November 2, 2025

Summary of Gospel:  Summarizing this gospel is very simple. Believers in Jesus’s birth, death and resurrection are going to Heaven.  Believers will be resurrected from physical death to eternal life.  All physical (in this life) deteriorates and dies but spiritual lives forever!  Jesus also promises a New Heaven and New Earth when He comes again but this is a more confusing concept even to bible scholars! 

Mathew 25:34 Then the King will say to those on his right, “Come you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the CREATION OF THE WORLD! 

Mrs. Smith’s Testimony

In 2009, I was 32 years old, and for the first time in my life, (since I can remember), I was having doubts about my faith and life after death. The ironic part is Mr. Smith and I were living our dreams and had had many successes (as far as worldly standards at this time). We had been married 8 years, had 3 healthy children, (Emily was almost 6, Julia was 3 and Mikey was), a growing business, owned our own home in Huntington Beach, California (even through the 2007 mortgage crisis) and I was (mostly), a stay-at-home mom. 

We went to weekly church as a family (as I had my entire life), but Mr. Smith & I were also “self-help” people always striving to live our very best lives. I was struggling with questions internally regarding faith and works. Were these successes/blessings because of our choices and work ethic? If they were from our choices and work ethic then did God exist? Is there nothingness when we die???

For some reason (looking back probably the Holy Spirit’s prompting), I started googling Near Death Experiences (NDE’s).  For over a period of about 2 months, I googled and read through at least 250 NDE’s. I found these testimonies fascinating and faith building! Most of the people who experienced an NDE went to heaven, although about 5-10 percent went to hell:(  

Of the NDE’s that went to heaven, there were almost always 3 commonalities.   The first was the person experiencing the NDE saw a bright light and had an overwhelming feeling of love and/or peace. The second was that the person experiencing the NDE was welcomed by a loved one who had passed or Jesus himself.  The third and the most important thing for me to share (especially with our 4 children and other families while we are living in this world) is the person experiencing the NDE always wanted to stay in Heaven but they were told they had to go back because they had “more work to do.”

In the song, “When I get where I’m going,”  by Brad Paisley, the lyrics talk about what the singer is going to do when he gets to heaven. Then he discusses our world right now, “so much pain and so much darkness in this world, we stumble through all these questions I can’t answer and so much WORK to do.”

There is work for us to do! Of course salvation (heaven) is through believing in Jesus’ birth, death and resurrection. Psalm 23 says, “God is our only HOPE for eternal life and security!  Surely goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”

But…….there is work for all of us to do! Unique work for each person!! Reading and studying NDEs and imagining heaven from testimonies of people who have been there has strengthened my faith. NDEs have also strengthened Mr. Smith’s faith, so in the John 6:37-40 You Tube video testimony link below, Mr. Smith is going to tell the audience (which is our 4 children and other families) about what he knows about heaven through reading and studying the bible and also through reading and listening to scientific studies on Near Death Experiences (NDE’s).

 

1 Corinthians 13:12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face.  Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

So the SPIRITUAL life is filled with Faithfulness/ Belief in Jesus’ Birth, Death, Resurrection & Imagining Heaven:)

Galatians 5:22-23 SAYS SO…..…….

“But the fruit of the SPIRIT is 1) love ,2) joy, 3) peace, 4) patience, 5) kindness, 6) truth, 7) Faithfulness/Imagining Heaven, 8) Gentleness, & 9) Self-Control. Against such things there is no law.”

The SPIRIT-filled life is filled with the 7th fruit of the spirit, which is Faithfulness.  Belief in Eternal Life/Heaven is part of #7 FAITHFULNESS!

Remember in 2009 when I was struggling to understand between faith and works? NDEs and studying the Bible have revealed some important spiritual skills to me. One skill is knowing God controls the amount of time we have on this earth. It says in the bible that God knows our birth dates and our death dates.  Quantity of life is therefore, predetermined. However, our quality of life can be altered through our own free will choices (and even this is a mystery). For me, imagining heaven helps me when trials inevitably come.  At the young age of 14, Anne Frank said, “People who have a religion should be glad, for not everyone has the gift of believing in heavenly things.” Imagining heavenly things helps us even during unimaginable trials.

Prayers for our Children:

Our prayer for our children this week is that they find the work/purpose we know God has for each of them.  The Holy Spirit has given us (as their parents) clues because of their unique personalities and interests but our hope is each of them find (and free-willingly) pursue God’s purpose for each of them, as opposed to wasting time scrolling on devices:/ Imagining heaven is a wonderful start to knowing what your passions and goals are. 

In 2023, Chris Pratt, (at Christian Family Day at Dodgers Stadium), said that we can experience heaven on earth.  We agree but one would have to imagine their own unique heaven to know when $/HE got there:) Since our children are now related to Chris Pratt (through marriage) to the Kennedy family we are asking them, “Ask not what you can do for yourself, ask what you can do (in your everyday life) to further the gospel message of truth and grace? 

WE HOPE 🙏YOU DANCE KIDS!!!!!!

October 26, 2025

1. Luke 18:9-14 Summary 

In this week’s Gospel reading, (Luke 18:9-14) Jesus tells another parable to the large crowd gathering to listen to his teachings. Luke 18:9 says “Then Jesus told this story to some who had great confidence in their own righteousness and scorned everyone else.”  

In the parable, Jesus purposefully chose to speak about a Pharisee & a Tax Collector. The Pharisees, at the time, were part of the religious elite and most of them hated Jesus out of jealousy.  Jesus was dominating their profession in regards to prayer, preaching and being genuinely filled with the Holy Spirit.  Tax collectors were hated by the Jews because they were collecting unjust Roman tax money and many times saving a portion for themselves.

In the parable (and I suppose at that time in history), people who lived near Jerusalem would often go to the Temple to pray.  The rebuilt temple was the center of their worship.  This Pharisee went to the Temple-not to pray to God- but to announce to all within ear shot how good he was.  

The Tax Collector, on the other hand,  went to the Temple  and was genuinely praying to God. He was admitting his imperfections (his sin) and humbly begging for forgiveness.  

So the SPIRITUAL life is filled with genuine PRAYER & HUMILITY to  God/Jesus. 

Galatians 5:22-23 SAYS SO…..…….

“But the fruit of the SPIRIT is 1) love ,2) joy, 3) peace, 4) patience, 5) kindness, 6) truth, 7) Faithfulness/PRAYER, 8) Gentleness/HUMILITY, & 9) Self-Control. Against such things there is no law.”

The SPIRIT-filled life is filled with the 7th fruit of the spirit, which is Faithfulness.  PRAYER is part of Faithfulness. 

Prayer has 3 parts and includes:

1. Thankfulness to God 
2. Asking God for Forgiveness (as in this case) and for blessings, help, miracles, ect.
3. Conversation with God (Both Us Talking to Him and Listening to His answers)

The SPIRIT-filled life is also filled with the 8th fruit of the spirit which is gentleness/HUMILITY to God. 

The spirit filled life gives glory to God and is in opposition to pride (either self-pride or pride in a group of people!)

 Luke 18:14 Jesus continues (& I’m sure shocked the audience and enraged the Pharisees listening), “The sinner (not the Pharisee) returned home justified before God.  For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”  

2. Luke 18:9-14 Mrs. Smith’s Testimony

The subject of pride vs humility makes me think of a booklet our second child, our daughter Julia, illustrated when she was about 8 years old. She wisely titled the piece, Giving Grace.”  I have treasured it for 11 years!  One of the short, 1 page illustrations, was about a boy in her class who was bragging (prideful), he was gonna lose his tooth.  

She told me, (when she was sharing her booklet with me), that she had thought to herself at school (but didn’t say anything out loud), “I’m gonna lose my tooth cause I’m not bragging about it.”  Then, sure enough, she lost her tooth and the other boy didn’t:/  She understood innately what Jesus said,   “For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”  

At the time, I had read and understood the gospel messages for many years prior to this and I knew Jesus had also said, in Mathew 11:25,  “Blessed are you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth; you have revealed to little ones the mysteries of the kingdom.  Julia knew innately Jesus’ law of prayer and humility without studying the gospel because Jesus reveals the mysteries of the kingdom to children.  She understood Jesus’s mystery “For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted” in a childlike way about a boy bragging he was going to lose a tooth.  Maybe Julia had understood the gospel messages because she was in Catholic-Christian school at the time but even so she had an innate knowledge (biblical wisdom), through listening to gospel in church and school that adults sometimes can’t understand.

In the book of Proverbs (AKA the book of wisdom), written 1,000 years before Jesus, Solomon said, “Before a downfall the heart is haughty, but humility comes before honor.” This is another way of saying what Jesus said, “For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”  

3. Luke 18:9-14 Related Song is Pride by U-2

I love Jesus.  I love MLK and I love the song, In the Name of Love by Bono.  I truly feel the power of the Holy Spirit in this song but I’m not a big fan of Bono also calling this song  “Pride” or even worse referring to Jesus and MLK as “they could not take your pride.”  1 Corinthians 13:4-7 says, “Love is patient, love is kind.  It does not envy, it does not boast, IT IS NOT PROUD! 

Of course I’m  gonna give Bono some grace on using the word pride in relation to Jesus and MLK.  He was very young, (I’m sure) when he wrote this mega hit.  I don’t think he had read the bible or really understood what the bible says about pride.  Many Catholic-Christians don’t read the bible.  Pride is the opposite of what Jesus and MLK were doing!

Jesus freewillingly surrendered to God’s plan and purpose for his life.  He did not have pride.  He was modeling true love for all of us which we know from the 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 verse that love is NOT proud. 

In his famous “I have a Dream Speech” MLK said that he saw the promised land but did not know if he was gonna get there.  God’s purpose for him was to peacefully protest unjust laws, which were made against black people.  He obviously had a close relationship with Jesus.  He was surrendering to God’s purpose and plan for his life. He said, “I’ve seen the promised land but I may not get there with you but I only want to do God’s will.” He was a Reverend and he trusted God’s purpose and plan for his life so he did not have pride in himself or even a group. He was surrendering to God’s plan and purpose for his life.

 4. Luke 18:9-14 Prayer for our Children

One of the hardest character traits to teach our children is having confidence while also simultaneously having humility/gentleness.  Usually confident teenagers have self-pride until something humbles them like an injury or accident. Or teenagers who are more naturally gentle/humble are scared to try new things. The only way to teach these two character traits (confidence and humility), simultaneously to our children is through Bible education and encouragement.  

Our prayer is that our children have faith in God’s power over all situations like King David but also have humility like Moses, by walking in close relationship with the Lord.

Mr. Smith pointed out, in our family bible study, that God has two ways to humble us.  One way is the same as the Tax Collector.  We can make mistakes (sin) and those sins have consequences that catch up to us.  The other way is by trying to plan/control/work to fight and force things to happen in our own strength like Jacob (the heal catcher) God reveals his power over our works everytime!  True prayer and humility is living in sweet surrender to God’s plan and purposes! Amen means “Yes” or “I surrender!” 

Praying our children plan their work and work their plan but have the humility and discernment (through prayer) to surrender to God’s purpose/plan in each of their lives!

October 19, 2025

Exodus 17:8-13 How the Israelites won the Battle of Amalek

In this week’s old testament reading, (Exodus 17:8-13), Moses, Aaron, Hur And Joshua unite in a group effort to win the battle of Amalek.  Joshua engaged the Amalek people in a physical battle while Moses held the staff of God up. When Moses held the staff up, the Israelites would begin winning the battle but if he put the staff down the Israelites would begin to lose the battle.  Moses’ arms became tired so Aaron & Hur sat Moses on a rock to rest while they held Moses’ hands on both sides, to keep the staff of God held up in order to win the battle (both spiritually and physically)!  It was a group effort to win the spiritual and physical battle of Amalek. 

I love how the Old Testament bible stories are always examples of how God wants us to live in the new testament.  Jesus says, (in Matthew 18:20), when dealing with spiritual battles within the church of believers, “For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”  Fighting spiritual battles is a group effort of prayer and communicating truth!

In this week’s gospel Luke 18:1-8 Jesus tells a parable about a persistent widow and says the way we win both physical and spiritual battles is through persistent praying & asking.   So the SPIRITUAL life is filled with FAITHFULNESS & Unceasing Prayer to God/Jesus (Galatians 5:22-23).

Prayer  includes:

1. Thankfulness to God 
2. Asking God for Blessings/Help/Miracles
3. Conversation with God (Both Us Talking to Him and Listening to His answers)

So unceasing prayer includes thankfulness, petitions and conversation with God.  The second part of prayer is asking for blessings/help/miracles or prayer petitions. 

In addition to unceasing prayer, we also noticed (with Jesus’ persistent widow parable) the widow did not just pray and then start mindless scrolling on her device.  

The widow kept having the courage to approach the unjust judge (who neither feared God nor cared about people), and asking and hoping for justice in her situation. She had to have the courage/self-control/self-discipline & hope to keep going back, telling her truth, and likely getting rejected by the judge. In our situations, we can have hope because we know God/Jesus is in control of both the timing of our situations and the unjust judge’s mind and heart. 

So the SPIRITUAL life is filled with FAITHFULNESS & Unceasing Prayer to God/Jesus & SELF-Control to keep going into the world and asking worldly people or people who 

Galatians 5:22-23 SAYS SO…..…….

“But the fruit of the SPIRIT is 1) love ,2) joy, 3) peace, 4) patience, 5) kindness, 6) TRUTH, 7) FAITHFULNESS, 8) gentleness, & 9) SELF-CONTROL. Against such things there is no law.”

The SPIRIT-filled life is filled with the 7th fruit of the spirit, which is FAITHFULNESS, Unceasing Prayer to God and the 9th fruit of the spirit, SELF-CONTROL. 

This is in opposition to the mindlessly scrolling life, worldly life, filled with fear and non-commitment! 

Our 4 children are very blessed!  I don’t think they are dealing with many unjust situations in their lives like the persistent widow in Jesus’ parable.  I think all of them accept Jesus’s birth, death and resurrection as truth, so, (praise God), they all have salvation! 

Currently, Mr. Smith and I are really praying for each of them (ages 21, 19, 17 and 14) to commit to persistent prayer in regards to individual goals/plans (especially in school, sports, jobs and career choice).  

We know from wisdom and experience that to live our best lives (the lives Jesus died to give us!, we need to stay close to the Lord and listen to the desires He is putting in each of our hearts! In Psalm 20:4 it says, “May He give you the desires of your heart and make all your plans succeed.”  

We also know we need to be willing to put time/work/self-discipline/self-control into creating each of our goals/plans while following the Holy Spirit’s lead.  In Proverbs 19:2, it says, “ Many are the plans in a man’s heart but the Lord’s purpose will prevail!”  

We are persistently praying that each of our children commit their career goals to the Lord because we want each of them living their own best life!  Living our best life has only been made possible by committing our goals to the Lord and letting the Holy Spirit lead us!  In Proverbs 16:9 it says, “A man’s mind plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps and makes them sure.”  

The song, “Spirit lead me” by Influence Music and Michael Kettlerer is so relevant for our prayers for our children today’s gospel message!  We love this song to listen to as we continue our Sunday worship!   

October 12, 2025

The SPIRITUAL life is filled with FAITHFULNESS & THANKFULNESS to God.

Galatians 5:22-23 SAYS SO…..…….

“But the fruit of the SPIRIT is 1) love, 2) joy, 3) peace, 4) patience, 5) kindness, 6) truth, 7) FAITHFULNESS, 8) gentleness & 9)self-control. Against such things there is no law.”

The SPIRIT-filled life is filled with the 7th fruit of the spirit, which is FAITHFULNESS & THANKFULNESS to God. This is in opposition to the wordly/fleshy life, which is filled with ungratefulness, complaining, fault-finding and blaming.

In the gospel we are studying in our weekly family Bible study, Jesus heals 10 Lepers! All 10 Lepers responded in FAITH before they were healed! The gospel says….”They cried out, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” He looked at them and said, “Go show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were healed of leprosy! All 10 of them responded in FAITH to Jesus because they all began walking, to show themselves to the priest before they were actually physically healed. They obeyed Jesus’ command because they BELIEVED Jesus could heal them.  All 10 Lepers had the 7th spiritual fruit of FAITHFULNESS, spoken of, in Galatians 5:22-23.

However, only 1 Samaritan man came back to THANK Jesus! Luke 17:15 says, “When he saw he was healed, he came back to Jesus, shouting, “PRAISE God!” He fell to the ground at Jesus’ feet, THANKING Him for what He had done.”

Jesus eventually says to the Samaritan man, “Stand up & go. Your FAITH has healed you.”

Jesus said FAITH healed the Samaritan man that came back to THANK him. FAITH also healed the other 9 Lepers but they didn’t know FAITH healed them because they didn’t come back to THANK Jesus and be in relationship with Him. 

We don’t know if the other 9 Lepers just forgot to say thank you.  Maybe they were just awestruck and in their own world.  All they could think about was being physically healed of leprosy after many years of  being outcasts.  Their minds were consumed with joy with what they were going to do with this newfound healthy body!  They could go live with their families again and get a job. 

Sometimes now, even in modern times, people BELIEVE in Jesus, pray/ask for a miracle, get the miracle they asked for and then are so consumed with getting what they wanted they forget to THANK Jesus who helped them. They may second guess things after they get the blessing.  They might think the healing came from a doctor, science, a food they ate, or a medication they took. The sad part, spiritually, is these other 9 Lepers did not use leprosy (their trial) to THANK Jesus and get the benefit of strengthening their FAITH and SPIRITUAL relationship with Jesus.

Jesus said the Samaritan’s FAITH healed him.  FAITHFULNESS, THANKFULNESS to God and prayer are all beautifully connected.   FAITH is patient hope. Prayer gives us FAITH/patient hope.

Prayer includes:

1. THANKFULNESS to God 
2. Petitions/ Asking God for Blessings/Help/Miracles
3. Conversation with God (Both Us Talking to Him and Listening to His answers)

The very beginning of prayer is THANKFULNESS to God!  Jesus always began prayer with what he was THANKFUL for. Mathew 26:27 says, “Then he took the cup, GAVE THANKS, and gave it to them….” 

Oprah has said that if you pray and all you say is “THANK YOU To God”  then that is enough!  Prayer can include the aforementioned 3 parts or just be as simple as “THANK YOU  to God/Jesus!”

Charlie Kirk said his experiences with college students in the United States was that Republicans were THANKFUL for the opportunity and hope, which our country provided them. Whereas many liberal college students were ungrateful, often complained and blamed others for their situation.

2 Kings 5:14 (Old Testament/Jewish Torah)

Next Level GRATITUDE to God is telling others, publicly, what God has done in your life! Giving your TESTIMONY! 

The Samaritan man was healed physically from leprosy by faith. Jesus said so. By publicly thanking Jesus, he not only grew his spiritual relationship with Jesus but he also grew the relationship of the entire crowd of believers watching. 

Our vision back in 2017 (for our vlog on the AmenWeekly.com YouTube channel), was to tell our children testimonies and to have other parents tell their testimonies to their own children. Our vision still includes vlog testimonies that encourage parents to tell testimonies to their own children but adds the opportunity to tell these testimonies through an online, weekly family Bible study, vacation Bible school (VBS) called “Team Pink Entrepreneurship Camp,” and a Sweet Home Economics Class (beginning, intermediate & advanced levels). Just like Elisha would not accept Naanman’s money because Elisha wanted to point Naanman to God, we intend on keeping our vlog testimonies free to point other families’ to God/Jesus/The Holy Spirit.

When my husband and I were first married in the early 2000s, we watched the video “The Secret” after we had seen the author’s interviewed on the Oprah Winfrey Show.  The concepts in the video/book (mainly gratitude, the law of attraction & goal setting) made a lot of sense to both of us. 

My husband had had a lot of success as a QB (making it as far as playing football professionally in Europe), using “The Secret’s” strategies (without knowing they were biblical strategies), by being introduced to them from a family friend and mentor, Bruce, when he was in high school in the early 90s. 

Although I hadn’t had a lot of “worldly success” at that time (my mid 20s), using the methods in The Secret (thankfulness to God, making positive statements & praying for things I wanted-goals) I had had many miraculous experiences with the Holy Spirit in my life from the time I was very young.  For example, praying for snow (when the weather report showed no chance of precipitation), and then getting snowed-in to our cabin in Lake Arrowhead, California. You see, not exactly worldly success? But the Holy Spirit gave me the chance to experience fun sledding and get the hands-on childhood experience of goal setting (I packed my snow gear) through prayers answered:) 

However, the main reason goal setting (as it connects with thankfulness to God & the law of attraction), really stuck out to me as a way to live your best life was because I created goals daily as a Speech & Language Pathologist for students.  I saw firsthand how assessing students’ present levels of performance and creating goals for all kinds of speech and language disorders (mainly social-behavior) was effective. In fact, the entire profession of Speech & Language Pathology and effectively treating students is based on assessing a student to find their areas of strengths (things to be thankful for), the law of attraction (during training/therapy praising what the student is doing well (positive affirmations) and targeting weaknesses through creating measurable, observable and attainable goals for students.  We would begin with a long-term goal (1-3 years away) and would continue to benchmark the goal until it was a measurable, observable and attainable goal for each therapy session.  I also was privileged to go to Loma Linda for Graduate school, where I saw a scientific research study on prayer and positive patient outcome.  The study proved that even if a patient did not pray themselves, if they had someone praying for them their outcomes were significantly better than people who did not pray or have someone who prayed for them.  

Anyway, after seeing this video, Mike and I began writing lists of all the things we were thankful for, focusing on the law of attraction (saying what we wanted instead of what we didn’t want) and setting all kinds of short and long-term goals for both our personal and professional lives. We have been blessed with a ton of success through working & praying to accomplish these goals.  We have owned a successful business for 20 plus years that has allowed us time flexibility to enjoy raising our four children all while buying, owning & living in a house in Huntington Beach, California (which have been some of our long term goals). But it didn’t stop there!  With my background in goal setting (particularly with children), we didn’t just set goals for ourselves but I also began setting goals for our children when they were babies. 

Now, let me be the first to admit there are all kinds of problems that come up as to why people (myself included) don’t reach their goals or at this time of the year-don’t stay consistent with their New Year’s resolutions! Let me tell you these problems are amplified when you are trying to set goals for your child or children or have them begin setting their own goals!   

The biggest problem I see is people not using the power of the Holy Spirit when they set goals.

Secular people (who read The Secret and try to apply the methods without God) have a,  “I do it myself mentality” goal setting approach that does not rely on God’s power & the free gift of the Holy Spirit. So by trying to do it all themselves, they burn out!  Or saying you can do anything you put your mind to is not true, biblically!  If God is not putting a goal in your heart it doesn’t matter what “I try,” I just can’t do it by myself! In Proverbs 19:21-23 King Solomon says “Many are the plans in a man’s heart but the Lord’s purpose will prevail.” My husband had this happen to him in his football career! Highschool football was in his heart and he had a lot of success but his goal of playing in the NFL was not God’s plan for him.  It didn’t matter how thankful or positive or how much he worked his goal did not happen.  We know now through bible study that just was not God’s plan for him.  Romans 8:28 And in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.  God had a bigger plan for him! 

Another major problem is, I have even heard pastors and priests of major churches saying your only goal should be Jesus!   I feel like these pastors and priests either don’t understand the power of the Holy Spirit or their motive is money gained from church attendance.  Jesus came to put his love in the minds and hearts of everyone in a personal way. I think he loves people who set personal and professional goals and work and pray for them! Then He can help us through the free gift of the Holy Spirit!  This makes us thankful to Him, builds our faith, trust & relationship with Him when our goals are achieved and makes us positive people to be around because of our God-confidence!  

The Solution is goal setting and getting the Holy Spirit working in your’s and your family’s life!

When setting goals for yourself or your child/ren you want to think in terms of 

1. Mind (informal & formal education) 
2. Body (hygiene, diet & exercise)
3. Spirit (prayer with God alone & others who fill you spiritually)

Keep in mind, goal setting is different for under age 5, ages 5-10, ages 10-20 and 20+.  A lot of times under age 10 parents are creating the goals for their children while over age 10 children can begin to set their own goals.   Also, a major consideration is trying to understand what God is putting in each child’s heart.  

My suggestion would be to get the power of the Holy Spirit working for all 3 areas in your life!  Age appropriately expose your family to as much of the following as possible:

1. Read & Study the Bible (daily if at all possible)
2. Listen to Christian Music.  There are tons of modern Christian Bands and lots of fun Christian Children’s music.
3. Get out into Nature!  The beach, ocean, mountains, lakes makes us all feel close to God.  In Ancient times people believed in many gods because they were in nature all the time!  Now that we are around man-made buildings all the time there are people who don’t believe in God at all!  Nature is wonderful and refreshes us and children especially need to be outside or encouraged to be outside to feel spiritual!
4. Join a Church/Youth Group!  In the summer, have children go to Vacation Bible School.

Our son plays baseball and he has created some tough hitting goals for himself.  I kept encouraging him that if any negative thoughts came into his mind to pray about them and dismiss them.  Only focus on positive thoughts, things he is thankful for and successful outcomes.  He started singing “Don’t Worry About Anything Instead Pray About Everything” which was a song from Kingdom Rock from Vacation Bible School CD that we use to listen to constantly on our summer  road trip to Yosemite!  It made me chuckle that scientific social training of exposing children to song was spot on!  Research shows that stroke victims who can not speak can sing!  Exposing children to song with scripture (which was a spiritual goal I made for him long ago) made him remember the scripture and he was getting hands-on experience goal setting and working towards achieving his goal at age 12.