Little Lilly’s Sunday school teacher had his five-year-old students bow their heads and say a one-sentence prayer at the end of every class. For several weeks, he would hear Lilly pray the same thing: “Lord, please make my mommy feel better.”

The teacher wondered what could be afflicting Lilly’s mother. Then, one Sunday, when it was time for Lilly to pray, she was silent.

“Are you okay, Lilly?” asked the teacher.

Lilly mumbled, “Yes.”

“Is there some reason you don’t want to pray?”

“Well, I want to say more.”

“That would be fine. And the reason why?”

Lilly raised her head and said with the biggest grin, “Because Jesus made my mommy feel better.”

“Oh? How so?”

“He took her away to be with Him in heaven.”

The teacher gasped and was astonished at Lilly’s perspective about her mother’s death. Not wanting to dampen Lilly’s happiness that her mother was no longer suffering, the teacher said, “In that case, take as much time as you need, Lilly, and use as many words as you want to say.”

That day, the teacher learned a valuable lesson from sweet little Lilly: It matters not what happens in life that affects us. It is how we see things that determines our joy or sadness.

Copyright 2010 by Bob Valleau. Bob has over 25 years of writing experience for the Christian market. He was once named Christian Writer of the Year by the American Christian Writers Association. Currently, he freelances and lives in Texas.

Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com-CHRISTIAN WRITERS-MAKE A WEBSITE

http://cnn.com/video/?/video/us/2010/05/11/dnt.lord.jesus.christ.hit.by.car.wshm

The survey revealed that 28 percent of the population—some 65 million adults—have not participated in any church activities or services in the past six months. As many churches try to attract this group to worship on Sunday, the study showed that the makeup of unchurched Americans may be surprising.

For example, 18 percent of unchurched Americans say they are born again, that they have “made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ that is still important in their life today” and that they will go to heaven only because they have accepted Him as their Savior. Two-thirds (68 percent) say God is the all-knowing, all-powerful creator of the universe. However, slightly more than one-third (35 percent) agree that the Bible is totally accurate in all its principles, and only 15 percent say their religious faith is very important in their life.

Demographically, among the unchurched, women outnumber men, baby boomers and older generations outnumber younger generations, and conservatives outnumber liberals.

Why does such a large group of people who believe in God avoid church? The Barna Group claims that a previous study may shed some light on the question. The study showed that 37 percent of non-churchgoing Americans avoid churches because of negative past experiences in churches or with church people. [barna.org, 4/12/10]

Hebrews 10:23-25 (NKJV)
23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, 25 not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.

Many people have become disillusioned with the current state of the “church.”  Often, the unchurched have an innocence that we life-long, card carrying members have lost.  They tend to recognize that the church should be a movement.  The early church gives us numerous examples of that fact.  They also recognize that the church is not a monument.  There is nothing wrong with being proud of the facility in which you worship, but many take it too far.  However, they miss the mark on the importance of assembling ourselves together.  Sure, they have a personal relationship with Jesus, but how is that relationship being cultivated?  The fact is that we need each other.  We should be encouraging one another, organizing ourselves in order to win souls for the kingdom and so much more.  How can we accomplish any of these goals if we are not on one accord?  And what example are we for the lost if after we have been given the privilege of drawing near to God, thanks to salvation through Jesus Christ, yet we fail to do so?

Failure to assemble ourselves also makes us easy targets.  I can not help but think of National Geographic when a lion is on the prowl.  Beautiful antelopes or gazelles suddenly sense danger and they communicate the need to rally together and flee.  Meanwhile, the lion is always on the lookout for the slowest, weakest or better still, the loner.  Our enemy works the same way.  He would love to get us by ourselves with no one to encourage us or pray us through our situations.

Many will argue that the assembly spoken of in scripture was much different from our Westernized assembly and they are correct.  However, once we choose to join a body we should be useful parts of that body. Whether you assemble in the basement of a house, a mega-church, tent or college dorm it is up to believers to encourage one another.   Let us not be of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved!

Today, I ran across an interesting video that I believe captured worship. An up and coming musician, Carlos Whittaker, was attempting to record a promotional video for his upcoming release when a homeless man, Danny, walks up to him as he prepares to sing.  Danny appears to kneel in reverence as he worships through song. It is difficult to ignore the sincerity in both of their voices.  The result is amazing.

Carlos shares some more on his blog that is hard to pick up from the video:

If you listen carefully at the end you hear me saying this to Danny. “Keep trying to make it man.”

He looked me square in the eye… cocked his head sideways with a confused look on his face… and said, “Trying to make it? No man. I ain’t trying to make it… I’m making it. Jah puts his soldiers everywhere. Jah says, Yea though you walk through the valley of the shadow of death… So he places some of us, in that valley.”

What is so amazing is that this obviously homeless man understands that he might just be there for a reason.  I know that would be a hard pill to swallow for most of us.  Yet, with humility he seems to have accepted the call and continues to simply worship.  Could you?

Quick Response to Study of Abstinence Education

National Marriage Week has long been an organized celebration around the world ( www.marriage-weekinternational.org) with large rallies, resolutions in Parliaments, concerted outreach for marriage education, and more. But not many folks know about it in the U.S. This week in 2010, a new initiative is being launched by National Marriage Week USA in an effort to build collaboration and focus uniquely on February 7 to 14 with coordination of national efforts at www.NationalMarriageWeekUSA.org.

Chuck Stetson, chairman of National Marriage Week USA says “The alarming drop in marriage rates in America combined with high divorce rates are financially costly to taxpayers and individuals, and emotionally costly to children. Marriage breakdown costs taxpayers $112 billion a year. The nation needs to pay attention.”

“Marriage works,” says executive director Sheila Weber. “Research shows that marriage makes people happier, live longer, and build more economic security. Children with married parents perform better in school. There are proven ways to repair and restore marriages–but most folks don’t know where to go to get the help they need.”

The first-ever Marriage Index, recently released jointly by the National Center on African American Marriages and Parenting (NCAAMP) and the Institute for American Values in October 2009, reveals a huge decline in national marriage indicators. One indicator shows 79 percent of adults were married in 1970, while only 57 percent of adults were married in 2008. Another indicator shows 40 percent of all children in America are now born out of wedlock; and 72 percent of African American children are now born without married parents.

“I am excited about the efforts of National Marriage Week USA to pull together business, government, and religious organizations to draw attention to solutions to the current problems created by divorce,” said marriage expert Dr. Gary Chapman, #1 best-selling author of “Five Love Languages.” “If we can help couples learn how to create loving, supportive marriages, it will not only bring marital satisfaction, but will enrich the lives of children, and create a more productive society,” said Chapman, national spokesperson for the 2010 effort.

Find resources to help your own marriage, find marriage conferences in your area, learn how to help others in your community, watch a one-hour webinar, and get lots of practical ideas for how to celebrate at www.nationalmarriageweekUSA.org.

Decades of progress in the United States on cutting cholesterol, blood pressure and smoking are being stalled by rising obesity rates, and heart disease will kill around 400,000 Americans this year, experts said on Monday.

Indeed, these are all staggering statistics but, we have to power to change them dramatically.  We can change our undisciplined mindsets toward health.  Romans 12:2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. If we can trust God with our job search, marriages, children and finances we can surely trust the one who created these bodies to best teach us how to care for them.

One half of African American women will die from stroke or heart disease.  African American adults are less likely to be diagnosed with coronary heart disease, however they are more likely to die from heart disease. Although African American adults are 40% more likely to have high blood pressure, they are 10% less likely than their non-Hispanic White counterparts to have their blood pressure under control.

African American and Hispanic American/Latina women should be concerned about getting heart disease because they tend to have more risk factors than white women. These risk factors include obesity, lack of physical activity, high blood pressure, and diabetes. If you’re a woman of color, take steps to reduce your risk factors.

Take action to reduce heart disease risk:

1. Be physically active
2. Don’t smoke
3. Eat healthy
4. Maintain a normal weight
5. Know your numbers (blood pressure, cholesterol, and triglycerides)

Source: WomensHealth.gov: Feb. 2010

Stay tuned this month for more updates, tips, recipes and other resources that lead to a healthier, happier you!

Blessings…

Black History Month is a refreshingly festive time of the year for most of us. Our national choice to give reverence to the contributions of African-Americans is worthy of celebration. If grades were given for effort, we would earn at least a B+ for our joint commitment to allocating a special time to observe and respect African-American history.

But effort is not always enough. Good intentions are a necessary, though not sufficient requirement for us to win the fight for racial equality in America. So, given that our nation has convinced itself that Black History Month should be celebrated, we must now begin to understand how Black History Month might be celebrated in order to be most effective.

My first thought: Why is slavery never really on the table for serious discussion during Black History Month? We are consistently told to remember the Holocaust of Nazi Germany, but for some reason, any meaningful conversation about slavery tends to be reduced to quick mentions of Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass and (of course) Abraham Lincoln. Perhaps the reason we are so quick to remember the Jewish Holocaust but want to forget the African-American holocaust is because the latter is simply too close to home. It’s easy to vilify Adolf Hitler for killing Jews, but not good business to do the same to Thomas Jefferson for his ownership of slaves. Perhaps instead of Black History Month, we should consider “Black Honesty Month” and actually talk about what really happened during slavery.

Second thought: Why does the black history conversation have to start with slavery anyway? Were there no black people in existence before the 17th century? After casually mentioning the arrival of slaves to America, we then rattle off a list of standard achievements: “A black man invented this,” or “John Q. Blackman was the first to accomplish that.” All the while, there is little or no acknowledgment of the great civilizations of Africa to match the incessant drilling of Greek and Roman history into the heads of our kids.

While I am certainly proud of African-Americans who’ve led the way with marvelous inventions and achievements, we must be careful about how our presentation of the message affects the self-esteem of black children. By starting our history as “those people who were eventually freed from slavery by a white man (Lincoln),” we are reminding our kids that the primary quest for black people is to achieve equality with whites. White achievement becomes the ceiling of our greatness, which only serves to guarantee our second-class citizenship.

Third thought: Does a celebration of Black History Month negate the need for more productive conversations about modern day structural inequality? We tend to talk about the history of race in America as if the past is completely disconnected from the present. We discuss how “they used to treat black people back then” without realizing that “they” created the foundation of the society in which we live. Without meaningful discussions of present day manifestations of structural racism, including the education, prison and economic systems, we have forfeited our ability to discuss the past in a constructive way.

Fourth thought: Given that most Americans are woefully uneducated on African-American history, it is clear that allocating one month to the topic is not satisfactory. Why not allow all American children to receive a more holistic and integrated historical education that includes African Americans? By relegating black historical education to one month out of the year, have we created a “Chronological reservation,” a space of time that is owned by blacks, but keeps blackness trapped within its borders? Are black history courses mandatory at most universities? Are children in public school being taught a sufficient amount of black history? Perhaps creating a generation of children who are better informed on the history of race relations might help our nation avoid producing the next Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity. Analyzing the present without understanding the past will almost always lead us to incorrect conclusions. The problem is that most of us don’t know enough about the past to put the present into its proper context.

I enjoy the celebration of Black History Month, and our nation has made a relatively sincere effort to show respect for African-American achievement. But there is certainly more to be desired, and we can only improve our understanding of black history if we consciously acknowledge that there is more for us to learn. Black history is not a 300-year montage of inventions, laws and liberations. It is every bit as complex as the history of any other group of people, and the complexity should be recognized.

Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition and the initiator of the National Conversation on Race. For more information, please visit BoyceWatkins.com.

It is great to know where you are going but it is more than beneficial to know from whence you came.  We can not depend on our over extended school systems to teach our children about black history. Below you will find some great resources that can be used to teach kids more about Black History Month.  These resources and websites celebrate Black history and culture with facts, games, print coloring pages and more.  As always, we checked them out first.

How to Celebrate Black History Month with Kids
Check out our craft ideas, activities, and educational stories perfect for honoring Black History Month at home or in the classroom.

Academy of Achievement: Rosa Parks
Meet the woman who proved that a single human being can change the world!

African Heritage Animated Electronic Greeting Cards
Find African cards for any occasion including fabulous February greetings for Black History month and Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Black History Month from DLTK’s Crafts
Create these cool cultural crafts to celebrate freedom and civil rights all over the world.

Education First: Black History Activities
Enter this web guide to find references for almost any Black History subject.

History Channel- Celebrate Black History Month
Get short bios on many prominent African- American figures in history. (This is one of our favorites!)

Black History Books
Check out these featured reading ideas for Black History Month.

The Internet African American History Challenge
Try this 3 level Black History quiz, and see how well you can read and learn! It’s open-book!  (See how much you know.)

Activities

An interactive Treasure Hunt

Crossword puzzle filled with words to test your knowledge.

Printable Fill-In-The-Blanks

How much do you know about Black historical figures?

George Washington Carver
Martin Luther King Jr.
Jesse Owens
Rosa Parks

Coloring Pages for Younger Children

Printable coloring pages of some famous Black historical figures.

Rosa Parks
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Jackie Robinson
George Washington Carver

History

Encyclopedia of Prominent African-Americans
Harriet Tubman, Her life in words
Learn about the first African-American US President, Barack Obama