Oh the tongue is such a tiny part of our body and yet it wields such great power. With it we can build each other up or tear one another down.
“The tongue has the power of life and death.” Proverbs 18:21
Over in these parts, I’ve noticed that we’ve become a little lax with our tongues. There has been more bickering, whining and complaining than I’d like to admit. So when my friend Carlie asked if I wanted an advance peek at her new book that she wrote with her husband, I jumped at the chance.
It can be so easy to speak as the culture speaks. But it is rarely uplifting. And if it isn’t negative, its oftentimes full of empty praise and promises. And yet, God’s Spirit inside of us makes it possible to pursue a different mode of communication with others. We are excited to embark on this 9 week family devotional that will take us through the Fruit of the Spirit.
Learning to Speak Life: The Fruit of the Spirit – A Review
Here’s what I like about it:
- It is laid out well and yet also easy to adapt to each family circumstances.
- It draws us into Scripture. It has age appropriate suggestions for the over 7 and the 6 and under crowd that include copywork and memorization. There is also a great “Digging Deeper” section! Nothing changes us quite like the Holy Spirit bringing conviction as we dig deep into the Word!
- Faith Confessions – Part of speaking life is speaking truth – God’s promises – into our lives. It is so inspiring to focus on what God CAN do in and through us instead of focusing on self and our shortcomings.
- Imagination/Movement component. Children learn so much through dramatization and movement. There is a skit for each chapter that allows the children to role play inspiration for showing that Fruit of the Spirit in Action!
- Another short story that brings home the point.
- Silly Sayings: fun tongue twisters that also emphasize the point!
- Great family discussion questions.
- A family project – another HANDS-ON component that helps us live out this fruit in our lives.
In preparation for starting this devotional and well, because today was such a rough day in the bickering department, we sat down to talk about how our words can be used to build each other up or tear them down. The wonderful thing about reading blogs is finding great ideas to tuck away for later… My friend, Sarah, had blogged about a fun activity she had done with her boys. Inspired by that we sat down to build tall block tower.
They built and built – carefully constructing a beautiful tower. And then with one carelessly misplaced elbow, the whole thing came crashing down. It couldn’t have been more perfect. I took that moment to talk to the boys about how our words can be used to build one another up or tear them down. We discussed how EASY a careless word can totally decimate someone. I’d love to say that we had a great time of conviction and wonderful prayer together, but they were far more interested in building their tower again.
Tomorrow is a new day and with our block experience fresh on our minds, we’ll revisit this concept again as we dive into our first Fruit of the Spirit: LOVE!
Are you needing to focus on what the Bible has to say about the Fruit of the Spirit and grow in speaking life to each other? You can buy the book on Amazon for a special rate of $5.99 until August 1st.
You can also enter to win a PDF ebook copy on the rafflecopter widget below! The giveaway ends on Sunday evening. Because this is for a digital product, I’m so excited to let you know that this giveaway is open for ALL my readers, not just the one’s living here in the U.S!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Would love to read the book you have been working from.
I haven’t done near what I should be doing in this department! But I love the idea of studying our words, since lately I have been pointing out to my children that they need to use their words to bless one another, not tear them down.
Thanks for the great reminder – and the book sounds interesting.
We try to use being together at meal times to focus on encouraging each other with our words. It’s now the times between meals that we need to work on more!!
I hear you! But oh the beautiful foundation you are setting by your discussions at dinner time!
I start by speaking words of encouragement MYSELF and then I gently urge my kids (and my husband!) to do likewise. Some people are just unaware of how their words come across and I think this is a great tool to make us all more aware!
YES! God’s been speaking to me in this area for the last couple of years and this as in other areas too start with ME embracing it. It is so encouraging to see how the words we speak can not only encourage others, but also set an example!
Thank you for this giveaway. I am constantly working with my boys in this area of using positive rather than negative words. It is a constant struggle, a constant battle against the ways of the world, but one I am fighting with fervor in hopes that my sons will learn to speak life.
It is a constant battle both with training my children and working on it myself. I’m so thankful for reminders to hold steady!
We were practicing speaking encouraging words this morning in our Bible lesson. I think we will incorporate this into our morning routine as well. Looks like a great book for more resources. I may buy one if I don’t win one.
We don’t do much in the way of training. It usually occurs in the heat of the moment. This would be a great tool to teach in moments of nonconflict. Thanks for sharing this gem.
We focus a lot on giving thanks… thanking each other throughout the day and thanking Jesus for little and big things that He does!
YES!
Thanks for the great give away! I’m afraid we haven’t done anything in particular to teach our boys in this area other than making the most of opportunities to talk through it as they have arisen. That’s why I’m so keen to look at this great sounding book!