Our Favorite Parenting Tips: Challenge Your Child to Dream Big
Release Date: 12/05/2024
Characters at the Cradle: Mary and Elizabeth, Supernatural Pregnancies
A Moment of Hope
by David Chadwick Mary and Elizabeth. Two women called by God, both of whom were carrying children with tremendous purpose. Jesus, the perfect God-man, was conceived in Mary’s womb by the power of the Holy Spirit. The angel Gabriel delivered the news to her. In addition to this news of her supernatural pregnancy, Mary was also informed of her cousin Elizabeth’s miraculous conception in her later years. If we think family news spreads fast, imagine how quickly this news must have spread from family to family and from village to village. The fulfillment of biblical prophecy was happening...
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Characters at the Cradle: Mary and Elizabeth, Called by God
A Moment of Hope
by David Chadwick This week, we will continue to look for glimpses of glory throughout the life of Mary, but specifically in the context of her very special relationship with Elizabeth. Both called by God to very high, very important tasks. Let’s briefly recap where we are in the story. Zechariah was visited by Gabriel and given the news that he was going to have a son named John. But because of his unbelief, he was made silent until the birth of his son. Can you imagine for a moment how Zechariah communicated the news to his wife without the ability to speak? Did he write down what the...
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Characters at the Cradle: Mary, A Servant of God
A Moment of Hope
by David Chadwick I hope you are enjoying these characters at the cradle. These are stories of biblical figures who find their lives intersecting with the entrance of Jesus into the world. In each story, you will see so much wonder, purpose and significance. After Mary had the encounter with the angel Gabriel, her response spoke volumes. However, before we see how she responded, do you remember what Zechariah’s response was when Gabriel told him that he would have a son after many years of waiting and praying? Zechariah spoke words of doubt and unbelief, and because of that, he was made mute...
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Characters at the Cradle: Mary, Nothing is Impossible
A Moment of Hope
by David Chadwick Mary. Cousin to Elizabeth. Betrothed to Joseph. Visited by the angel Gabriel. While she wore many hats, the most important one was this: Mary, mother of Jesus! After Gabriel visited Mary, she became aware of the divine conception that would take place in her womb. She also found out that her formerly barren cousin, Elizabeth, was now with child. The story of Mary is full of faith, hope, and wonder. Threaded throughout Mary’s life is a strong and fervent belief that with God, nothing is impossible! In fact, these were Gabriel’s last words to Mary (Luke 1:37). Take a moment...
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Characters at the Cradle: Mary, Gabriel's Message
A Moment of Hope
by David Chadwick Gabriel’s initial appearance to Mary left her “greatly troubled” as she tried to figure out why he said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” The angel went on to tell Mary not to fear and explained that she had found favor with God. Mary settled into the news that she would bear a son and would call him Jesus. He would be the Son of God and the Savior of the world. Gabriel went on to say that the Holy Spirit would come upon her and the power of the Most High would overshadow her. With every word that she held in her heart, her fear turned to faith....
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Characters at the Cradle: Mary, The Divine Conception
A Moment of Hope
by David Chadwick There are many holy and purposeful connections that took place between the Creator of the universe and his creation leading up to Jesus’s entrance into the world. Join me as we continue to look at some of the special characters at the cradle. I love the significance of both Gabriel and Joseph as characters at the cradle. But today, I want to place our focus more specifically on Mary, who played the very special role as mother of the Savior of the world. I left you with a cliffhanger yesterday, thinking about the profound question Mary asked after hearing from Gabriel of the...
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Characters at the Cradle: Mary, An Introduction to Gabriel, Mary, and Joseph
A Moment of Hope
by David Chadwick This week, we will continue to look at some more characters whose lives had profound intersections with the cradle of Jesus. Over the past two weeks, we studied Zechariah and Elizabeth. This week, we study Mary, the mother of Jesus. But in order to understand Mary, we have to understand Gabriel and Joseph as well. After Gabriel visited Zechariah with the amazing news that his wife would give birth to a baby named John (the Baptist), God gave him a second assignment. He told him to go visit a young virgin girl named Mary in the town of Nazareth in Galilee. She was betrothed to...
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Characters at the Cradle: Zechariah, Husband to Elizabeth
A Moment of Hope
by David Chadwick After the encounter with the angel Gabriel and being rendered mute by the Lord, what did Zechariah do next? Luke 1:23 says this of Zechariah: “And when his time of service was ended, he went to his home.” To Elizabeth and to his safe place of love and care. I can only imagine how he felt as he pondered all he had just seen and heard, probably praying in his spirit to the Lord about John. And have you ever thought about how he told Elizabeth about his experience with the angel Gabriel? Hand gestures? A game of charade? Writing it out? Surely he found a way to tell her....
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Characters at the Cradle: Zechariah, Made Speechless
A Moment of Hope
by David Chadwick In Luke 1:18-22, the angel identified himself as Gabriel. Gabriel also appears in the book of Daniel in chapters 8 and 9. In the Bible, whenever Gabriel came on the scene, he was addressing prophecy about the Messiah. The same holds true in this story with Zechariah. Gabriel came to Zechariah from the presence of God and told him that he was sent by God to share this wonderful, good news of a coming child. After all this information from Gabriel had been given to Zechariah, Zechariah asked the question, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in...
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Characters at the Cradle: Zechariah, Father of John the Baptist
A Moment of Hope
by David Chadwick John was the long awaited son to Zechariah and Elizabeth. His birth paved the way for Jesus’s birth. His voice prepared the way of the Lord. His life pointed to the soon and coming King. Luke 1:16-17 says this of John: “And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a prepared people.” The personal calling of John’s life in God’s story grabs my heart every...
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Blessed are those who fear the Lord…Their children will be mighty in the land; the generation of the upright will be blessed (Psalm 112:1-2 NIV).
Since they were born, I’ve prayed our children would be “mighty in the land.” I believe God created us to dream and placed the seeds of those dreams in our hearts—even as children. Our children are who they are, in large part, because they followed the path of their dreams. I noticed over the years that around age ten, somewhat of a lifelong dream began to emerge. Other parents have told me they noticed the same thing with their children.
So we took those childhood dreams seriously. David and I tried to identify, invest in, and protect those early dreams. We believed their dreams could be the pathway to God’s destiny. After all, He’s the one who gave them the gifts and talents to reach their dreams. One of the greatest gifts you can give your children is to believe in their dreams and invest in whatever you can in the development of those dreams.
Dreaming is as natural as breathing for children. What’s not so natural is the self-discipline it takes to reach their dreams. David and I helped our kids experiment until they found something they loved and were good at. Then we’d provide structure and discipline to help them stick with it for a mutually agreed upon length of time. At least until their efforts brought some measure of success.
For example, all of our children loved sports. But at different times, each would have chosen to skip out on practice, especially those grueling early morning workouts. That’s when our role was to provide that little extra push. As they got older and developed a passion for their dreams, their own self-discipline kicked in with a fierce determination. Dreams energize effort. And over time, we saw how small but faithful habits helped our children accomplish those dreams.
Maybe you need to sit down with your kids and revisit some of their dreams. Ask them questions like, “What do you love to do?” “When do you feel most alive?” “What brings you joy?”
You might even need to sit down with a journal and ask yourself some of those same questions. We all need to dream. Whether we are 9 or 99, we must always find ways to dream!