How to Make(y) an Interactive Game

If you’re in #kidmin and you don’t know about a thing called a “makey makey” board, this post’s goal is to remedy that.

Of course, any #kidmin worker knows how important a game can be to a program. It helps get your audience engaged, it can be a great way to get kids up and moving, and sometimes it can be one of the best ways to teach.

The Makey Makey board allows you to turn anything or anyone into a button. While it’s sometimes less than intuitive, once you get the hang of it there’s a lot of fun things that you can do with it.

You can find the product here. The websites general explanation of how the board works is found under their FAQ but this quote gives you the basic idea:

Makey Makey works just like a USB keyboard or mouse, sending keyboard (W,A,S,D, spacebar, etc) and mouse (left-click, right-click, etc) signals to your computer.

Makey Makey Classic works by opening and closing circuits, just like any other button. What’s great is that the Makey Makey board can use the current that goes through your own body to close the circuit, essentially acting as a press of a button on the keyboard.

What this means is if you have a computer program that uses the arrow keys on your keyboard for playing a game, you can end up creating your own game controls and have a lot of fun doing it.

A great resource for those style computer games is crowdcontrolgames.com . I’ve met the guys that have created the website and the games behind it and they really are great guys with a heart for ministry. They also have their own helpful tips and tricks on how to build buzzers and use a makey makey that you can see here.

So if you’re wanting to just experiment with a Makey Makey you can get the board and a few different games from crowd control all for under $100 and then really start to have fun with it. Here’s what I’d recommend getting started.

  1. Get your computer close to the game. 
    When we first started using a Makey Makey it was pretty easy to get the buttons that we wanted to use for the game created but the problem was getting everything ran all the way back to the sound point for our Makey Makey. So if you’re just starting out with it and want to experiment; try running the game from a laptop and having the laptop on the stage. Then you can work on getting the signal from that laptop to your tv’s or projector in the room for the audience to see.
  2. People make great buttons.
    The great thing about the Makey Makey is that you can use people as buttons. Having your contestant hold the wire that connects to the ground or the button you want to be pushed is a great way to make the game interactive. The other simple thing you could do is have them take off their shoes and stand on a contact point.
  3. Food is fun
    We have a popular monkey puppet that we use in our ministry so we really enjoyed building a game where we could just plug in a banana and use it as a button. The best part was we used a 1/8″ audio cable and plugged it directly into the fruit on the weekend, instantly connecting it as a button. That made it pretty fun.
  4. Test it beforehand
    This would seem pretty obvious but I feel like it needs to be said. The Makey Makey board is really fun to use as a creative element but it’s an experimental process. While I think it’s best practice to do a dry run of all of your games before your actual event it’s even more true for using the Makey Makey board.

If you already use a Makey Makey board you probably have tons of great advice on how to use the board to have some fun during a game or even a story. Because this can be such a technical subject I’m actually going to do a few more expanded posts on how to create buttons and how to get the signal to travel farther. Check back next week for more!

by jessemahannah91

Your Kids Can Be Scared.

As a parent, you want to protect your kids. It’s natural. You should. And there are plenty of things and plenty of situations that require you to be vigilant and protective of your kids. In fact, as a parent one of your main jobs is to protect your kids.

On the other hand, I’m learning that you can’t keep your kids away from everything. No matter where you fell on the Halloween spectrum. Whether you decorated with ghosts and ghouls or you strictly attended “fall festivals”. I think it’s important to look at something that most kids see this time of year.

This isn’t at a Halloween store and it’s not at a Party City. It’s at Walmart. That same trip to Walmart I took a picture of a couple other things that were right at eye level for a kid. Right in front of them.

Our culture isn’t shy about gruesome and like it or not your kids are exposed to it, all the time. This doesn’t mean you have to expose them to stuff on purpose. This DOES mean you can’t pretend that there is not scary stuff out there. Your kids can get scared. They will be.

The question is; as a parent are you speaking into that fear?

Do you let your kids get scared or do you so quickly hide the problem they never learn how to regulate?

I think one of the issues the Christian community has had with kids is we taught parents to censor and not counsel.

Recently we went on a trip to Disney World. My wife wanted to ride the Tower of Terror at Hollywood Studios. Lizzy our 5-year-old was scared.

Sarah and I had both been on the ride and we knew that while somewhat scary the ride was completely safe and we wanted her to be brave.

So we took her on the ride and… she hated it.

But despite her reaction, I was still glad she rode it.

Why?

Because my job isn’t to protect her from everything. Yes I should protect her but I should also prepare her.

To us, going through a low-risk and scary situation with her mother and father by her side was a good way to prepare her for the future.

I’m not saying you should purposefully scare your kids. And, sure there’s nothing wrong with keeping destructive or inappropriate content from your kids. That’s part of your job. Protect your kids. But don’t stop there.

Prepare your kids.

The truth is, in our culture, they will encounter it. It’ll be marketed to them. Put at eye-level. Even held up as a standard to work toward.

If the only strategy is to censor the scary stuff from our kids, we miss the opportunity to invite them to talk about it with us.

It’s okay for your kids to get scared. Just be there with them in it. Be the one who can be honest about it.

Make your priority preparing them not just protecting them.

Photo by: charlesdeluvio on Unsplash
by jessemahannah91

Your Forecast Isn’t Your Future

A few weeks ago my wife and I took our 5-year-old daughter to Disney World which was a lot of fun.

The first day there we went down to Disney World’s Disney Springs Area.

The rain came in and kept us inside this mostly outdoor mall area and we hopped from store to store trying to stay as dry as possible.

It was fun but it was a little bit of an ominous start to our vacation. Just as the rain starts letting up and stopping altogether… the power goes out.

In the whole area.

I was worried.

We knew when we planned the trip that it was the offseason for Disney but it was also hurricane season for Florida.

As we are leaving we saw lights on in one area and as we walked up a lady in the small snack shack told the crowd.

“We’re closed! Power is out in this whole area, there’s a hurricane coming in and it’s gonna be like this all week.”

Maybe in part because of her slightly boorish method of breaking the news to us, I didn’t take the news that well.

Instantly I started forecasting the whole week as a disaster. Indeed when we arrived back at the hotel the forecasts of Hurricane Dorian showed it hitting Orlando as a CAT 2 or 3.

It was over.

Before it even began.

The vacation was over.

The trip we had planned for over a year to the happiest place on Earth, ruined.

Except it wasn’t.

It was just forecasted.

The entire way back to the car I fumed with disappointment and despair.

Finally, when we got into the car in the parking garage (by way of cellphone light as the power was still out), I stopped fuming and made an important choice.

I was honest and I was willing to be humbled.

I told Sarah and Lizzy that I was worried and that I thought we should pray.

So we did.

I started, then Sarah, then Lizzy.

Something about a 5-year-old praying in our back seat that we would be safe on vacation and that her two brothers wouldn’t grow up while she was gone (yes she really said that) humbled me.

It course-corrected my attitude and helped me realize that the forecast was just that.

A forecast.

It wasn’t my future.

Not yet.

In fact, the forecast kept changing and the weather ended up being perfect.

The crowds were smaller.

The temperature was cooler.

It was perfect.

But in that moment, fear of a forecast clouded the future.

My point is, I’m not sure what you’re going through or what you’re headed toward.

But you don’t either.

No one does.

That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t pay attention to predictions or heed warnings.

I’m just saying that a forecast is just that, a forecast.

It’s not your future.

The forecast isn’t your future.

The diagnosis isn’t your destiny.

The prediction’s not a promise.

In this example the stakes were honestly pretty small. The only thing really at risk was our vacation. But I almost let an attitude about the unknown ruin my precious time with my wife and daughter.

The truth was that the only person who could look at our future with certainty was our Creator.

My hope would be that if faced with a more crucial or scary forecast, prediction, or diagnosis we’d respond in the same way.

We’d stop and be willing to be humbled enough, to “not worry about anything but pray about everything”, and name a forecast as just that, a forecast not the future.

Because no matter what future or destiny stands in front of you, you can hold to the promise that God holds it in his hands.

Photo by: Geralt on Pixabay
by jessemahannah91

100 Posts on KidPastorsLife.Com!

Two weeks ago I published my 100th post on KidPastorsLife.com!

It’s a milestone I was pretty excited to reach. One lesson I’m taking from this though is how long it took me to get it done.

My first blog post was published in 2016.

Almost 4 years ago.

You know how many more blog posts I published in 2016?

Two.

It’s a little ironic that I posted about wanting to start something and then immediately stopped.

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The other component to this is that the two other posts that year were actually writing projects I originally wrote for other reasons than my blog.

So why did the promise of posting not result in a product?

Because it didn’t come with a plan.

Starting something is noble but continuing a goal is difficult if you don’t have a plan.

In 2017 I decided to make a plan of posting once a week.

Not just when I felt like it.

Not just when I wanted too.

Every week.

I made it 13 weeks in 2017 publishing a post every week.

And then I missed one week.

And it felt like I had failed.

Starting is hard, continuing is harder because the failures feel like finishes.

But they’re not.

They’re just part of the process.

In my mind though if I failed once it wasn’t worth continuing and excuses and fear were allowed to creep back in so that I didn’t continue posting.

In 2018 I started posting once a week and this time continued posting every week and now here we are; 18 months later, hitting 100 posts.

I think my point here is that goals don’t have to be perfect to be attained.

Finishing means sometimes failing.

Progress takes hard planning.

So here’s to 100 posts and hopefully 100 more!

Photo by 🇨🇭 Claudio Schwarz | @purzlbaum on Unsplash
by jessemahannah91

7 Strategies for Success at Disney World

I started this blog for two reasons. One reason was to improve my writing the other was to write what I hoped to read on the internet.

Usually this means writing #kidmin how to’s but recently my family took a trip to Disney and I did a lot of reading on how to plan a trip well and wanted to consolidate what I learned for others and for myself later on! So here’s 7 strategies for success at Disney World!

Download the My Disney Experience App

Their app is awesome but it will drain your phone battery so bring an extra portable charger. It gives you a map of your location. As well as wait times at all the rides in the park, restaurants, show times, and a way to modify your fast passes. (Which is the next tip!)

Use Fast Pass

If you’ve never been to Disney this is the greatest little feature they have. It’s totally free but it allows you to simply reserve a spot on a ride so you can skip the line. It requires some planning though as you have to kind of plan out what rides you want to get on in advance. If you’re staying at Disney property you can do this 60 days out and if you’re not (which we weren’t) you can book up to 3 FP’s a day, 30 days out.

There’s definitely a strategy to it but even if you’re not a planner you should book some because you can modify them the day of as much as you want. In fact, there were some rides that originally told me they no longer had Fast Passes available but when I went to modify I was able to quickly nab a Fast Pass for them the day we were in the park.

The other nice thing about Fast Passes is once you use your original 3 you can use the app to reserve one more fast pass at a time. A few times we would walk up to a ride with a 35-minute wait and I could find a Fast Pass while we were in line so we could basically skip ahead. Disney is jam-packed with fun so don’t wait in lines if you don’t have to.

Rope Drop

The Disney blogging universe is huge so it has its own lingo. Rope dropping is when you get to a park an hour before opening time so that as soon as they’re open you can get on their more popular rides. I recommend it because we were able to ride a few multiple times that were 85min waits (or more) later in the day. This worked for Snow White & the Seven Dwarves Train Ride at Magic Kingdom, Slinky Dog Dash at Hollywood Studios, and Avatar Flight of Passage at Animal Kingdom.

Plan & Adapt

The thing about Disney World is sometimes the weather can pack surprises. Before we left and even quickly the night before we would look at the park we were visiting the next day and try to have an idea of what we wanted to fit in. This included shows (and convenient showtimes), rides that we thought would be busy, and just general park layout. The app helps a ton but the more you have a loose idea of what you want to fit in the easier it is to adapt when the wait time is longer than you thought it’d be, a ride goes down, or rain makes it a good time to see a show.

Mobile Order

I feel like food is the harder part of Disney. It can get expensive and the lines can be long. Who wants to stand in line for an over priced hamburger? Mobile ordering is kind of a best-kept secret right now. I would use the app to see a nearby restaurant that used mobile ordering, order while I was in line for a ride with Lizzy. Say that we had arrived on the app when we got off the ride, and then walk into the restaurant with a notification that our food was ready to be picked up. Most of the mobile ordering places were on the cheaper side so it was really helpful.

Travel Small

Our trip was only Sarah, Lizzy, and I and the small group made it easy to be flexible and move around quickly. I’m not saying you can’t do Disney with a big group but it would make things harder. If you do take a large group, flexibility in how you break up and what rides you take would definitely help. At Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios, Sarah and I were both able to use the single-rider line to quickly get through a long line for a ride.

Have Fun!

At the end of the day, I would tell you as the person paying for the park experience to set your expectations at the lowest level for the happiest place on Earth. 😛

There’s a lot of hype and monetary pressure on a Disney trip and I saw (and at times even was) a stressed aggravated parent with a tired kid. It can be easy to not enjoy yourself if you set an expectation that the whole trip will be a mountain top. It can be a long day for a kid if you get there at opening and stay until the fireworks. Don’t be afraid to leave for a little bit and go back to the hotel for a nap (that would be the major advantage to me of staying on property- the disadvantage being the cost).

So I hope that’s helpful, have you traveled to Disney? What advice would you have?

Photo by Park Troopers on Unsplash
by jessemahannah91

Our Trip to Disney

Most week’s on my blog I try to write about things that I’ve done or am trying to do to help make me a better pastor, kidmin worker, father, or husband. This week however I wanted to chronicle my family’s recent vacation to Disney World. This is really more of a diary style post so feel free to skip over it if our Floridian adventures don’t appeal to you. Make sure you check back next week however when I post some of the things we learned at Disney when it relates to strategy!

Hollywood Studios

The first day we got there we went to Disney Springs out of curiosity but I wish we would’ve allowed for more time. (Also it rained on us and the whole area lost power so that didn’t help).

They have a lot of giant stores (we loved the LEGO store!) And a must-stop is their virtual reality experience. Lizzy was short by 2″ and couldn’t do it which is a little disappointing because she would have loved it! 48″ is the cut-off but any Wreck-It Ralph fans or Star Wars fans should give this a try!

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The first day we went to Hollywood Studios and had a blast. We managed to get on Slinky Dog Dash (super fun coaster) in the morning.

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Then we did the Swirling Saucers which was Lizzy’s favorite.

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We ended up coming back to Toy Story Land later for the Toy Story Mania ride because we had a fast pass. Lizzy was nervous about the ride because you had to wear 3-D glasses and you shot stuff at the screen. Depending on what you hit sometimes the ride would spray you with water or air which she wasn’t too sure about. The second day though she was ready to play on her own and really enjoyed it. This ride has the animatronic talking Mr. Potato head too while you wait for the ride and it’s pretty incredible.

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After Toy Story we caught the Incredibles Dance party. Lizzy didn’t want to participate but took pictures with her camera and reluctantly agreed to take pictures after mom and I did.

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We hit up the Star Tours ride next which was Lizzy’s second favorite at this park. The 3-D effects with the light rockiness of the ride made it fun for her.

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We ended up coming back to HollyWood Studios on Friday (the day after they opened their Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge Land). It’s an incredible addition to the park with crazy cool theming and Live Storm Troopers who wander about interrogating guests 😛.

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By the time she had piloted the Millennium Falcon (and without her Star Wars fan of a Father influencing her), she may have become a Star Wars fan. She hadn’t seen any of the movies but when she saw Rey training Jedi kids how to fight the bad guys she saw on the ride, she rushed over to get a closer look!

On the first day after we did Star Tours, we caught the muppets show.

We got pizza by mobile ordering (which was awesome) and then caught the Beauty and the Beast show with ice cream.

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Since we were right by Tower of Terror (Sarah’s favorite ride) we gave it a try. Lizzy didn’t like the creepiness of the line cue and started to back out but we told her to try new things and be brave; so she did.

Then she hated it.

She did not like the scary part and especially hated the up and down feeing but she tried it and we applauded her bravery while affirming she was safe; the ride was “just pretend”; and she got to experience mommy’s favorite ride. We even got her a treat to celebrate. Regardless, she made sure to tell her grandparents later when she FaceTimed them how much she disliked it.

We skipped Rockin’ Roller Coaster (Sarah and I did the single rider line when we came back the second day) but we saw the Lightning McQueen show which was a good change of pace after the scary ride.

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The afternoon came with rain showers which worked out because we were able to catch a few shows. Lizzy loved Frozen. (which was funny for adults too!)

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Lizzy liked the Indiana Jones Stunt show where they explain how they do dangerous stunts. It was a good time to remind her that everything was pretend (even scary stuff). I explained that Disney World was a bunch of adults building really big expensive toys and then inviting families to come and pretend with them. This explanation seemed to help her the rest of the week when she would get nervous about a scary ride or show.

After the Indiana Jones Show we hit up Star Tours a few more times; went to Toy Story Land for a few more rides and saw some characters

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We ended the night watching the Fantasmic Show, which Lizzy loved, I think it was her second favorite show.

Magic Kingdom

We spent the second day and actually the last day as well at the Magic Kingdom. I think it was Lizzy’s favorite park with the most rides for her to go on.

There was a Snow White Roller coaster that Lizzy liked, she was nervous at first but came around to it. We ended up getting to ride it a few times. The first day we went we could only get on it once in the early morning by arriving before the park opened so we were ready to get in line. The second time we came the crowds were lower in the morning so we could ride it several times but by the afternoon it had gone up to 85 minutes.

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Magic Kingdom has several smaller rides that almost never have a wait so we did the Winnie the Pooh Ride, the Alice in Wonderland Tea Cups ride, the Prince Charming carousel, and Dumbo. There were a few places you could meet characters but the second day Lizzy was still pretty shy so she wasn’t interested in the idea. By the time we got to the last day she came around to it and started liking the idea of meeting them, though she still wouldn’t say a word.

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The Circus part of the park and Tomorrow Land were both fun. Lizzy like the Goofy Roller Coaster: Barnstormer and the Buzz Lightyear ride was fun for her because she was able to swing our cart back and forth. I think my favorite attraction or maybe the most surprising one at Magic Kingdom was the Enchanted Tales with Belle. They take you through in a pretty small group, where you first start in Maurice’s shop. There’s a magic mirror that ends up being a screen for a video and then it actually transforms into a full-size door before your eyes! It was amazing. You get to go to Belle’s castle and the group you’re with helps act out the story with Princess Belle. It’s very interactive (which made Lizzy a little shy) but the animatronics are very lifelike.

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Magic Kingdom has a lot of shows and parades that we caught more of the second day that we were there.

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And by the end of the day at Magic Kingdom Lizzy had come around to the idea of roller coasters. We went on Splash Mountain which she did not like at all but there was a train roller coaster (that was honestly a little rough) that she loved and we ended up riding it several times. She even started raising her hands up like mom.

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The ending show at Magic Kingdom is amazing. They project onto the Cinderella Castle and transform it into a ton of different things while at the same time using fireworks. We caught it in a little Florida shower but it was still amazing.

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Animal Kingdom

Animal Kingdom was our 3rd day at the parks and I think it had some of our favorite rides. The Avatar world was pretty incredible with the Flight of Passage ride being absolutely amazing. This was another instance that we had to push Lizzy a little bit because she got very nervous when we got into the ride. You have to sit on what almost feels like a bike and wear 3-D glasses. The room actually moves forward into an IMAX screen and moves you around as if you’re flying a giant dragon like creature. Amazingly the ride you are on even simulates the creature breathing with an in and out motion motorized by your legs. When we first got into the room though Lizzy had no interest in riding it. However she was sitting on the ride and the restraints moved into place automatically meaning there was no going back. The first ride was accompanied with some tears but then after she asked to go on it two more times!

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The other awesome thing at Animal Kingdom is their characters and their shows. The UP Bird show was really fun with trained birds flying right over your head. Lion King has animatronics that are fun to see for the kids and amazing acrobatics and even a fire thrower. A Bugs Life is funny but Lizzy didn’t like the scary part or the stink bug spraying the audience. The best in my opinion though is the Finding Nemo musical which has huge puppets and sets that immerse you in the story. Make sure you sit up close as the actors come out in the audience which is really fun. The best show for Sarah and I though is watching Lizzy take it all in.

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The other rides at Animal Kingdom weren’t exactly Lizzy’s favorite. The farther we went in the week the more I learned it had less to do with the intensity of the ride and much more to do with the story of the ride. We went on the Dinosaur ride but Lizzy wasn’t too sure about the darkness and the mean dinosaurs. The other ride we went on was the Expedition Everest ride. She loved the roller coaster aspect, even putting her hands in the air at the beginning of the ride, but once the scary Yeti “tore up” the tracks, she was no longer a fan. She split the difference on her Everest feedback in her photo which was pretty cute! Everest was Sarah’s favorite ride at Animal Kingdom last time we made it to Disney World, so we rode it a few more times in the single rider line, with Lizzy taking turns with us seeing if we could spot the other parent.

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The last thing we did before the ending Animal Kingdom show was the Safari. We did it in the evening because we read the animals were more active and they definitely were! We got up close to a lot of them, sometimes even having to completely stop because they were right next to the trucks. The ending show at Animal Kingdom doesn’t use any fireworks because of the animals but rather lights and projections on water jets in their lake. There are some pretty cool floats and boats but if we had to do it again we probably would hit up the Avatar ride while the crowd thins due to the show.

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Epcot

Epcot was last on our list to visit, we didn’t know it at the time but we actually ended up visiting it on the opening Saturday of their Food & Wine Festival. While the Festival did have some unique food options with it (their was a lobster roll that was amazing!), it mostly just came with a much busier crowd, especially toward the evening. It was probably the biggest crowds we dealt with at Disney. Epcot doesn’t have too many rides, Soarin’ was an old favorite but the Avatar Flight of Passage ride kind of puts it to shame now. The new Frozen ride was fun and really shows off how much better Disney is at making their Animatronics plus it has a few fun surprises. Epcot is due for a facelift with additional kid friendly spaces and rides being added and I would agree that it could use the addition. Honestly, I felt like the best part at Epcot for Lizzy was how many unique characters there were and how short the lines were to see them. At Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios character wait times could sometimes be 35, 45, even 60 minutes long! We didn’t wait over 10 minutes for each character and it was the only time we saw Lizzy’s favorite Princess, Sleeping Beauty!

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We had such a great time at Disney World! We did a lot of reading before hand on blogs and we learned a lot. There’s plenty of other resources out there with great advice but I wanted to share what we learned and gathered in one simple place so make sure you check back next week to see my post 7 Strategies for Success at Disney World!

 

 

 

by jessemahannah91

How to Start Dating Your Spouse Again

A couple weeks ago I wrote a blog post about putting your marriage first as it relates to your kids. You can find it here.

The post generated a lot of feedback but more specifically I had people asking me how my wife and I date weekly.

The truth is I go into it a little bit on the last blog post but I was asked enough questions that I realized we needed to dive in a little deeper.

Here’s how my wife and I have started dating weekly again and we absolutely love it!

  1. Define Terms
    I said this in the last post but essentially you and your spouse need to define what a date should be. For some reason, my wife and I both had this idea that the other one wanted to go out of the house and do something. Once we started talking about it though, we realized that wasn’t always what the other one was looking for in a date. We realized that “date” meant for both of us the chance to connect with each other and have fun together. So sometimes we were going out to see a movie and not getting the chance to connect. Sometimes we were staying in and talking together but it was less fun together and more like a marriage staff meeting. We addressed everything from budgets to kid’s issues, but we didn’t have fun together. Now that we have clarity around the term, we both know that a “date night”, doesn’t always mean we’re going out it just means we’re going to set aside time to have fun and connect.
  2. Think outside (or inside) the box.
    We’ve found a company that we really like that sends you a date box. So often we ended up just doing the same thing and this is fun because the box comes and we don’t get to pick what it is. We end up trying new things and mixing it up which is really fun. It’s also nice for us because we don’t find a sitter we just plan an evening where the kids eat before us and go to bed a little early. You can find the company we use here, we’re not sponsored by them or anything we just thought it was a fun thing to try. They cost around $30 which seemed like a lot until we realized we’d spend two to four times that on going out for a date.
  3. Schedule It

That’s romantic isn’t it? Sure spontaneous is fun and can be a great way to surprise the other spouse. The truth is though, with 3 young kids, if we didn’t schedule it, we didn’t do it. So when we start to plan out the week there’s a simple conversation we have that sets the day for that week. Usually it’s around the time we talk through meals for the week because we try to plan something easy and quick for the kids on the night that works best for us to have our date. You could say every Wednesday but our schedules change enough that the same day each week became hard to maintain. So instead of canceling it the weeks that a normal day doesn’t work we just take it on a week by week basis.

4. Share the Responsibility

My wife has been fantastic during this because as I started to try to do more and plan these dates out she quickly helped shoulder the responsibility. One week I was overwhelmed by all of my work projects I had to get done and she came in and organized the date night that week. Other times I try to plan and prepare it for her and let her be surprised. Either way we realized that our marriage is like a muscle. We either need to strengthen it or if we don’t it’s strength begins to atrophy. So we both take the responsibility of growing closer to each other.

5. Get Help.

Your spouse should be the person you want to connect to and grow closer with through these dates. But the truth is investing in your marriage can be hard as a couple. So get help. We’ve used family and friends as babysitters so that we can go out around once a month and have a little more in depth date. We’ve also used resources like the date boxes and a simple website called married people. The parent company of the children’s curriculum I use for my job created it and it has some free and paid resources you can use to help you think of fun ideas on how to grow closer to your spouse. (They actually are the ones that helped me find the datebox). My point is simply that while Sarah and I spend money on gym memberships, Netflix, personal development, spending money when it came to one of the most important things we steward seemed like an easy sell. So get help where and when you need it.

  • I hope this blog post doesn’t come across like Sarah and I have made it as a couple. We have so much to learn and want to continue to grow closer to each other. Next April is our 8 year anniversary which means that according to culture Sarah and I should be in a 7 year slump. When Sarah and I heard that the 7th year was referred to that we desperately wanted to break that norm. So we have been working on making this our 7th Year Celebration. Marriage is this amazing gift and the truth is dating your spouse is why you have that gift (unless you had an arranged marriage 😛). So despite how many years you’ve been married the truth is finding a way to date your spouse again is worth it.
    • by jessemahannah91

    The Best Prop For Your Kidmin

    There’s a lot of great props that you can have in kids ministry.

    The truth is there is one simple prop that I feel like our church uses quite a bit for having fun on stage and engaging kids.

    It’s simple, relatively cheap, and can be used in a lot of different ways. You can buy a corded one or go with a battery-powered one.

    It’ll blow you away.

    It’s an electric leaf blower.

    I know, it might not sound like much. But it’s a pretty awesome prop.

    So here are several ways that we have used a leaf blower in our kids ministry (not all of these ideas are originally mine).

    TP 9000. This idea I actually first saw by Roger Fields from KidzBlitz. It’s a pretty ingenious little prop where you attach a paint roller to the end of the blower like so.

    Then by adding a roll of toilet paper to the roller you can use the leaf blower to blow it all over the stage. We’ve used regularly toilet paper.

    Colored toilet paper.

    It even works with paper towels.

    And for Christmas, you can even cut up some rolls of gift wrap if they are the larger ones and decorate in a flash.

    Making a storm: Another fun application is making a storm. Between Noah’s Ark, Jonah and the whale, and Jesus calming the storm there’s plenty of times when you want to create some wind to make it feel like a storm’s blown in. Honestly, I think floor fans work a little better but leaf blowers work in a pinch.

    Giant Balloon: Another addition to the leaf blower is the giant balloon. We’ve bought latex balloons in 4′ to 8′ sizes. You can also buy some weather balloons that can get really large. Here’s some footage of a game we did at camp a few years back. We had teams “wager” on how long the balloon would last on the leaf blower. Surprisingly they both underbid!

    Beach Ball Game: This one is pretty fun for a summer-themed game or a game for dads or volunteers. The leaf blower will keep the beach ball suspended in the air as long as they keep the ball within the flow of the leaf blower’s air.

    Christmas Canon: I posted about this one not long ago, you can find it here. It makes for some more fun Christmas games and skits that you’ll really enjoy. You can fire white pom-poms as if they’re snowballs or shatterproof ornaments for a game.

    So there you go. There’s a simple and cheap prop that you can literally use all year long.

    Photo by Avel Chuklanov on Unsplash
    by jessemahannah91

    Stop Putting Your Kids First

    The website in case you didn’t know is “kidpastorslife.com”. So how come a kid’s pastor doesn’t want you to put kids first?

    Honestly, if there was one thing I wish the parents in my ministry knew is that their kids don’t want to be “put first”.

    The reason?

    Because your kids need you to have a strong marriage.

    Marriage and kids aren’t counterproductive but they are structured differently and when the structure gets confused I’ve seen how it can in the long run hurt kids.

    The truth is families grow apart.

    Marriages are meant to grow together.

    Genesis sets up this dynamic perfectly when it describes marriage and how a child will leave their father and mother and start a new relationship with their spouse.

    Families are meant to grow apart and spouses are meant to grow together.

    The truth is though, we live in a “kids first” culture.

    Not in a healthy way.

    We can put kids first in a way that requires marriage to be put on the sacrificial block of the perceived needs of a child.

    Don’t get me wrong the faith of the next generation to me is worth everything.

    But if you pay attention to Paul he paints marriage as a picture of Christ’s relationship with the church.

    How confusing is that for children to see the picture that is meant to represent their relationship with Christ cheapened by that same relationship always getting second place?

    Your kid needs you to put your marriage before them.

    They need to see sacrificial love from you to your spouse even when it means they, in a moment, feel neglected.

    So how do you do that?

    How do you put your marriage before your kids in a way that’s healthy?

    Don’t get me wrong, there are times when kids need to come first in the sense of protection, and I recognize my readers have a diverse background so please know, this post is not addressing issues like abuse or infidelity.

    But in a general sense, our culture can make kids into almost an idol.

    Well, there’s an important principle you need to exercise and a simple, practical way to put, keeping your marriage first, into practice.

    The principle is a team mentality.

    Marriage is meant to be a team and that means when it comes to kids you are co-coaches. This principle means to the best of your ability you and your spouse maintain a united front with your kids.

    This means you communicate your plans and strategies, especially in regard to child discipline, to your spouse. Not that one spouse unilaterally decides to make rules and the other has to enforce them.

    The other concept I’ve found that helps keep your marriage a priority practically is the 3, 2, 1 approach. Our couples ministry talks about this approach quite a bit and it’s a good practical way to keep your marriage on track. The 3, 2, 1 approach breaks down into three parts.

    3 stands for 3 specific things throughout the year that you and your spouse use to invest in your marriage. This could be a marriage conference, a couples retreat or going through a devotional together.

    2 stands for 2 overnight getaways throughout the year. This is a hard one when kids get involved because so often parents can have anxiety about leaving their kids overnight. The truth is though this is something that is vitally important. Not getting away from your kids can turn into the worst thing for your kids. Plan a trip where you and your spouse can be away together. If you don’t have people you can trust your kids with overnight, work hard on building yourself a support group so you can eventually do this.

    Finally, the one stands for one date night a week.

    This one my wife and I used to consistently feel was too far out of reach. With 3 young children, we just couldn’t find the babysitters once a week to go out, not to mention the impact on our budget.

    Lately, though Sarah and I have reexamined this and realized we were standing in our own way when it came to one date night a week. We simply had a conversation about expectations and what defined a date night.

    Now we aim to get a sitter at least one night a month and the other three weeks we wait and eat until the kids are in bed. We take turns splitting the planning and come up with a quality time activity we can do after the kids are in bed.

    I love my kids but it’s hard to be a good dad if I drop the mantle of being a good husband.

    And maybe, more importantly, the best way for me to truly put my kids first is for me to model what a good marriage can be for them.

    Photo by freestocks.org on Unsplash
    by jessemahannah91

    Summer Fun for $10 or Less

    Summer is coming to a close which means for most families the heat has their kids beat, the countdown has begun until back to school, and the piggybank has been used for vacation. So to wrap up this last week or so here’s a simple and cheap way to have some summer fun.

    I owe this blog post to a friend of mine who actually gave me the idea for our fun summer activity.

    It’s a fun and different way to have fun with water to beat the heat that doesn’t cost a lot and could be customized in an unlimited amount of ways!

    Basically for $10 at your local hardware store you can get a lot of fun in the yard (be aware your water bill might be higher!).

    We called it “the blob” and essentially it’s just 4mil plastic made into a bubble and then filled with water.

    IMG_7744

    I just bought a large two-pack of plastic tarps from Menards which ran like $12 for 2. Then I needed wax paper from the grocery store. If you only wanted to do one of these I think the whole thing could run you no more than $5-$10 depending on what you have on hand.

    I folded the plastic tarp in half so it created a 9′ by 6′ rectangle. Then I took our iron and put a piece of wax paper between the iron and plastic. Going along the edge I simply sealed the plastic by having the heat from the iron melt it together. You could do two separate pieces of plastic but by folding it it saves me a seam to seal.

    I left a hole large enough for my hose and then sealed a little ways into the bag to keep it from coming out.

    I turned on the hose and started filling it up.

    This was a really fun and simple way to have fun during the summer and when it was all said and done we just drained the plastic and threw it out.

     

    by jessemahannah91