How Many Marbles Do You Have?

We are excited to tell you about some resources available for our Gateway families to use as they strive to parent their children well. At our County Road 9 Campus, we have a new Parent Resource corner with books and DVDs that can be checked out and taken home. Be on the lookout for a new parent resource wall coming soon at our North Main Campus as well.

In our Parent Resource corner, you will find books about parenting, family devotionals, children’s Bibles and children’s books. Some of these resources tackle the difficult topics of sex, child abuse, and porn and how to talk about those topics with your children through a biblical worldview. Sometimes it is helpful to preview a book before purchasing it and this is the perfect opportunity to do that. To check the books out, you simply sign your name and the date on our checkout sheet along with the name of the book. Please return the books in a timely manner so others can check them out as well.

We also have some free resources that can be taken home. Each month there is a devotional available for younger elementary children and one for older elementary kids that can be picked up and taken home to encourage your children to carve out time each day to be with God. Now is the best time to start the lifelong habit of reading God’s Word! There is also a free magazine, Homefront, that has articles about parenting as well as recipes and other helpful information. Other printed materials are also available such as prayer calendars and family conversation starters that you can use with your children at home to help them grow in their walk with God. Please stop and browse through our resources on a Sunday morning and help yourself to some of the freebies!

If you have seen them, you might be wondering “Why are containers with marbles in the parent resource corner?” Each marble represents one week in the life of your child. When your child is born, you have approximately 936 weeks until they graduate from high school. That’s also 936 Sundays that they could be in church learning about Jesus and growing in their faith! If you remove a marble each week, with the passage of time, the number of marbles decreases. And believe me when I say that the days, weeks and years fly by all too quickly! Before you know it, your child will only have a few marbles left and they will be on the verge of independence. The marbles in the jars are a great visual to remind parents to be intentional with the time that they have with their children. Psalm 90:12 says, “Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” My prayer is that you would use the time that you have with your children wisely and that the resources in our parent resource corner would be helpful for you as you tackle the difficult task of parenting through all of the stages and phases that your children grow through.

Here is a great article to help encourage you to be intentional with the time that you have with your children. How many marbles does your child have left?