How Do You Bookmark?
If you’re like me, I use whatever is handy to save my place in the books I’m reading. Kleenex, napkins, a torn page, a piece of junk mail that didn’t get thrown away, a receipt—but not a bookmark. Not usually.
It’s not that I don’t have bookmarks. I stockpile bookmarks. I have brass ones, leather ones, plastic coasted ones, handcrafted ones. One bookstore always places a bookmark in my purchase.
I think I do the same thing in my life. I use all kinds of markers to keep my place. Some of them are helpful like calendars and photos and journals.? Others, like hurts and failures, hold their place too long.
A bookmark, to be worth anything, keeps you in the right place, at the right time. It protects you from going backwards and reminds you how much more there is ahead.
So treat these messages as my bookmarks. I’ll tell you where I am in my journey. I hope you’ll find a way to return the favor. I’ll share some lessons that have brought me this far and I’ll tell you where I got stuck. I’ll share ideas and resources. Of course, I’ll add information about the books I’ve written. They are very special bookmarks in my life.
Thank you for signing up. I look forward to sharing my bookmarks with you
Bookmarking,
Debbie
Mark Your Place
Read Joshua 4. What does God tell Joshua to use as bookmarks? What do they mark? Where? What happened there? How does God want them to be used?
Choose a stone for each member in your family. For each stone, identify how God’s faithfulness has made a difference inthe life of you and your family. Place them in a focal point in your garden. Be ready to answer your family and friends when they ask: “What do these stones mean?"
An Empowering Release
Among the crush of some 10,000 attendees at the International Christian Retail Show in Denver, I arrived at the Beacon Hill Press booth to sign and give away some of the first copies of my new book, Empowering Your Child Who Has Special Needs. I asked each who came by, “Do you know a parent of a special-needs child?”? No one had to think long.
There are more than 4 million of us raising children with special needs. Some of the needs are physical. Some are mental. Some are emotional. And some are a complicated combination.
Perhaps the most compelling lesson I confronted as I wrote Empowering was something Lisa, our special-needs daughter, said. “Mom, my heart is not disabled.” Physically that was not completely true. She suffered the devastating results of a heart infection that made heart surgery a life-saving necessity to replace two valves. However, no surgery can improve what God created whole.
It is too easy for us as parents to focus on the broken places. Instead, we should always be looking to nurture what God created whole— our child’s spirit, personality, God-created potential, a holder of eternity. Those are places where disability, disease, or special challenge does not touch. Nudging growth there makes an empowering difference.
Make a list of 5 characteristics of your child where a special challenge has no control. Each day for the next week, affirm that characteristic in a way your child can receive it. Journal how your child responds to the affirmations. Next week, add five more. Learn how affirmation empowers.
What is your concern for the school year? How have you solved a school problem? Share your answers to one of these questions by writing me: news@debbiegoodwin.net. I’ll share your responses and some of my own in the next newsletter. We are stronger as we share with each other.
Parenting by Prayer
To be honest, crisis sends me to prayer more quickly than anything else. When I can think of something to try to solve a problem or relieve a situation, I usually try it. It’s when nothing is working that I think about praying. I look back over my years of parenting and I cringe to remember when I spoke or acted before I prayed. I worried before I prayed. I looked in a book or called a friend before I prayed.
If I really believe that prayer makes the biggest difference, shouldn't I pray first?
Here are some ways to pray first:
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Put a reminder on your bathroom mirror.
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Pray a verse for each child, each morning.
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Post a "pray first" card on the fridge.
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Pray first. Speak later.
Just of the Play of It
My Suggestions:
Have you used these scripts? Write me about it.
Free Resources
Be sure to check out the free resources on my website www.debbiegoodwin.net. There are prayer cards using the scriptures and questions from the first chapter of The Praying Parent. There is also one of my favorite drama warm up games for those of you who work with children’s drama.
In the future I hope to offer teaching guides, sample pages for making an Empowering notebook, more drama warm up games and rehearsal suggestions. So check back often.
Coming Next
I just finished work on a new children's drama collection for Christmas.? I'll tell you more about it next issue.
Enjoy the last of summer.
Until next time,
