1 Timothy 6:11-19

This week we focus on our bible-study on 1 Timothy 6:11-19. In this passage, we learnt about serving a Great king and true riches. In our mad rat-race world, many of us are so catch up in the race that we lost track of our christian faith and at our convenient that we go to God instead of seeking God wholehearted and honour Him in our daily life, workplace and even home.

And when Daddy and I decided to teach Kai about Contentment and find joy in serving God, this passage came to our mind and we decided to learn it together. We shared with Kai that everything we have is from God and that we should be thankful and share what we have with the poor like buying food for the beggar. We also told him about being thankful for what we have and to use it to honour God and to extend his kingdom. We should him online videos of some Africian countries where children has no food to eat, no school to attend and no toys to play and in some of these videos, children are dying of diseases or even hunger and many of them lost their parents. We told him about Jesus who came to die for all of sinners and that Jesus loves these children in Africian too and if we can and have the mean, we should extend our hands and help them.

Daddy share with him how he can help these children so that they too can have food and clean water to drink. And Daddy thought him to look outwardly to people out there in the world who needs help and God, he told Kai to share with them what God has given us is also sharing with them God's love and it is a way to reflect God in our lives.

And we chose the verse below as the main focus of our bible study for these week and we hope to reflect it in our lives and living up to what God commanded us to do.

17Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. 18Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. 19In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.

And our memory verse for this week, 1 Timothy 6:17,

"Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment."

Ephesians 4:2

This week, we focus on "Being Patient". We are training Kai to be more patient and we know that it is one for building up a character. Being a little boy, Kai could be really impatient more a time and as parents, we feel that the time is right to teach him to be patient.

We also share with him the importances of being humble to all he knows and that what we have are all from God so we should not be proud but instead be thankful. As we go about this week, we told Kai that we want to see from his action that he reflect what this verse has commanded us to do. And that people who do not know us will know from our actions that Jesus lives in us.

Our memory verse for this week, Ephesians 4:2, "Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love."

Diligence (Proverbs 12:24)

This week, we focus our bible study and learning on "Diligence". It is part of a character building of a christian virtue. We explained to Kai what being diligent meant and why we should be diligent.

Today, I told Kai a story about Fan Li, an official in the State of Yue in China. And through diligence and hardwork, Fan Li and his family were able to provide for themselves as well as the poor.

And our memory verse for the week is, Proverbs 12:24, "The hand of the diligent shall bear rule: but the slothful shall be under tribute."

Hebrews 12

This week we focus on our bible learning on "Discipline", we are very strict parents to Kai and we do discipline him alot. And as he grows older, we want him to learn from the bible (God's word) about discipline.

We looked at the Passage on Hebrew 12:1-12, we read about what the bible says about "Discipline" and why there is a need for discipline. I explained to Kai that because we are so precious to God that Jesus has to die for our sins. And God has set rules for us and He disciplines those He loves. As his earthly parents, we love him and we are authorized to bring him up according to the passage and to teach him right and wrong. And because we love him, there is a need to discipline him to make sure he is following the bible and learning about God's word and how God wants us to live our lives.

And discipline is painful but it prevents him from going into the wrong way. Yesterday was the last day of Sunday School for this term in Church and Kai's Sunday School teacher feedback to us and she was praising him for his good behaviour, cooperativeness in class and enthusiasm to learn about the bible and readiness to do written work and craft. We were really glad of the positive feedback and knew that he has applied what he learnt at home during devotion and learning time into Sunday School.

Our memory verse, Hebrews 12:11, No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.

Honour your father and mother...

For this whole week, we are focusing on Ephesians 6:2. It is a good reminder to us to honour our own parents as well and since we are away from home, we make it a point to pray for them daily and contact them once a week through video conferencing.

And we hope to use our own life to demonstrate to Kai what we meant by honouring our parents and how we show love to our parents. I was so excited that my mum, a computer illiterate, learns how to use the computer and skype program to have video conferencing with us when my brother is not around and she operated the desktop, viewcam and use the mouse on her own. We explained to Kai the important of honouring our parents, his grandparents as it is a commandment in the bible.

We have also been praying for Kai to have a teachable spirit and for obedience. Through these couples of weekly we are focusing on "Obedience", we have seen a difference in his behaviour, he seems to have growth slightly more mature in his behaviour and listen to instructions much better. We pray that God will continue to work in him, draw him closer to Him and root him in His word.

Ephesians 6:2

This week, we are still focusing about Obedience and what the bible has to say about it. And Daddy told Kai about a sermon that we have heard sometime back when he was in Sunday School about the "Ten Commandments" to reinforce what we are learning.

And one of these commandments is "Honour your father and mother", it is so important for both parents to agreed in term of upbringing a child and being partners in the whole process including discipline. So it was good for Daddy to participate in our bible-study this week and sharing with Kai what he has learnt from the bible.

Through our daily life, we show him by examples what the Lord has shown us. And we pray that the Lord will continue to work in us and make us more like him each day.

Our memory verse, Ephesians 6:2, "Honour your father and mother, which is the first commandment with a promise."

Ephesian 6:1

For the whole of last week, we were focusing on Ephesian 6:1. And Kai is beginning to see the important of obedience from the bible and he understands that God provides parents as guardian to watch over him and to discipline when the need arise.

We pray that Kai will continue to grow in God's guidance and that he will learn to love God more and more each day. We seek God's guidance in bringing him up.

What the bible says...

We are still focusing on Obedience this week. This time round we are looking at Ephesians 6. And learn about what the bible is teaching us about obedience.

Ephesians 6:1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. And the first verse already talk about obeying parents and it is right. I explained to Kai that it is through obedience that we are under the umbrella of protection from God and if we choose to disobey than God could not protect us as we have chose to move away from his protection even though He wants to protect us, we turn him away.

It is the same thing with Daddy and Mummy, we are given authority to take care of you, love and protect you but when you refused to be taken care of, chose not to be love and refuse our protection, no one can protect you. And that you will have to face the consequences of your chosen choice.

I told him a story of not staring into the hot sun in the sky with bare eyes. The story is about a little girl who chose not to listen to her parents and challenged against them. She refused to heed her parents advise and stared at the hot sun and soon she came blind. I explaint to him that God has given us parents to care for us, nuture us and protect us when we are young and we are to obey them and honour them even when they are old. Kai could say that we always talk to the grandparents over skype and also we visited them weekly when we were in Singapore.

I explain to him the important of families and our chinese cultures. He can see that my brother and I are very close, we love our mum very much. And also how much his daddy care for his paternal grandfather when he was down with strokes and with fail, I brought him to the hospital to visit daily when we rushed back to Singapore before Kai turned 3. And I explained to him that God expect us to care for our family and also our parents.

So this week our memory verse is "Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Ephesians 6:1".

Our Memory Verse for the week

We focused and talked about Obedience for this week regarding our devotion time and bible learning. We talked about God's love and what God has instructed as in His word.

The main focus was on our memory verse of the week, "Children, obey your parents in all things, for this pleases the Lord." (World English Bible) I discussed with Kai, "What does Obedience mean?" and in what way, he could use his actions to show obedience.

And we also read the news about a little girl about 5 gone missing as she left her home without asking her parents and how dangerous it is as the parents were not there to protect her since she has disobey by getting out of her house without asking for permission. The evening news also reported about a case of abducting where a van tried to abduct a girl on the street. All these real life cases helped Kai to understand the important of Obedience like holding hands in the mall and going out for our daily walks.

We also discussed about what other ways he could show as in his actions. And that he would have to carry out all the ways he has stated and we would help him to remind him.

Our Memory Verse for the week

We pray that through our daily devotion and learning from the bible, Kai will be a God-fearing boy and that God will grant him a teachable spirit and enable him to draw nearer to Him and keep him safe and protect him day and night.

Bible study - Learning about Obedience

I have decided to revisit the topic on Obedience with Kai today during my bible-study. We have noticed that as Kai grows, he has been testing and trying to get his own way. And yesterday, he got Daddy so mad that Daddy has to discipline him and telling him about what God has desired him to be.

So to support what Daddy has done yesterday, we spent the morning bible-study time learning about Colossians 3:20. We look at why children should obey their parents and also the authority. And we spent the time focusing on this verse, "Children, obey your parents in all things, for this pleases the Lord." (World English Bible)

And this is a verse that I have decided to teach Kai and make him memorise it. And whenever, he is not behaving, I will make him recite this verse and ask him how the bible and God desires him to behave.

I am working on the chart for this memory verse and will add it on when it is ready.

Learn more about God

We have decided to revisit Genesis, starting from God's creation and learn all about the seven day of creation. We used the lesson found on Lapbook Lessons to learn more about God and his creation.



And we came up with the bible verse to learn for the week and to memorise it for this week. Every morning, we recite the verse and also learn songs about God's Creation.

Our Memory Verse

We also decided to learn a couple of songs, have found on Lapbook Lessons website. Songs taken from eBible Teacher website. The songs are catchy and simple for any child to learn and Kai loves them.

I really hope that through our daily bible learning, Kai will learn more about God and his creation and be rooted in the Word.