SEPTEMBER

         2018

 MORNING TIME

When you go into your child's room this month, say, "Good morning, [child's name]! Let me see that big boy/girl smile. There it is! God loves that smile, and so do I!"

 DRIVE TIME

As you drive, sing the following to the tune of "A Sailor Went to Sea": "God hears me when I pray, pray, pray. God hears me when I pray, pray, pray. God hears me when I pray, pray, pray. 'Cause He loves me all the day, day, day."

 CUDDLE TIME

Cuddle up wth your child this month and pray, "Dear God, Your love for us is SO big. I pray [child's name] will always remember that You love him/her and nothing will ever change that. Help us both to trust Your plans for us. We love You, God. In Jesus' name, amen."

 BATH TIME

While bathing your child, soap up half of his/her leg. Ask, "Is ALL of your leg soapy or just some of your leg?" Do this with other parts of their body, asking each time, "Is ALL of your [body part] soapy or just some of it?" Say the memory verse together. "Trust the Lord with ALL your heart," Proverbs 3:5. God wants us to trust Him with ALL our heart.

MESSY ONE-YEAR-OLDS
By Sherry Surratt

I’m not sure what captivates me more . . . the spontaneous belly laugh or the drool-mouthed wonder on their angelic face. I can fall in love with a one-year-old faster than they can stink up a room with a saggy diaper. The cherub cheeks and adorable fat thighs draw me in, almost enough to make me overlook their incessantly snotty nose and the jelly they just smeared in their wispy new hair. Almost.

It’s the mess that gets me. Their little fingers are drawn like magnets to anything breakable. The moment their hands become sticky-gooey, an internal signal screams somewhere in their little bodies, “Wipe yourself on something clean and white. Right now.”

Sitting at the dinner table, I see the same look on my granddaughter Mollie’s face that I saw on her daddy’s face so many years ago. It’s the look of curiosity that drives a toddler to snatch and smear, squish, then shriek with delight.

Sweet discovery is what this phase is made of. It’s what makes patience and endurance such prized commodities for the parents of this age

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