June 10, 2026

We want to spread the good news of how God has helped Emily (our oldest) make her dream of going away to college come true just like Psalm 20:4 May He give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed!

As a child, Emily, always dreamed of having the full, “go away to college, dorm experience” and she has done just that at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo the last 4 years! She has had so much fun she doesn’t even like talking about moving out at the end of June! 

As a freshman, she left for college, really excited and ready for the opportunity. She had probably been ready since about 3rd grade;) I (her mom), however, was nervous for both her spirituality and safety. She had been a youth ministry leader at church but was kinda soured on faith. She also moved into the dorm that Kristin Smart lived in when she was murdered at that school, when I was a freshman in college (1996).

God really used that situation to grow my faith in Him and her! God gave her exactly what she wanted (Psalm 20:4) and she took the opportunity and thoroughly enjoyed her Freshman year dorm experience and made all kinds of friends & memories. Once she was able to have a car on campus, sophomore year, she has been our typical “Dora the Explorer baby” and enjoying everything that the San Luis Obispo area has to offer! I often text to try and schedule a time to facetime her or check Find My and see she is hiking, taking cold plunges at the beach, volunteering at the animal shelter, at the a zoo in Santa Barbara, at a concert, playing pickle ball, attending sorority dances, at a Rodeo or in her rodeo class, at Hearst Castle, line dancing… you name it! 

What has touched me most is that she has found and is going to a church called Active in San Luis Obispo. It was such a blessing to me because she had us go with her when we were visiting for my bday weekend in February:) Her Dad and I now watch some of the sermons at home if she says it’s a relevant message for our family! She really has grown into such a beautiful young lady (inside & out) and it reminds me of the movie Sabrina with Harrison Ford (minus the affair with the old man);) Also, instead of going to Europe and getting into photography, she found church & photography class at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo!

We hope you will join us in praying for Emily that she follows the Holy Spirit’s lead, models Christian character in her career & social life and meets the Christian man of her dreams continuing with Psalm 20:4 May He give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed:)  You could also send her prayer texts/instagram posts on or after her graduation date of Sunday June 14, 2026.

Mathew 28:6

Testimony: Way back when, (in 2018), we tried to host a real Passover with 8-10 other families from our children’s Catholic grammar school.  Although I thought it was a great hands-on-learning experience for kids to explain why Christians take communion, it was kinda a bust because the kids didn’t really like the food:(

In fact, one of the Dads, jokingly afterwards, told me, “Christian’s like their bread like they like their Messiah, Risen!” 

Solution: Since then, I have tried to host a one day Passover each year, (during Holy Week) as a tradition just for our own family of 6. It is fun to get creative and try and brainstorm foods that don’t contain leaven but that our kids already love (or at least like).  Our focus is on telling the story of the Exodus. 

Example Menu 2025:

Smith Family Passover 

Main: Lemon Chicken 

Side: Mash Potatoes

Dessert: Strawberries with Nutella

Matzo  

Sparkling Cider (w/ real wine glasses!)

Example Menu 2025:

Smith Family Easter Sunday Brunch

Main: Fancy Nancy’s Holiday Quiche

Side: Banana Bread 

Side: Leftover Matzo

Side: Refrigerated Entenmann’s Chocolate & Glazed Donuts

Side: Fruit plate w/ Strawberries, Bananas & other Fruit

The Smith’s Passover 2026

The above menus are just examples of our Passover and Easter Sunday Brunch Meals from last year (2025). Our four children absolutely love mashed potatoes and they are “leaven free” so this is a great food for me (as Chef Mom) to make because all our children love it!  If your child/dren don’t like mashed potatoes then you want to brainstorm and think of a main, side dish and dessert they truly love to try and get this tradition to be something they look forward to! 

Our kids are much older now (ages 22, 20, 17 and 14) than when we started in 2018 (14, 12, 9 & 6) and Emily is away in college and Mikey is working so it is just gonna be four of us this year! Last year our oldest, Emily, made her Out-of-This-World Lemon Chicken. However, this year she is back at college and unable to cook. I’m short on time because we are leaving out-of-town so I’m gonna make it easy and buy an already cooked rotisserie chicken at Sprouts, make mashed potatoes and call it a one-day Passover!  This makes it quick and easy and will leave leftovers for Mikey when he gets home from umpiring.

The most important part during the Passover Meal is focusing on retelling the story of the Exodus through the meal tradition.  You can retell the story in your own words or have someone who is Jewish join you (as we were blessed to have back in 2018). Then have her/him tell the story that was passed on to her/him from their parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, ect.! 

During the meal, talk about whether or not the children think it is hard to give up leaven for one day. If it is not difficult for your child/ren (especially because you have provided a bunch of foods they love!) talk about if it would be hard to give up leaven all week as the Jewish people were mandated to do! Of course it depends on how much your kids like carbs!! If giving up leaven is not difficult for your child because they don’t care for it anyways, talk to your child about something they have given up before.  If they are Catholic maybe they gave up meat on Fridays or they picked something for Lent to give up for 40 days? If your child has never “given up” something then you can remind them of when they were babies.  Maybe they had to give up a favorite blanket “lovie” or pacifier “binky” and how they felt and how they feel about it now?

Talk to the bread winner or the bread maker of the house about whether it would be hard to throw all the leaven in your house away for an entire week! To me that would be so wasteful and expensive! I think I would try and use everything ahead of time so I didn’t waste the time shopping and our hard earned money but was still abiding by God’s law!

The point is to try and tell her/him your experience(s) of giving something up. Sometimes it can be a more serious sacrifice like something they had to give up because of an illness or an accident or a real God-given trial we have experienced. The conversation focus should be on a sacrifice and how it was difficult (or sometimes very difficult) but now we are happy and thankful God brought us out of it!

I love how in the TV show the Chosen they start saying, “It would have been enough!” Dennis Prager (in his Passover for Quarantine 2020) talks about how this is really the main prayer recitation.  This part of the tradition is really teaching the children gratitude (even in difficult circumstances) but again you can take this celebration as far as you want depending on your child(ren)’s social and educational level(s)!

Focusing on the Jews going through slavery in Egypt and God freeing them quickly before the bread could rise was God’s mandate for the tradition! Jesus sacrificing his body (bread) on the cross means when we believe in His death & resurrection we quickly have eternal life! Through the tradition, God was trying to teach the generations of parents (who have loving relationships with their children) all kinds of lessons but the main lesson was that everything works out for God’s reasons!  Romans 8:28 say  “And in ALL things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.” The Passover is all about the Jews being freed quickly from physical slavery in Egypt and Easter is all about belief in Jesus’ death and resurrection quickly freeing us from physical and spiritual death!

If you are Christian, you can also have family members share stories of their Exodus from sin or an abusive relationship (depending on your children’s ages and if you feel it is good timing in your own child’s/children’s social-emotional development and your relationship with them).  

Just talking about the Exodus, yearly, and how God mandated (4 times in the Bible) that parents tell their children the story as a celebration tradition will bring blessings into your family life! It is a great reminder of how quick God was, and is, able (he has absolute control) to bring people out of slavery to man and/or sin! 

I would also highly suggest retelling the story through the Bible. For younger children, use children’s bibles with illustrated pictures. This retelling of the story each year (at your child’s social-educational level) will help the Holy Spirit individualize your children’s understanding of the Exodus, to fit each of her/his needs each year which is the miraculous part of this age-old God-mandated Jewish tradition:)

Attach Dennis Prager (2020 quarantine Passover Seder) 

If you have the time and want to host a real Sedar/Passover Dennis Prager hosts a fabulous video example of his Passover during quarantine. You don’t need to get this detailed to start (especially if you are a parent of young children & feeling overwhelmed) but if you have the time to watch the video and implement more of the tradition he explains the symbolism of salt water, parsley, a hard-boiled egg, horseradish, charoset (nuts, raisins & honey) and haggado.  Again, if you have young children, I would strongly suggest making it easy to start. It’s more the repetition of the meal tradition and retelling the story each year that helps the children understand why they take communion and that God/Jesus has all control to deliver them from evil! In our real family life of just discovering celebrating Passover, it has been fun to add new things every year as children get older because it keeps it challenging and fresh for the kids and us as parents who are hosting the tradition!

As far as dessert, our kids absolutely love farm fresh strawberries and they taste like candy dipped in Nutella so this is an easy & delicious dessert to nibble on while your watching an Exodus related movie or TV show such as: 

Vegie Tales (young kids will love these!)

The 10 Commandments with Charlton Heston

The Chosen Season 5 (w/ flashback episodes of the Passover in every episode!)

Again, don’t feel overwhelmed! You don’t have to read every story or watch every movie/TV Show/YouTube clip every year!  Parents just exposing children to the Exodus story through a meal tradition is a social- hands-on-experience enough and helps children understand how the Exodus relates to communion, Holy Week and/or Lent which will educate them as Historians, Judeo-Christians and ignite the Holy Spirit inside of them:)

On Easter, especially for young kids, you can make their favorite treat with leaven and have them compare it with the leftover Matza! Our children love Banana Bread, brown rolls and strawberry shortcake so those foods with leaven would work well for our children when they were younger but you know your child/ren’s favorite leaven-packed carb to eat so have the treat and the Matza to compare and contrast! It makes good Easter conversation!

February 8, 2026

Jesus said to His disciples, “You are the SALT of the earth. You are the Light of the world.”  

You (Disciples of Jesus) are the SALT of the earth! Salt is an ingredient that can be used to preserve food & dead bodies. 

In ancient times, farming had seasons of feast and famine and people relied on salt to preserve food during winter or times of shortage.   In modern times, especially in Southern California, we have meats, fresh fruits, vegetables and wheat available to us year round so we don’t understand the value (the preserving qualities) of salt as much as the people did in ancient times when Jesus was telling his disciples they were the salt of the earth. The disciples relied on using salt to preserve foods so they would not starve in the winter without hunting or harvest season so they knew if they were told they were salt they were very important to preserving the earth! 🌍 

Jesus goes on to say if salt loses its flavor it is worthless. 

Coming from Modern times, I had to google “Can salt lose its flavor? How does salt lose its flavor?”

Google said, “Salt can lose its flavor, not because pure sodium chloride spoils, but due to contamination, moisture absorption (causing clumping and dilution), additional additives are added or it gets wet.  So the disciples (& we as disciples) are the salt of the earth meaning spiritually we are preserving the earth as long as we are not contaminating ourselves through our flesh or worldly values, dry up from our baptism, add anything additional to the word of God (Revelation 22:18-19) or water down the truth or our testimony. Jesus didn’t say (as disciples) we can try to “Be salt”, he said WE (as disciples) ARE SALT. We are preserving the earth spiritually for the afterlife whether we know it or not!

Ironically, the rich-elite royal social classes in ancient Egypt (around 1300-1500 years before Jesus told his disciples they were the salt of the earth) were using salt to preserve their bodies from decay. Their goal for mummifying themselves was eternal life. They thought that if someone invented a medicine to help them come back to life after death but their body was decomposed they would miss the opportunity to come back to life. This is an example in ancient times of Ecclesiastes 3:11 which says, God set eternity in the human heart. Jesus is saying we are the salt of the earth and we are preserved for eternal life and we are preserving eternal life for others!

Jesus also said to his disciples, “You are the light of the world!”

John Diaz had an interview with Oprah that I love! John Diaz told Oprah of his near death experience (NDE). He physically died just after a plane crash but his body was spiritually alive floating above his physical body.  He said he saw some of the other people who had also died in the plane crash. They were floating out of their physical bodies into spiritual bodies as well, out of the seats of the plane and up out of the airplane.  He said he noticed some of the people’s spiritual bodies were more colorful and brighter than others! Seeing this made him want to live a better life so that when he dies he is a more colorful soul/spirit!  For our kids, who are from GenZ, these people had a more colorful “aura.”  Biblically, living a life full of the actions of the fruits of the spirit which are patience, kindness/grace, honesty, faithfulness, gentleness/humility and self-control in our daily lives will make us more colorful spirits both on this earth and in the afterlife!

Psalm 119:105 says, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” The word of God/the Bible in action is the light inside each of us!💡 WE (as disciples) ARE SALT (preserving the earth) but we are trying to BE LIGHT everyday with the help of the Holy Spirit! We, as disciples, are the power source but the problem is our children are living in the social media age where everyone has to check boxes and in that space they can only be light to people within their algorithm-as opposed to light to the world!

Prayers for Our Children!

Praying for our children that their souls/spirits are constantly becoming more colorful with the help of the Holy Spirit as they are acting with patience, kindness/grace, honesty/integrity, faithfulness, gentleness/humility & self-control in everything they do! Praying that they focus on loving themselves as God loves them and being light in their real world life (as opposed to the social media life) as daughters/sons, sisters, brothers, friends, roommates, classmates, teammates, employees and eventually as employers, spouses and parents themselves. 

Song: Firework By: Katie Perry

February 1, 2026

Testimony, Prayers for Our Children & Worship Song:)

I love how the TV show “The Chosen” gives us a visual of the Sermon on the Mount. So many people gathered together (all various nationalities and social status’) following Jesus’ preaching! 

Jesus starts saying things that seem very backwards to His followers in ancient times and even to us now, in modern times, as Believers.

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven!”

We do not typically think of people who are poor in spirit as being blessed.  We think of people with position, authority and money being blessed.  Imagine praying for someone that they become poor in spirit so they are blessed? It just doesn’t seem right but Jesus said, “Blessed are they who are poor in spirit because theirs is the kingdom of heaven!” People who are poor in spirit (or as Paul says weak in some way) are blessed because “theirs is the kingdom of heaven” or because of the promise of heaven or their HOPE in heaven! Jesus is  saying when we are poor in spirit we are blessed to focus on the promise of the Kingdom of Heaven or the Kingdom of God or the Kingdom of LOVE!  The Kingdom of Heaven and the Kingdom of God are used interchangeably in the Bible.  In 1 John 4:7 it says, “God is LOVE” so the Kingdom of Heaven/God can also be called the Kingdom of Love!

At Dodger’s Christian Day 2023, Chris Prat talked about how we can experience heaven on earth. I would say a resounding yes from what Jesus talks about in this famous sermon on the mount! Yes! We can experience slices of heaven or the Kingdom of Heaven/God/Love on earth but these experiences are just a slice of heaven and the real experience (or full loaf of bread) of heaven is gonna blow our minds and hearts one day!

The kingdom of love can exist on this earth if we are blessed to see it! It is not through our fleshy desires, worldly position, authority or money! Yes money can help you live your best life but sometimes the people with the most money are miserable because they are poor in spirit.  

Oftentimes when we are poor in spirit (or have some other weakness that Jesus addresses in this sermon on the mount) we see God’s blessings the most because our perspective changes! For example when…..

-a loved one passes away 

-ourselves or a loved one has an accident or gets diagnosed w/ an illness

– we lose our job or have financial problems

-we go through a divorce or watch our parents or friends go through a divorce

-we are emotionally, physically or sexually abused

These hard times (problems or trials) are oftentimes when we have a need for God or we see that we are blessed by God. Joyce Meyer was sexually abused by her father in her younger days but in her books and preaching she tells how God has blessed her so much, through daily surprises, from having to go through that experience in her younger years! God had and has great plans for all the trials and abuses His people have suffered! “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven/God/Love!” Romans 8:28

Sometimes it’s not as serious, it’s just a change of perspective from a trial/difficult experience. It was a blessing before the experience but we took the blessing for granted! 

When our daughter Sarah was born premature at 1 lb 14 ounces (and was in NICU for 49 days from August to October 2011) I would be staring out the window from Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach at all the people enjoying their life (& beautiful day) going to the beach. It’s not that I didn’t appreciate going to the beach before, but having a young premature baby in NICU seemed really hard.  I would have rather been chasing after our three other kids at the beach like I did the summer before (when they were ages 2, 4 and 6) than the seriousness of caring for a premature baby.  Of course I was very blessed to have had the miracle of caring for her and I would do it again but my perspective changed about days at the beach. Since that experience in NICU, I have never taken going to the beach for granted even when all the kids are bickering and at least one of them, doesn’t want to be there. I’m always thinking of how blessed I am to be enjoying a beautiful day at the beach! After writing this I should probably be praying for the people at the hospital that they get their fun beach day soon! “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven!”

Another change of perspective example is when I was a new mom other moms would oftentimes complain about how hard being a new mom was.  I would kinda have to change the subject or do something else because before I became a mom, I was a Social Pathologist, and worked with children with special needs in a preschool special day class. I worked 2 days per week when our oldest daughter was a baby! I never felt like complaining cause I was always in “awe” of how quickly our baby, Emily, picked up on language and concepts. It was like having a little doll I would take and show the world to!  Then I would love watching how she would play and interact with the world  because I knew she had caught on so quickly to everything I had exposed her to!

Of course I was exhausted from a baby who was super curious about her surroundings and only took 20 minute cat naps but I always knew I was very blessed that she was developing at an advanced rate and I was also able to spend so much time with her! This is not to make other moms feel bad for feeling overwhelmed as a new mom, or needing to vent, it’s just I felt blessed because of my perspective with children with special needs.  Even if I did become overwhelmed as a new mom (on occasion) I always knew it could be much more difficult so I would just handle one thing at a time and try and enjoy our curious, non-napper, extremely healthy baby! “Blessed are the sleep deprived, theirs is the kingdom of love!”

Prayers for Our Children

Now as far as prayer for our children, I am always praying that our children chase the dreams that God is putting in their hearts! Psalm 20:4 says, “May He give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed!” 

Our children’s perspectives come from a place of being “rich in spirit” with financial provision!  We have taken them to weekly church or had a family bible study their entire lives.  They know my husband (their father) and I believe in Jesus and the promises of heaven! Our children have a lot of blessings that they can easily take for granted and don’t have as much need to focus on the kingdom of Heaven, the Kingdom of God or the Kingdom of Love.  They have much of this kingdom of love already in their daily home life!  

My Grandma who lived through the Great Depression said, “It’s good to want things.’ The championship tennis player John McEnroe said, “My children suffer from affluenza” which is when children don’t have a need to chase dreams or set out to reach goals because they have so much! But like I stated before, what parent would want to wish for their child to be poor in spirit? But this is the difficult way to the Kingdom of Heaven, Kingdom of God or Kingdom of Love!  If children don’t have a need they don’t needs it, don’t wants it:( My husband had moments of poor in spirit through trying to achieve difficult goals in football and later in business and it has made him an amazing husband and father!  Praying for our young adult children and teenage children that they set difficult to achieve goals (the one’s God is putting in their hearts) in freelance business, school, baseball and tennis. If they set high goals they will eventually feel poor in spirit but you will be living your best life because you will be living for God’s purposes (Romans 8:28) and you will see slices of the Kingdom of Love here on earth and eventually join us in the Kingdom of Heaven!

There is a Catholic Judeo-Christian song from this sermon on the mount called “Blessed are They!” The recorded version is not even close to listening to people at church singing it together!  “It says, Re—–joi—–ce and be glad yours is the kingdom of God.” I cry every time because the words are so true in real life! The song brings joy and sorrow at the same time because our hardships here are nothing compared to what awaits us in heaven! I attached a recorded version but it is nothing like the song live in a church filled with Jesus’ followers having gone through what he was talking about, at the sermon on the mount, and now we are singing his words back to Him because they are so TRUE!  Isaiah 55:11

“Come Follow Me & I will Make you Fishers of Men.”

January 25,2026

Over the weekend, our family had the opportunity to hear Ray Comfort (& Ken Ham) speak at Calvary Chapel, Downey, California. After the worship service, on our 30-minute drive home to Huntington Beach, our daughter Julia, 19, was explaining how she feels uncomfortable evangelizing people, especially when thinking about pointing out others’ sins in order to encourage them to repent. 

Kirk Cameron & Ray Comfort Testimony & Evangelism

Although we all agreed that we feel uncomfortable pointing out sin in strangers, I fully agree that sin needs to be addressed in order for a behavior change to take place, because of my education and background in behavior modification (as a Social Pathologist).  Scientific research says in order to change a behavior, people must first admit the problem! The perfect example of this is Alcoholics Anonymous (AKA AA), in which the alcoholic has to begin by stating they are an alcoholic at the beginning of each meeting. “I’m John and I’m an alcoholic.”  AA is a Christian organization but also has lots of scientific behavior modification research behind the fact “admitting the problem” is the precursor to changing the behavior! You can’t live your best life (the life Jesus died to give you) until you admit your shortcomings!

Obviously, Jesus, our creator, is a master at knowing how to change behavior and knew the science to change behavior before he created science and the world! His goal is that his people freewillingly admit their sins/mistakes, receive His forgiveness and move in a new direction!

Still, cold-calling evangelism (specifically pointing out sin), is a very difficult part of our calling as Christians. We let our kids know that just because we feel uncomfortable evangelizing this way, we are very blessed as a church family by how many people Ray and other cold-callers we know have brought into our church family.   

The no-hitter MLB baseball pitcher,  Michael Lorenzen is one of these conversions (on the Huntington Beach pier) who’s testimony our son heard while playing baseball for FCA (Fellowship of Christian Athletes).  We are praying for Ray Comfort’s Living Water organization and anyone who is called to evangelize this way, so we can, as Ericka Church’s tour states, “Make Heaven Crowded 2026!”

This gospel, “Come Follow Me and I will make you Fishers of Men!” is a prelude to the Great Commission, which is for each believer to preach the gospel! Jesus is saying if the disciples follow him, he is going to teach them how to convert non-believers & how to strengthen, encourage and comfort the church of believers through the help of his Holy Spirit which he has done so obviously with Ray Comfort and his ministry Living Waters!  Not a coincidence because their are no coincidences with God, (termed God Wink by: Squire Russell) that Ray’s last name is COMFORT and Jesus calls us each by name!

The Commission by: Cain

We want to encourage our children that even if they don’t feel called to cold-call non-believers (specifically pointing out others’ sin) there are many ways to begin preaching the gospel. Once they  begin and feel Jesus’ encouragement  they might even find themselves becoming more bold by cold-calling strangers!

One way to preach the gospel is by writing down or videoing yourself telling your own testimony.  Hearing how God has been working in your own life through answered prayer or working for His purposes is very inspiring (strengthening, encouraging, comforting)!

Another way of preaching the gospel is by modeling Christian behavior (especially if God allows a difficult situation in your life).  Christian spiritual behavior includes the actions of patience, kindness, honesty, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control and the Holy Spirit helps put these character traits inside you!  

Teaching the word is another way to preach the gospel.  While interacting with friends, classmates or fellow employees about a specific problem they are dealing with, we can suggest scripture that would help them (depending on the specific  problem) or Christian books you have had success with. For us, we have read so many books that stand out, including Purpose Driven Life By Rick Warren, Starting & Ending Your Day Right, By Joyce Meyer, Chuck Smith’s Bible with his personal footnotes (or even the app Word for the Day to aid in Bible study), Discovering the Mind of a Woman, by: Ken Nair, Business Secrets of the Bible, by: Rabbi Daniel Lappin, Have you Considered?, By Bruce Malone & Julie Von Vett and so many others! 

Healing is another way believers can preach the gospel. Healing includes physically and spiritually meeting the needs of both non-believers and believers as Jesus did! God says you may even be able to perform miracles outside your family and hometown which is why Jesus moved outside of Nazareth and into Caupernaum when he began his ministry because even He had trouble performing miracles in his own home town because of the lack of faith there.

Once you step out of your comfort zone and begin doing one or more of these actions, cold calling evangelism might not feel so difficult! The world is a dark place! There are all kinds of people needing a Christian telling them Jesus wants you to admit your sin and come to him to Him to be forgiven! Our kids may not need that because they have two parents (a mom & a dad) that love them but many people are hurting and want to change yet don’t even know about the Bible or Jesus’ friendship being available to them! They think it is about works and being a good person.

After preaching the gospel in these other ways, you might find yourself being more courageous and evangelizing strangers!