This weekend the children heard the account of Mary learning from Jesus. We also taught them that learning about Jesus helps us know how to live.

The New York Times reports something that we already know: Americans work long hours. The bottom line is that people today have about five hours of free time a day, and most of that time is spent watching television. The question that we raised this weekend was this: “with only five hours a day, can you make time to spend at Jesus’ feet learning?” In the Biblical account we read this weekend, Mary and Martha were faced with the same question.

Both Mary and Martha loved Jesus. He was coming to their house, and they were excited. Martha especially wanted everything to be perfect. The house had to be cleaned and Jesus’ favorite dishes must be prepared! Though Martha often gets a bad rap, her intentions were good. She was doing her best to be sure that everyone’s needs were met.

When Jesus arrived, Mary stopped and just sat at His feet. She wanted to learn, and listen to everything He had to say. Martha on the other hand continued to get busy and even got upset that her sister had stopped helping her. she even went to Jesus to complain and to ask Him to make Mary help her. Jesus did not, He knew that this was an important time of learning.

There can be no doubt that Jesus appreciated what Martha had done. However, He probably did not care if the house was spotless. He probably did not expect all His favorite dishes to be served, a simple meal would have been fine with Him. Jesus was more interested in having Mary’s and Martha’s time. He wanted them to focus on His teachings and not be distracted with busyness. Sometimes just like Martha, we can also miss this point.

Today we can still get busy doing things “for Jesus” and fail to learn from Jesus. We sometimes forget that Jesus does not only call us to serve; He first calls us to learn, to spend time in prayer, and to work on our personal relationship with Him. When we put that first, servant hood comes naturally, and without the stress or exhaustion that comes from service without learning.

Sometimes we as parents get bogged down in planning all sort of things for our children, and we tend to forget to plan time for them to sit at Jesus’ feet and learn. This week as you interact with your children, help them to see all there is to learn about Jesus. Pray that God will make your home a place where learning begins and never ends. Pray that God will instill in your children a love for learning more about Jesus.

All this year we have been focusing on the accounts of our faith. Now this month we are focusing on living according to those accounts. And this weekend we focused on prayer as a way to live our faith. We learned about what is commonly called the Lord’s Prayer.

When the disciples went to Jesus in this weekend’s account, they were looking for the right way to pray. In many ways prayer had become a contest among some Temple leaders. For many Temple leaders, their teachings and prayers had to be bigger and better than anyone else’s. Sometimes they would go on for hours, trying to “out pray” the others. So we see that when the disciples went to Jesus they were looking to Jesus, their leader and teacher to show them the best way to pray.

When Jesus gave the Lord’s Prayer to his followers, the point was not that these were the only words to be prayed. The point was that prayer should be between individuals and God. Prayer should not be said to impress other people.

The beauty of the Lord’s Prayer is its simplicity. Jesus said that when we go to God in prayer He knows our heart and what we long to say before we even say it. So the purpose of our prayer should not be what we say, it should be a child coming to a loving parent to share his or her needs.

Jesus used a simple but very powerful name for God to help the disciples and us remember our relationship with God: “Our Father.” Jesus continued the prayer by honoring God and giving praise to God’s holiness.

This week as you interact with your children, be willing to share your prayer experiences with them. Also remind them that talking to God is a very important part of a Christian’s life, and that they can do it anytime, anywhere, and most importantly about anything.

This weekend we started a month-long study of how we are to live as Christians. For direction on how to live our lives, we look to the Bible. We believe that Biblical accounts can teach us how to live as Christians. This weekend’s lesson on Salomon building the Temple and gathering God’s people together for worship reminds us that gathering together to praise and honor God through worship is an important aspect of living as Christians. This weekend we taught thet kids of ways that they can worship God.

Almost five hundred years after the Exodus, and four years after he became king, Solomon decided to build a temple. Building a house for God was originally King David’s idea. God, however, had other plans. God told David that building a temple was a good idea, but that he was not the one to do it. God chose Solomon, David’s son, to build the Temple (you can read the account in 1 Chronicles 22:1-10).

The building of the Temple was a great task that took seven years. The Bible gives us a detailed description of the measurements and all the supplies that were used. The Temple itself, however, is not the focus of the lesson. Instead the focus is the reason that the Temple was built. The Temple served as a reminder of God’s presence. The same way that every church that is built serves a reminder that God is present among His people today.

This week as you interact with your children, remind them that God is a personal God. Remind them that we each have a personal relationship with Him. Remind them that they can talk to God directly whenever and wherever he or she chooses. Remind them also, that God is everywhere. Remember that we are always telling the children that God is everywhere and that we will never be able to hide from Him. We believe all these things to be true, and it is important for the children to believe them too.