Want fun ideas for parenting with Scripture through Valentine’s & President’s Day?  

Consider these for upcoming
–  dinner discussions
–  weekend activities
–  family devotions
OR
–  holiday family time!

CLICK HERE & SCROLL DOWN through multiple Valentine’s ideas. 

CLICK HERE for a President’s Day idea. 

I’m also pleased to share that I am a contributor for a fabulous new website called ChristianParenting.org.   They have advice broken down by age and by topic!  I encourage you to take a look around this wonderful resource.

How to make them:
*Find  some spare change.
*Tape the coins individually to index cards.  You can make as many as you wish.
*On the other side of the index cards, write ways to pray for our leaders.  Brainstorm as a family to think of ideas such as health, wisdom, growing walk with the Lord, wise counsel, safety, strong family, etc.
*Need more ideas for what to pray?  Use your copy of Parenting with Scripture: A Topical Guide for Teachable Moments to find topics and verses to pray for the President and leaders.

How to use them:
Younger children- 
Hide them and pray for each item as the child finds them.
Older children or teens –
Pass around the cards and each person lifts up the idea on his card.

Beyond President’s Day:
*Put the cards in a safe place so you can pull them out for ideas whenever you wish to pray for the leaders of our country.
*Visit the Presidential Prayer Team website and browse the many related to praying for our government leaders.  You may wish to join the prayer team to receive e-mails as reminders and with specific ideas for how to pray

I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.
1 Timothy 2:1-2

Happy President’s Day! 
For themed ideas, see http://www.parentingwithscripture.com/parenting-with-scripture-through-presidents-day/

BIG NEWS!  Focus on the Family invited me to come to their headquarters in Colorado Springs and record an interview for their daily broadcast!  Click here to go to the Focus on the Family website to “listen now” or download the podcast of Kara’s February 19th, 2014 daily broadcast interview with President Jim Daly.

For those of you who love Focus on the Family (who doesn’t?!), I thought you’d enjoy hearing highlights from my trip.  My husband and I were welcomed from the moment we walked through the front door!

John Fuller (radio host – left) and Jim Daly (President and radio host – right), as well as producer Scott Welch (not pictured), made me feel at ease through the interview process.   I must admit, that I am nervous to hear the final thing!  I don’t get a preview, so I’ll be listening along with everyone else as it debuts.  I am constantly battling the temptation to kick myself for not saying this or that or wishing I had worded things differently.  However, I prepared as well as I could have (twice! because of the ice storm causing it to be rescheduled) and it was well prayed over.  So, I am reminding myself to trust that God had me say what He wanted me to, regardless of how I think I could have done it better.  Oh, the thorns of anxiety and perfectionism!  As always, I’m grateful that His strength is made perfect in my weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9-10). 

As if the opportunity for the interview wasn’t gift enough, we were blessed that the day we were there was Focus on the Family’s monthly chapel.  After the recording session, what a joy it was to worship (in their space dubbed the Chapelteria = Cafeteria turned Chapel for the day) with the hundreds of servant hearted staff!  I was so overwhelmed with gratitude that the Lord allowed me (who, me?! talk about a mixture of thrilling and humbling!) to have even a teeny part in their incredible, world-wide ministry, that it was sweet timing for me to be able to pour out my heart in praise to Him! 

After a yummy lunch with the producer, possibly the most vibrantly spirited lady I’ve ever met took us on a tour of the Focus on the Family headquarters.  It was incredible to get a behind the scenes look at the global impact of Focus on the Family! 

We also got the inside scoop behind the sound effects on Adventures in Odyssey!  Our family is a huge fan and our kids were jealous of this experience!   For more about Odyssey, see this post – http://www.parentingwithscripture.com/category/book-reviews/adventures-in-odyssey/

Where the sound effect magic happens!

 These are the shoes when you hear Whit walking –

 Your ears know you are at Whit’s End when you hear silverware placed on this counter –

And, it never gets old seeing my book actually on a bookstore shelf!  A friend on Facebook commented, “Dobson, Dobson, Dobson, Dobson, Dobson, Dobson, DURBIN! Eggeriches, etc…”  To which I replied, “Yes, I’ve told Tim that among the things I am grateful for about him is how well placed my married name positions me on the Christian book aisle!  Ha!”

Enjoy listening Thursday live or by podcast! 

President’s Day is a good time to stop and remember that our nation’s leaders need our prayers.  Here are a few resources that may be helpful to your family, both today and in the future.   

Family:
To be honest, our family is not great about remember to pray for our leaders.  In an effort to help give us a creative and tangible way to do this for the future, we are going to make these prayer cards.
Leaders & President Prayer Cards and Game:  Take some spare change and tape the coins individually to index cards.  You can make as many as you wish.  On the other side of the index cards, write ways to pray for our leaders.  Brainstorm as a family to think of ideas such as health, wisdom, growing walk with the Lord, wise counsel, safety, strong family, etc.  For younger children, hide them and pray for each item as the child finds them.  If your family has older children or teens, they may prefer to pass around the cards as the items are lifted up in prayer.   When finished, put the cards in a safe place so you can pull them out for ideas whenever you wish to pray for the leaders of our country. 

Older children, teens, and adults:  Visit http://www.presidentialprayerteam.com/and browse to see the many prayer resources included on this site.  You may wish to join the prayer team to receive e-mails as reminders and with specific ideas for how to pray.

Children:  This article has fun, active, and hands-on ideas written for 6-9 year olds.  I think it will also work well for younger and older kiddos. http://childrensministry.com/articles/presidential-prayers