Country living and gardening are full of valuable life lessons for you and your children. Hear some of the success stories (and failures) of families trying to live a slower, more meaningful life and some tools for how to do this for yourself. 

Michigan Camp Meeting 2022: Knowing the Time

Country living and gardening are full of valuable life lessons for you and your children. Hear some of the success stories (and failures) of families trying to live a slower, more meaningful life and some tools for how to do this for yourself.

Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.

Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

Better Together – Intentional Family Connections

Melissa Clayton

Chett Clayton

01 Family Worship

You are about to enjoy a presentation recorded at the 2022 Michigan Conference Camp Meeting held at Cedar Lake, Michigan.

We pray that the Lord will bless you as you listen.

And to also visit with friends and family.

And I just ask that as we're here in this meeting today, that you would help me to speak clearly and to present things according to your will, and help all of us to gain a blessing from this.

All right, so a little bit of an introduction of myself and my family.

Noah is the youngest there with the tulips, and then Gavin.

Gavin is 5, and he's the 1 proudly showing off 1 of his carrots.

So he'll introduce himself more when he's here later in the week.

As for me, I grew up on a small hobby farm just north of Grand Rapids.

And I attended Grand Rapids Adventist Academy for most of my years of education.

And then I went to, I worked at Campus Abel for several years in the horse barn.

I attended Southern Adventist University, and I have a bachelor's degree in elementary education.

And then from there, I taught for several years, well, in multi-grade, first through fourth grade, and then fifth through eighth grade.

I work from home for the Adventist Agriculture Association as a contract writer.

I have started homeschooling my boys, helping run the farm and just sort of being a stay at home mom, a work from home mom.

So that's just a little bit about my background.

And then what I wanted to do today was give you guys, every day I'm gonna give you kind of a question that we're gonna try to answer.

And so today what I want you to be able to take away from this is the answer to this question, how am I going to teach my children how to sit down with their Bibles and learn something that applies to their lives?

So as we're going through our presentation today, know this is what I want you to learn.

This is what I want you to take away when we're done here.

So we're gonna talk about why family worship is important, what are some of the things that are keeping us from having family worship, we're gonna talk about learning like the disciples, Christ teaching method, the developmental stages of devotional life, tools in your toolbox, and practical ideas for different ages.

Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, what does it say?

And then we have this instruction to teach these things diligently to our children.

Talk about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the way.

In Child Guidance, Ellen White says, more than any natural endowment, the habits established in the early years decide whether a man will be victorious or vanquished in the battle of life.

So those early years, those early years are very important.

I think they say by about 8 years old, many of your children have already made the decisions about whether or not they are going to follow Christ.

And so I think that's something that I know, even knowing this, with my young kids I tend to not be as intentional as I should.

But I think that's something that's really important for us to remember is how important those early years are.

And then I think 1 of the biggest things about having worship with our children, or really how we interact with our children at all, is to remember that the choices you make for your family communicate to your children what's important in life.

And so this applies to anything but especially to family worship and especially to deciding that well maybe we just don't have time to have worship as a family.

You're teaching your children something in every decision that you make, and in everything that you say yes to, and everything that you say no to.

So we're going to talk a lot this whole week about being intentional and making those choices, recognizing that the choices that we make for our families, for our children, and even for ourselves, really impact our children are watching, and they're seeing, and this does affect them.

I think probably most of us would say time.

And maybe it's not that we mean to skip family worship, it's just that the day gets super full and then we get to the end of it and it's bedtime and if you have young kids maybe they're super fussy because it's been busy and you're up too late and it just gets missed.

Maybe we don't have a family worship with our kids because we don't have our own personal worship and so we don't know how to do family worship, we don't know how to do worship ourselves, or maybe we don't know what to do with our kids because they don't sit still or because they're bored or they whine or they just don't want to.

I don't know what your reason is if you're not having family worship.

Those were some of the things that I know I've struggled with.

Little ones that don't want to sit down or just not being able to find time for it in our day.

So we're going to address some of these things as well.

So 1 of the things that I think is most important is making sure that we are intentional about having a plan for when, where, and how family worship is going to happen.

And also recognizing that children learn differently.

And so you need to work with your child and how they learn and how they operate.

And try to find a way to have family worship that is according to their learning style.

We're going to talk more about all of these things.

I know our schedules are busy, And I know that our kids' schedules are busy now, too.

And family worship can be an easy thing to forget to do or to skip.

And tomorrow, we'll talk a lot more about time management during the education section.

But I just want to leave you with this thought.

This is Ellen White from Christ Object Lessons, and it's of no talent he has given will he require a more strict account of than our time.

We choose our priorities, and we choose how to use our time.

And it's not always easy to choose making devotions or worship a priority, but remember that your kids are watching.

And what you prioritize, they are more likely to prioritize as well.

You've probably all seen it where they bring an empty jar and have you put in, if you put in the water first, what happens?

Can you fit the stones and the sand in the jar?

No, you have to start by putting the stones in, and the stones are the big and important things in our lives.

And so I just want to, you know, mention that, that analogy for you is that family worship, if you want your children to be in the church, family worship is a huge, a huge part of that.

So first, we're going to spend a few minutes talking about us as the parents.

Character, the character of our children, is caught and taught.

That means the things that we're teaching them are good, but who we are as parents is also impacting who our children are going to be.

And having worship is 1 of those things that is taught and taught.

So do your kids see you having your own personal devotions, your own personal worship?

Now the next question is, are you doing it with a bible or are you doing it on your cell phone?

Because if you're doing worship on your cell phone, do your kids know what you're doing?

Or to them, does it look the same as when you're scrolling through Instagram or scrolling through Facebook.

You want your kids to know that you're having your devotional time.

And so if you're not using a Bible, I do recommend it.

But I think that 1 of the things that keeps a lot of us from having worship is that we don't know where to start or we don't know what to do.

And so I learned this method when I was in college and I wanted to teach it to you guys.

And So when you came in, I believe you were told to grab a piece of paper and to have a pen.

We're going to do this process for just about 5 minutes because I think, I know that for myself when I'm like, well I don't know what to do for worship or how to make it meaningful for myself, because sometimes it can be really hard to just sit down with your Bible and read something and think about how it applies.

So this is 1 way to be intentional in our personal Bible studies.

And this method also works great with kids, middle school age and above.

And we just worked our way through the New Testament.

We're just going to take about 5 minutes.

But the first thing you're going to do is you're going to read.

And I'll give you the verses in a minute.

And then you're going to make observations.

So on your paper, I just am writing down the verses that I'm reading.

02 The Education Experience

Dear Heavenly Father, thank you so much for bringing each of us back here today.

I ask that as we go through this material that you would be here with us, that you would Give me the right words to say and help me to present clearly.

And then be with each of us as we go from here and help us to just learn more about you and enjoy our fellowship with friends and family.

So, Of all my presentations, I struggled to write this 1 the most, which is funny because I am a teacher.

There's just a lot of things that I wanted to say, And I wasn't sure how to condense it and make it short and sweet and to the point.

I think you were all here yesterday and you heard my introduction.

I have my other son, Gavin, is in a class.

And my husband will be joining me later this week to do the classes about outdoor adventures and the, I called it country living, but talking about kind of farming and gardening and a country lifestyle with your children.

I guess the important thing for today is, again, I have a bachelor's in elementary education from Southern Adventist University, and then I spent several years teaching first through fourth grade, and then fifth through eighth grade, as well as high school.

It was a junior academy, so through 10th grade, and I taught the high school English and science classes, whatever that year was.

But now I stay home with my kids and I work with the Adventist Agriculture Association writing a gardening curriculum for our Adventist schools.

So today What we're going to focus on, the question that we want all of the things we're talking about to answer is what is my goal as a parent?

And specifically talking about your goal for educating your children.

And then how can I be intentional about creating a home environment that supports my child's growth?

So to get started, how many of you are gardeners?

So the analogy that I want to use this morning as we're getting started has to do with flowers, so that's perfect.

I bought a rose bush a year, 2 years ago when we just built a new house, and I wanted a climbing red rose outside my front door because my front door is red.

So I don't know how much any of you know about rose bushes, but climbing roses specifically, they have to be trellised and pruned carefully in order to grow up that trellis correctly and healthy and to be healthy.

If you wait too long to wrap that climbing rose around the trellis, the branches get hard like sticks and when you try to tuck them around the trellis, the branches snap off.

And so it's very important that you are frequently checking on your plant and taking the small branches because they are still able to be bent and wrapping them around that trellis.

It's a lot easier to make those corrections and to help guide our children when they're younger.

That doesn't mean that with teenagers you can't can't make changes you absolutely can it just takes a lot more Patience and it's harder and so when we start younger with our children and we start carefully moving branches and carefully pruning it makes life a lot easier and simpler for everyone.

Now, obviously, the analogy only goes so far, but that's kind of what I wanted to get started with today is to think about our children like that rose bush.

So we're trying to frequently, gently, carefully guide them up a trellis to help them grow into adults that are independent and can support themselves.

If you were here yesterday, you know I used some of these scriptures and quotes yesterday as well, but I think that they apply today.

Starting with Proverbs 22.6, train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, He will not depart from it.

And the other 1 from yesterday is, more than any natural endowment, the habits established in these early years decide whether a man will be victorious or vanquished in the battle of life.

And I think that that's super important to remember, is that the tools that we give our children while they're in our homes are the things that are going to help them be successful in life.

Ephesians chapter 5, 15 through 17 says, So then be careful how you live.

Do not be unwise but wise, making the best use of your time, because times are evil.

Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is." And this is what we want to teach our children, but this is what we also want to be doing in our own lives, being careful how we live.

I also wanted to share this quote because I think talking to moms more specifically, I think, well, let's read the quote first.

An angel could not ask for a higher mission, for in doing this work she is doing the service for God.

Let her only realize the high character of her task, and it will inspire her with courage.

Let her realize the worth of her work and put on the whole armor of God, that she may resist the temptation to conform to the world's standard.

Her work is for time and eternity." And that's Ellen White from Adventist Home, page 231.

I just want to stress and remind the mothers in here that we do have a very high calling as mothers and as parents.

But as moms, I think it's super easy to forget when you're doing the 500th load of laundry for a week and none of your children have socks?

Or when you are washing a sink full of dishes for the fifth time today even though we've only had 3 meals?

Or we're cooking again, I don't know why we decided we need 3 meals a day anyways, but the kids are still always hungry, right?

But that work is important, even though it doesn't feel like it.

And so I think reminders like this 1, they're important to me to remember that those things do matter too.

What we're gonna talk about today, what is the goal and purpose of our education for our children.

That may not seem like it's related to education, but really what I'm trying to get at is throughout the whole school year and the scope of the education of our children.

And these things, believe it or not, impact that a lot.

We're going to talk about intentional family schedules, creating lifelong learners, and learning styles.

First, I have from Ellen White, Education, page 13.

She says, our ideas of education take too narrow and too low a range.

There is need of a broader scope, a higher aim.

True education means more than the pursual of a certain course of study.

It means more than a preparation for the life that now is.

It has to do with the whole being and with the whole period of existence possible to man.

It is the harmonious development of the physical, the mental, and the spiritual powers.

It prepares the student for joy of service in this world and the higher joy of wider service in the world to come." So, this quote has to do with the whole being.

We're talking about physical, mental, and spiritual health.

Ellen White also says that we're not just training our children for their lives here on earth, but we're also training them to be of service in the world to come.

And if that doesn't make you think carefully about the things that we're teaching our children, the things that we're teaching them through example, and that we're deliberately telling them, I'm not sure what's going to convince you.

But today I want to look at some ideas on how we take a broader view of education and focus on creating a strong family culture and a stable home life, even when your home is chaotic, because I know mine is often.

So first I want to start with or get into Proverbs chapter 24 verses 3 and 4.

It says, Through wisdom a house is built, and by understanding it is established.

By knowledge the rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches." So that verse leads me into James 1.5 which says, if any of us lack wisdom, we should ask God, who gives to all generously without finding fault.

So we know that we need wisdom in order to build a house, to establish it, and to fill it with these wonderful things.

So with all of this in mind, I want you to think about where we're going.

What is the end product that we want for our children?

What kind of adults do we want them to be?

And so you guys picked up a pretty piece of paper as you walked in.

Now that fun paper, that's actually a teaching method that I wanted to share with you as well.

If you have children who don't want to write or don't want to read, finding small, simple things that you can do to make it more fun, like giving them fun paper or fun new notebooks, they're little but they help.

And so I brought fun paper for you, And we're going to spend a few minutes just answering these questions independently.

But we're talking about what, on your paper, I want you to just journal for a few minutes, what are the characteristics that I want my home and my children or child to have?

What qualities do I want to fill the rooms of my home with?

What do I want my family culture to look like?

We're going to talk more about a family culture, but I'm talking about what are things that make your family special, things that make your family unique.

What are my priorities for educating my children and what kind of people do I want my children to be?

I want you to think about these questions and write down a few things.

03 The Nature Connection

Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for this day and thank you for bringing each of us back here again today.

Help us, especially in this meeting, give me the right words to say and help us to learn something and to draw closer to you.

I think I always put prayer in my slides because sometimes I get nervous and I forget.

And when I was teaching, I would do that sometimes in class too.

I would forget to start the day with prayer and I had a student who would always say, Mrs.

I was always thankful for that because sometimes I would just be, you know, going a million miles an hour and I'd forget.

So I put it in my slides as a visual reminder for myself.

And I actually, on the windowsill in front of my kitchen sink, I have a brick that says, Pray, on it.

As a visual reminder for myself to remember to pray.

My first year of teaching, I showed up at, I was at Riverview Memorial School in Maine, and it was their hundredth year.

So they were having a special celebration, and 1 of the teachers who had taught there several years ago showed up, and he had actually been 1 of my teachers here in Michigan for a time too.

So it was kind of neat because I was teaching in his old classroom and he's the 1 who gave me that brick.

And so I've kept it with me and I keep it on my window sill as a good reminder to pray.

I think most of you have all been here all week.

Our questions today, I know we started with 1 question.

But why is it important to get my kids outside?

What can I do to facilitate a desire to learn and play outside?

And how do I teach them to connect to their creator outdoors?

So those are the 3 things that we're gonna talk about today.

So for the first 1, why is it important to get my kids outdoors?

So we're not gonna like dig really deep into this because there's a lot of research and if you're really interested I'll mention some resources that you can go look at more but I just want to say there are academic benefits that it boosts academic achievement there's physical benefits, it benefits your emotional well-being, creativity, and spirituality.

And this isn't just for your kids, this is for adults too.

I wanted to share this poem because I like it.

It says, they caught the wild children and put them in zoos.

They made them do sums and wear sensible shoes.

They put them to bed at the wrong time of day and made them sit still when they wanted to play.

They scrubbed them with soap and they made them eat peas.

They made them behave and say pardon and please.

They took all their wisdom and wildness away.

That's why there are none in the forests today." Now obviously I make my children eat peas.

Although when they grow their own peas, they're happy to eat them.

My kids call them green candy because fresh food tastes a lot better.

I do expect my children to behave and say pardon and please and have manners.

But I have to tell you, when you allow your children to run wild when they can, they do sit when you need them to sit.

And they behave so much better when you need them to behave because they get that energy out.

And so I, even though I don't agree with all the things in this poem I love it because it's sweet and it's fun and it's just like I want my children to have that wild wisdom.

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Series

Better Together – Intentional Family Connections

05 Gardening and Country Living

Transcript

Description

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Parts

01 Family Worship

44m

02 The Education Experience

48m

03 The Nature Connection

58m

04 Adventure Outdoors

58m

05 Gardening and Country Living

59m

Sound Doctrine