Modesty

Hello!

One of our recent Bright Lights meetings was on Discernment, and one of the things that we need discernment in is how we dress. Haley made a fun scenario for the different small groups to evaluate! My group loved it! I thought that you might be interested in the discernment exercises so I put it in this post.

Jenny has a shirt that was given to her for a present. The shirt is tight and the neck is low, but it really is a cute shirt and it is in style. Jenny wants to wear it, but has some misgivings. Can you help her out using the eight steps of discernment?

1. Examine everything in light of God’s word. Ask, “What does the Bible say?”
Can you think of any verses that have to do with modesty?

2. Have right motives (identify and remove pride and greed).
Does Jenny just want to wear the shirt to show off or get attention?


3. Trust in God’s power rather than man’s skill.
God’s ways are always better than man’s.

4. Get advice from your parents and listen to their cautions.
What do Jenny’s parents have to say about the shirt?


5. Remember that God’s ways are usually opposite to man’s natural inclinations (flesh vs. spirit) (Gal. 5:16-17).


6. Make a commitment to have no fellowship with darkness (II Cor. 6:14).


7. Ask, “What is the source of this? Is it from the world?”


8. Ask, “Does this honor Christ? What would Jesus do?”

If you have any scripture verses that you have found about modesty, I would love for you to leave a comment!

Lance is amazing!!

This year Grant was suppose to memorize Philippians 2:1-4 for the baseball team that he was on. Since Grant recited it so much, Lance was able to memorize it! Since Lance already had the first four verses he decided that he might as well memorize verse 5 also! Lance loves reciting for people, a few months ago he came home and told Mom that he had just recited it for the neighbor boys!

Lance recites Phil. 2:1-5

The cutest 2 year old!

I heard Noela down stairs playing and asked Mom if I could go and play with her. When I got down here she was "watching a viedo on the camra" as she called it (she was actually just looking at a plain blue screen). Of course, as all babies don't like things taken from them, she didn't appreciate it either when I took the camera from her. After awhile she consented to play with some dominoes.





She had a great time knocking the doinoes down!

Every time we would get them all lined up just right so they would all fall down she would say, "It did it!"

Memorization

I have been recording the scriptures that our family recites so I could post them. I hope that you enjoy the videos and are encouraged to memorize!

Dance Performances

We have had a lot of dance presentations lately. This one was on the grand stage at the Wharton Center. We performed for their "Inner Circle" (the people that help to get together all the performances at the Wharton Center).




Right before we left Noela spilled yogurt on her dress! Thank God that it is easily cleaned!



Looking out at the rows of seats made me feel dizzy it was so big!

Haley made a Shamrock out of green paper for a prop to use while telling the story about Saint Patrick.

We were all very thankful for the sandwiches that they provided us with! Things are especially delicious when you have been working to get ready for a performance all day!

We all gathered around and prayed before we went out on stage to dance.

It seemed to take a long time, but we amused ourselves by taking pictures and coming up with games.

Grant's juggling skills helped time pass by quicker!

Their back stage is huge! They provided us with this very nice room to keep our stuff in and stay through the day.

The caterers did a great job decorating the tables!

The tables were set up on the stage and we danced out on the very front of it.

I hope that you enjoyed the pictures!!

A very fun year!

Hello I am sorry that I haven't been keeping up on my posting.

Here is a story from September 15th....
It was Vince's Birthday, Dad woke up at his usual time to get ready for work. He did all that he needed to do to get ready. We said our usual prayer with him before he left, but this time he didn't come back at 5:30 pm., he came right back! As he came back inside, we were surprised when he answered our questioning looks. He said, "I forgot! I had taken the day off for Vince's birthday!"

I don't know if your dad likes to come up with last minute ideas to go somewhere, but I know that our dad LOVES to! The days he took off from work would not be as exciting if he didn't come up with fun ideas! Anyway, that particular day he wanted to surprise us with a fun trip. This time he didn't tell us where we were going. He actually did, but it wasn't really the place we were going. At first I didn't believe him, but after a few more comments he had convinced me! Then he slipped when we were just about to leave! The Detroit Zoo!

Everyone loves flowers, unless they are the white ones that grow on trees on our street! They smell pretty bad, and during the time they bloom, the neighbour children and we, like to try to trick each other into smelling them! These ducks were much smaller than they look in the picture. They were so cute I had to take a picture of them! I didn't take the time to find out what kind of bird this one was, but it's color sure is bright! We want to shine our lights as bright as this birds feathers are! Or brighter!

I thought that this butterfly was so beautiful sitting with those white flowers!

Yellow purple and green all go good together! God makes the most beautiful things!

One of the butterflies kept flying down and sitting on the ground. We were afraid that someone was going to step on it! It also sat on dad's shoe and mom's leg for a little while!

Noela and I liked the Reptiles and Amphibians the best! Haley showed us this frog sticking to the glass. It was very interesting to see all the suction cups on it's underside!

I took Noela around and we read about the turtles and other things together. We also tried to memorize what they were!

I knew what kind of turtle this one was! A Matta Matta, once you see it's funny looking head and hear it's name you can't forget it!

The Gila Monsters were the main thing I tried to get Noela to remember their name.

I think that Noela likes turtles the best, so does Lance! I like them a lot too!

You know what this is! We were surprised to see it puffed up!

Bald Eagles are always fun to see! At The Detroit Zoo, they have a very nice cage for the eagle.

Ever since I was little, I remembered the prairie dogs, because they let you go under ground into these fun plastic things so you can get closer!

There is a new exhibit where you can walk inside the Kangaroos habitat! It would have been more exciting if they would have moved, but they were lazily sleeping.

Something that I have always liked to do is feed the Giraffes. We didn't pay to feed them this time, but they still are very interesting animals!

I have to admit, even though I said that the reptile and amphibians were my favorite, I think that I enjoyed the seals just as much or more!

The under water seal exhibit is perfect for a hot summer day! Inside the tubes, it is nice and cool after being in the sun for a while!

The Polar Bear was pretty far away, but we watched it for a little while. I read some fun facts about Polar Bears that I thought you might like to hear: Polar Bears have been found up to 200 miles from shore, they can swim 6.4 miles per hour, and their top running speed is 40 miles per hour!

I never knew that Flamingos really stood on one foot! I was amazed at how flexible their necks are! Look at how they are bent! It reminded me of a wire!

We ate our picnic lunch, but our family were not the only ones that thought they should partake of the meal! Bees came as soon as we took out the food.

Good bye! We had a great time at the Zoo!

Our uncle owns a huge dairy farm. Maybe we could take one of you on a trip with us some time to tour his farm!

Grant and Vince decided to jump inside one of the big tires on one of his tractors. I thought that it looked a little too dirty for me though!

I will soon be posting some more about our fabulous year, as soon as we load the rest of the pictures on the computer!

Zipline!

Our Laborday Vacation to Camp Barakel!

On Fri. evening we arrived at camp for our family's 2nd. family retreat at camp Barakel! After unpacking the first thing that we did was go to the Zipline. It was our first time going on it, unfortunately the boys could not go on it because it is only for ages 12 and up. I have some pictures of the zipline.


We are waiting for the people to come help us get our gear on.



Here we are getting rigged up in equipment. The workers were very nice. One we saw so much that she said, " I have been seeing you so much that I think I should learn your names!"



It looks very high especially when it is time to jump! 1,2,3, jump! It is scary the first time, but then you gain trust in the equipment!

After you are off the platform it is a nice smooth ride until you reach the end, and they are suppose to catch your ropes so you don't slide away again! Quite often people would not get caught and they would get stuck in the middle for a little while!

Friday night there was a beautiful moon! We had to go take a picture of it!

Another part of Camp that we enjoy is Boating! Noela LOVED the boats!

We won the family scavenger hunt. One of the things that we were suppose to get was a bluegill! None of us could catch one, so dad went out to show us that it wasn't that hard! It was a small one, but it worked for the scavenger hunt! When we showed this picture to the man that was judging the scavenger hunt he said, "I hope it didn't go any farther!"

Happy Birthday Haley!!!!!!!!

I am glad that you were able to come last night to celebrate Haley's speical day!!

Even thought we did not surprise her much, it was great!


Marie, Mandie, Haley and I deccorated the board. Thank's Marie for helping me with the banner!

Johnna and Madalyne were the first to get into the pool and they stayed in the longest! It was only 65 degrees, but we still had fun! Most of us ended up getting in! Annika, Olivia, Alexis, and I think some other girls, (but I don't remember who), said that they would get in if I did, so, in I went followed by the girls! It was a blast!!!!!!!

After swimming we all went in the house and took turns getting changed into some warmer clothes! We went down stairs to have the meeting! Mom brought us all some warm blankets to wrap up in, everyone shared! I think that the meeting went great! Don't you?

Thank you for doing the skit and playing your guitar Mandie! Do any of you play instruments? If you do e-mail me, we would love to add some different things to our "band".

I thought that it was very nice that Leah asked Faith (her sister) and Silas to come sit with her!

Haley LOVED all of the presents! We have been going through them over, and over again, saying who brought it, how lovley it is, and many other things! There is only one present that we don't know who brought it. It is a book mark that says, "A friend loves at all times" let me know if you brought it, so that Haley can send a thank you note! You all gave her so many beautiful presents, that "I don't think I will have to get one for her myself" Smile!

A lot of people brought snacks this time! So, thank you to all!

We all had fun pulling people up our contraption on the swing set!