Session Notes

What Your Teens Need to Know about Sex:

“Quick ideas about setting boundariesChildren and teens need boundaries for their safety. Children should understand the consequences of breaking family rules and boundaries. Consequences should fit the severity of the rule. The following are a few boundaries to discuss with your teen:CurfewTransporting other teens: who or how many people ride in one car together Drinking alcohol or using drugsDrinking alcohol or using drugs and driving Lying to parents or adults in authorityAllowing opposite-sex company in bedrooms Having friends over while parents are absent Age at which dating can beginDating vs. courting: discuss family values and guidelines”

This is a good article of a vision for teenage relationships. However, the law-based Christianity mindset is laced through it. The piece needs to be changed to focus only on Jesus.

How to Use Your Bronchodilator Inhaler:

“Bronchodilators are prescription medications used to relax the smooth muscles of your constricted airways. This dilates or widens them, making it easier to breathe and to cough up”

Bronchitis Self-Care – Caring for Yourself During A Bronchitis Bout – Bronchitis Treatment:

“Drink a minimum of eight glasses of water or other fluids every day. This will help to keep mucus thin, making it easier to cough up. Avoid sugar and dairy products because they tend to weaken the immune system and cause excessive mucus production.

Cough Suppressants
Do not take cough suppressants. If you have a cough that brings up mucus, this means your body is eliminating the mucus. By taking a cough suppressant, you may cause mucus buildup that can lead to serious complications, such as pneumonia.”

Shovel Writings: Galatians 4:

“The issue of belonging to God is one of legitimacy. In other words, who is the rightful heir? As with Abraham’s sons, the APPEARANCE of being first in line is an illusion. The miracle child was harassed by his older brother. And it shouldn’t take a brain-surgeon to figure out the motivation – this stupid little kid was getting his inheritance! Ishmael’s taunts would have been designed to undermine Isaac’s sense of identity, which is the same questioning of your own identity as a rightful heir of God through Christ. How many times has your ”salvation“ been questioned? How many times has it been suggested that you don’t really belong to Him or have a lower standing? How many doctrines have categorized you as illegitimate – as a bastard? Haven’t you noticed that the productivity of the flesh always questions the productivity of the Spirit? It’s message is that you cannot trust freedom to produce anything of worth! But if you hear the simple lesson of Sarah and Abraham you will find that you have a reason to rejoice when you can’t see any fruit … or when it appears as if nothing is happening!


Back to Top”

This is a good article on the deadness of performance as opposed to the fruit of freedom.

Shovel Writings: Christ & Him Crucified:

“He then went on to throw their screwed up experiences in their faces, NOT TO SHAME THEM, but to drive home the reality of what the wisdom of the world had convinced them of and brought them to.  His major questions were, ”DON’T YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE?“  … ”DON’T YOU KNOW WHAT THE WISDOM OF THE WORLD PRODUCES?“ … ”DON’T YOU KNOW THE TWO WISDOMS CANNOT MIX?“.
”AMONG YOU“ … How do you view me?  How do you view yourself?  One will demand the other.  Compare me with yourself or with your group or with your standards and you have evaluated yourself by how well you rate in comparison to me or with those standards!  Rate me by how many doctrines I agree with you on and you have automatically rated yourself as the standard by which I am to be judged in the matter.  Put me under law and eventually you will have no option but to put yourself under law.  It’s what the Corinthians were doing … and it’s what you and I also fall into.
View me in the living, risen Christ, the one who has been separated from everything to do with the world …… OR ……… view me in relation to how well I rate in comparison to your world.  There are no other options.”

An Excellent discussion that we are to only see Jesus in others and not compare them to us. May it be so.

Shovel Writings: Cold, Dead Fingers:

“Wow. I, too, had defined forgiveness by the human process I went through in attempting to ”let go of“ my hurt feelings or anger. But you’re right…in Christ, these offenses do not exist. The spiritual reality destroys the human formula. Our desire is therefore not for the ”how to,“ but rather to stay focused on Christ.
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This is the only answer to all conflicts: STAY FOCUSED ON JESUS!!! EVEN THOUGH IT APPEARS THERE ARE OFFENCEANNOYANCES THEY DO NOT EXIST IN CHRIST. LORD do this is all of us, please!!! HE SAYS HE WILL.

Shovel Writings: Forgiveness Response:

“Your emotions are letting you know that you are viewing yourself and/or others by your yardstick … while the gospel declares that your yardstick is the thing you have been saved from … he snapped it into little bitty pieces. Chances are that if the emotions are hanging on after seeing the situation in the reality of Christ that those emotions are being stirred up by something else. I have often discovered that my hateful feelings were not really about the person who said something derogatory to me, but in the simple fact that I had been damning myself in that particular thing for years! Once I got past the bogus notion that SOMEBODY ELSE was to blame for my feelings of inferiority I was able to see the obvious fact that my anger was toward myself! But I had for the longest time transferred the blame, and therefore, the corresponding feelings to another. And so I tried and tried in vain to forgive them (or even to see them in Christ) … and I wondered why I felt these things toward them.
And, in this, I am once again presented with the reality of life vs. death. My Father has given me something tangible to behold and to declare that THIS TOO has been removed by Christ! This is His Spirit witnessing with my spirit and it is saturated with life.”

This is an excellent point about the real source of anger towards others. I pray we stop measuring one another and ourselves.

Budget Busters, Part 1:

“Few families understand how much and what kind of insurance is needed. Insurance should be used as a supplementary provision for the family, not for protection or for profit. Insurance is not designed for saving money or for retirement. So, select insurance based on God’s plan for your life, not on what someone else says you need for your life.”

Budget Busters, Part 2:

“Pay cash for a new car if possible. If not, make sure the current car is paid off before purchasing a new one.”

Motherhood Guilt:

“I want you to consider this inexplicable reality; you haven’t done everything wrong. You’ve taken many actions that are not only harmless but actually wonderful and wise. In fact, you have innumerable memories squirreled away in the quagmire of your maternal mind that are full of light and life and that are indictors of a mothering life well considered.So here we go—say them aloud or write them on a piece of paper—answer this one question: what isn’t on your guilt list—i.e. what have you done right as a mom? Nothing is off limits mentioning. Nothing is too simple or too sappy. Start with the easy stuff…here’s a couple of mine:I don’t feel guilty for picking up my babies every time they criedI don’t feel guilty for baking chocolate-chip cookies nearly once a week for the past 17 yearsI don’t feel guilty admitting I hate to play board gamesSee? Easy. Nothing earth shaking. Just simple, real, guilt-free realities of my simple, real life.”

This is an encouraging article on seeing yourself as a new creation in mothering. This is from an “It is Finished perspective.” May it be so that we focus on “WHAT IS LOVELY.”