When I sat down to write my letters yesterday, I had no idea what I was going to say. I had already picked out this star paper and some incentive charts. I knew I wanted to ask the kids to memorize a verse and planned on telling them that each time they said the verse, they could add a sticker to their chart.
I thought I would pick a verse in James since I've been working on that one myself.
But then I realized I had a "star" theme going and decided to use Philippians 2:14-15 instead.
Here's what I ended up writing....
Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe. ~ Philippians 2:14-15
Do you ever look into the night sky at all the stars? We live just outside a pretty big city, and the lights from the city prevent us from seeing the stars easily at night. But sometimes when we get away from our city, we can look into the night sky and see thousands of stars. I love how brightly they shine and I love looking for the brightest ones.
I love how this verse in Philippians tells us to do everything without complaining and arguing so that we will stand out among everyone else around us – like stars that shine.
Do you know the song “This Little Light of Mine?” This is a popular children’s song in our country that talks about letting our “light” shine – letting the light of Christ shine through us so others can see God in us.
I want to encourage you to try to remember this verse. It is so easy to complain and argue when we have to do things we don’t want to do. It is much harder to do them joyfully, but if you do, you will shine like stars in the universe ~ and your Father in heaven will be smiling down on you.
Will you memorize Philippians 2:14 with me?
Do everything without complaining or arguing.
Here is a chart and some stickers. Every time you say Philippians 2:14, you can put a sticker on the chart. Hopefully this will help you memorize it and remember that God wants you to shine like stars.
Have you written to your kids this month? If so, what did you write about?
