ROOTED AND BUILT UP

ROOTED AND BUILT UP
Tuesday, January 21, 2025 by TERRIE HELLARD-BROWN

Categories: devotional / GUEST AUTHORS / Reviews and Interviews / TUESDAY'S TREASURE

PLEASE WELCOME

TERRIE HELLARD BROWN

TUESDAY’S TREASURE

FROM THE AUTHOR

So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.

Colossians 2:6-7 (NIV)

It was the middle of the night. Our younger daughter came to our room after having a nightmare, afraid and crying. We groggily hugged her and prayed with her. We reminded her that nightmares are just our brains making up scary stories, and we reminded her Jesus was with her. We asked if she was okay and wanted to go back to bed. She did. She was welcome to sleep in our room if she wanted, but she was OK to return to her bed confident that she was okay.

Rooted and built up in Christ is a great description of the Christian life, and as parents, we help our children understand what that means as we walk with them through their faith journeys. We give them roots as we help them build a foundation of faith based on the Bible and their experiences of trusting Jesus each day. We build them up when we help them act on that faith in the challenges each day brings. These strengthen faith and result in a life of gratitude and joy.

Colossians 2:6-7 is a beautiful picture of the discipled life. It reminds us of what to do as parents and disciple-makers. Just as Deuteronomy 6 tells us, we teach what we’ve been taught. We pass on the faith that carries us through life.

Fast forward to this same daughter as a young adult in her early twenties. She was on a mission trip staying with a non-believing family in rural Taiwan. They had her sleep on the floor of their house which they considered haunted. Our daughter felt an oppressive spirit in the place and was pretty sure they had demon activity in their home. The traditional religion is all about demons.

I talked to her about what she did. She said, “I prayed. I knew God was bigger than anything that might be there, and I trusted him and asked him to protect me.”

She was in a much more intense situation than a bad dream, but she had roots that went deep and her faith was built up after years of learning of God’s faithfulness. She was living out Colossians 2, and we were all overflowing with thankfulness with how God was working in our daughter’s life.

Those baby steps of faith we are teaching our children each day grow and blossom into big steps of faith when the challenges of life come their way.

ABOUT TERRIE HELLARD-BROWN

Empowering families to disciple the next generation every day and everywhere is Terrie Hellard-Brown’s mission. Sparking Everyday Discipleship, the podcast hosted by Terrie Hellard-Brown, focuses on discipleship in the 21st Century, great books, and sparking important conversations with our children. Terrie is a writer, speaker, missionary, and mom. Her books include: Up, Down, and All Around: A Handbook for Discipling Our Children Based on Deuteronomy 6, Building Character Through Picture Books, A World of Pancakes (a picture book on flexibility and includes recipes from around the world), Izzy’s Notebook (a picture book about forgiveness, Harper and Izzy, Best Friends Forever Series: Living the One Anothers), and Drandar the Dragon Knight (chapter book about being who God created us to be).

Her writing appears in Starlight Magazine, Upper Room, and Inspire Christian Writers Anthologies and blog.

Contact Terrie Hellard-Brown:

11063-D S. Memorial Drive, Tulsa, OK 74133

contact@terriehellardbrown.com

www.terriehellardbrown.com

FEATURED BOOK/ UP, DOWN, AND ALL AROUND

Family Fun for Growing in Faith.
Up, Down, and All Around is a handbook for parents who want to disciple their children. It includes a devotion for parents because we first need to prepare our hearts. Each lesson also includes some parenting tips and book recommendations in addition to the object lesson which is the main part of each lesson. The object lessons are based on verbs because discipleship is faith in action. We want to help our children to be doers of God’s word, not hearers only

MY REVIEW *****

I anticipated a good read. But I was especially pleased to see that the book exceeded my expectations. I enjoyed reading it if just for the devotions to encourage a parent’s heart. The book has a wealth of ideas for a parent or other children’s caregiver to encourage and teach spiritual truths to the child. The book has ways to adapt the material to reach any age. There are craft ideas with instructions as well as recommended reading for both the child worker and the child to further teach the spiritual truth emphasized for that day. This is a great book for any Christian volunteer who works with children. I also recommend its use for homeschoolers. Get your copy today at:

https://www.amazon.com/Down-All-Around-Discipling-Deuteronomy-ebook/dp/B0D4HDM26Z/

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