{"id":19700,"date":"2014-05-16T00:15:56","date_gmt":"2014-05-16T04:15:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/?p=19700"},"modified":"2014-05-16T00:01:43","modified_gmt":"2014-05-16T04:01:43","slug":"teaching-young-seek-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/2014\/05\/16\/teaching-young-seek-god\/","title":{"rendered":"Teaching the Young to Seek God"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"SeekingHimLogo\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

But let all who take refuge in You be glad;
\nlet them ever sing for joy.
\nSpread Your protection over them,
\nthat those who love Your name may rejoice in You.
\nSurely, Lord, You bless the righteous;
\nYou surround them with Your favor as with a shield.
\nPsalms 5:11-12<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

My children are five and three years old respectively. \u00a0They are the light of my world. \u00a0I wear a necklace which has a birth charm for each of them (you know, the little boy and little girl charms that have their birth stones.) \u00a0When my husband got me that one, I hardly ever took it off. \u00a0However, I did eventually get bored and changed the necklace out. \u00a0This past Christmas my husband got me a silver cross that I have not taken off since December 25 (except for when I had my wisdom teeth pulled).<\/p>\n

This cross necklace has come in handy over the last few months. \u00a0When our son was around the same age our daughter is now, we started teaching him about what the Cross stood for, and now we have started teaching our daughter the same. \u00a0They both know that it stands for Jesus and His death. \u00a0Now we are starting to work on the \u201cwhy\u201d with both\u2014more so with the oldest. \u00a0If they can start learning their letters and how to read before the age of five, they can start learning about Jesus.<\/p>\n

By helping them learn now, we hope and pray that they each will accept their own shield of faith before they can really be influenced by peer pressure and the outside world. \u00a0While they are this young, we still have some control over what parts of the outside world they see. \u00a0Hopefully by teaching them young, they will come to know how to seek out God\u2019s protection before they hit their teen years. \u00a0They will need discernment to know right from wrong. \u00a0They will be able to spread the joy of God to those around them and be a good influence wherever they go.<\/p>\n

I already pray daily that God protects them with His shield. \u00a0They are little and young. \u00a0They do not fully understand how the outside world works. \u00a0Hopefully we can equip them to be able to rejoice in the Lord and seek His protection when they are older and begin to spread their own wings. \u00a0May they be able to sing for joy to God when they do.<\/p>\n

\u00a0*<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0~ \u00a0 \u2665 \u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u271e\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0~ \u00a0\u2665 \u00a0 ~ \u00a0 *<\/span><\/p>\n

Dear Heavenly Father, thank You for the blessings and protection You give our family. We seek to do right in Your eyes and to sing for joy in Your presence. In Jesus\u2019 name we pray, Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

But let all who take refuge in You be glad; let them ever sing for joy. Spread Your protection over them, that those who love Your name may rejoice in You. Surely, Lord, You bless the righteous; You surround them with Your favor as with a shield. Psalms 5:11-12 My children are five and three […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":90,"featured_media":13840,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3020],"tags":[3367,1287,425,6325,4945,6321,3211,6302,3174],"class_list":["post-19700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-devotions","tag-daily-devotions-2","tag-gch","tag-girlfriends-coffee-hour","tag-god-is-a-shield","tag-god-is-our-refuge","tag-god-surrounds-us","tag-laura-pattillo","tag-psalms-511-12","tag-seeking-him-devotional","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/SeekingHimLogo.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p39pHp-57K","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/90"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19700"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19700\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19702,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19700\/revisions\/19702"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}