this proverb to me: Physician, heal yourself! Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.’ “I tell you the truth,” he continued, “no prophet is accepted in his hometown. I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon.” (Luke 4:23-26)

Many things get in the way of our faith. Neither the widow whom Jesus mentioned here nor the man he spoke of in his next example was an Israelite. This made the crowd so angry that they drove Jesus out of town and tried to throw him off a cliff (Luke 4:28-30). Sometimes we get so comfortable in our Christian faith and in the way we live, that we forget God is a supernatural God who can provide for us and answer our prayers in a way far beyond our wildest expectation.

The first widow made food for Elijah before she served herself and her son, even though a few minutes earlier she had enough food only for one last meal for her own starving family. God rewarded her demonstration of faith and provided for her during the drought. She continued to feed and house Elijah, and when her son got sick and died – even though she couldn’t conceive of such a thing – her son was returned to her from the dead.

The second widow came to the prophet Elisha seeking God’s intervention. When she heard his instructions, she followed them to the letter; demonstrating her faith; and her sons not only escaped the clutches of her creditors, but she found her family abundantly provided for.

The third woman approached Elisha without need, but with a desire to help him in doing God’s work. Her service demonstrated her faith in God, and the Lord rewarded her with a son. When the son died, she lay his body on the prophet’s bed and left to tell the prophet, showing that she knew God could and would take care of her dire situation.

Did you notice that, in each of these cases, the children involved were provided for, cared for, and kept safe? In fact, each instance dealt with the concerns of a mother and her children. The children would have seen their mother’s faith and obedience at work, bringing God’s grace, power, and help into their homes.

God sent his power through these mighty men of God to change the political map, steer nations, and bring his people back to himself; but he also sent them to establish faith in and help needy families.

So where do we find a mighty prophet of God? Jesus is God’s Son, and he lives in us by his Spirit. God is our Father, and as Christians we no longer need a prophet to stand in the gap; we can go directly to him and “receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (Hebrews 4:16).

Many years ago, when things got quite tight financially for our family, we opened our home to another family going through an even tighter time. The few groceries we had got divided carefully before each meal. One day we had enough hot dogs for each child to have one apiece. We prayed together and asked God to make the food we had to be enough. At the end of the meal, two hot dogs remained on the plate. One child asked for another. Her face fell when we carefully explained that we had enough for only one each. Of course, we thought her look showed disappointment, until she explained that she already had eaten two. In order to find out who went without, we rounded up all the kids and took a count. They had eaten more hot dogs than we started with – and yet two still remained on the plate!

This was no earth-shattering, life-changing kind of miracle, but my children have never forgotten it. The incident inspired both their faith and their prayer life.

The author of Hebrews wrote:

And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and he rewards those who earnesty seek him. (Hebrews 11:6)

I love that verse. God not only insists that we believe in him, but he also requires us to believe that he rewards us when we seek him! It’s impossible to please God without faith; it’s therefore impossible for us to raise children who please God without demonstrating to them faith in action.

There are some tough times ahead with the way the economy is going but if you look to God for help and trust him, one way or another, he’ll come through and your families Faith will be strengthened. It’s a time for miracles.

Oh, and don’t worry about having enough faith to make all this work – taking the first step, just like the three mothers in the previous stories, demonstrates your faith; God will take you from there. A simple prayer over some hot dogs can get the ball rolling.

For help with teaching your children about their Faith, check out Teaching Your Child to Pray.

(RICK OSBORNE / Christian Author, Speaker & Dad)

Tags: christian faith, creditors, Economy, elijah, elisha, faith, financially, god, hot dogs, intervention, Jesus, lord, mighty prophet of god, miracles, nations, obedience, political, prayers, prophet

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