The Company You Keep

By Melissa Ringstaff
Do not be misled: Bad company corrupts good character. 1 Corintians 15:43
Did your mother ever tell you that it was important to have good friends? It makes sense,
right? I mean a bad friend can tempt you to do things you wouldnt ordinarily do. They could
even ruin your reputation. Friends can make or break you.
"Do not be misled: 'Bad company corrupts good character.'"
1 Corintians 15:43
CLICK TO TWEET
Obviously, God wants us to choose our friends wisely. He wants the best for us. As I read this
verse, something else jumped out at me. As Christians, most of us are careful about the sort of
people we hang out with and the type of activities we participate in. And yet, every evening in
Christian homes across America men and women turn on the television and bring in friends
who have a less than upright character.
Could television, videos, or movies be corrupting your good character? The Bible tells us to
abstain from all types of evil. Paul says, The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual
immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of
rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, fractions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn
you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. Galatians
5: 19-21 NIV.
Does that describe much of what is found on television and in the movies? The Bible also
says, Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths Ephesians 4: 29a NIV. Bad
language abounds in much of what Hollywood has to offer us these days. This thought that, Oh,
a little sin wont hurt, is a far cry from what God has commanded in His Word. We are told,
Avoid every kind of evil. 1 Thessalonians 5: 22 NIV.
How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!
And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Him.
Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known.
But we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He
is. Everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. Everyone who sins
breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. But you know that He appeared so that he might take
away our sins. And in Him is no sin. No one who lives in Him keeps on sinning. No one who
continues to sin has either seen him or known him. 1 John 3: 1- 6
It is important that we choose carefully what we watch on television. Shows and movies that
glorify sin do not glorify HIM. Jesus is calling a purified people to be His people. He wants each
one of us to come out of Babylon and serve Him with pure hearts and minds.
It's important that we choose carefully what we watch on
television.
CLICK TO TWEET
For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. 1 Thessalonians 4: 7 NIV.
Are you willing to make the right choice?








Top 10 Clutter Busting Secrets
1. I sort mail immediately often, I sort it on the way into the house from the mailbox, and toss the
junk mail into the outside garbage. Bills go into a box on my desk, to be paid bi-monthly. Credit
card offers and other identity-sensitive junk mail are opened, the envelopes tossed, and the
contents immediately shredded (buy yourself a shredder if you dont have one they are
definitely worth it).
2. I never go up or down stairs empty-handed.
3. I abide by this saying I heard long ago: Dont put it down, put it away. (If only my family would,
also..)
4. I occasionally do 15 min of decluttering, an idea I got from the flylady. This is how I keep my
cupboards and closets organized. I like to do it immediately after the post-dinner kitchen
cleanup. Upbeat music helps keep it fun.
5. We have a yard sale, usually once a year. Our home owners association puts on a
neighborhood one, and takes care of the advertising. If we miss that, we donate to charity
items we no longer use or need, including clothes that are out of style or do not fit. When
decluttering, I put these items in large black bags, tie them, and take them to the garage or
car. This prevents me and my family members from regretting our decisions and going back and
retrieving the items.
6. In our house, we have a large basket by the front door, which I purchased at a yard sale. This is
what it looks like in the summer and early fall:In the winter, it contains hats, scarves, and
gloves. We also have a dresser (purchased for $10.00 at a yard sale) in our foyer. Keys and
sunglasses are kept in a basket on the dresser, ready to head out the door. We also place any
items we need to take with us that day on the dresser.
7. We keep coats in our hall closet. No hall closet? Try a coat tree or hooks. IKEA makes a nice-
looking, inexpensive wall rack.
8. Lets face it, the kids wont always be as concerned with clean as you are. I do give them daily
chores, but if their rooms are not exactly the way I like them, I have them take their things there,
then I shut the door. Aahhh.
9. I use one file box for things like receipts and bill stubs we dont need for taxes. We dont claim
home office space, so we only save the one previous bill for our utilities. For things I need to
save for tax purposes, I have another, smaller file folder with a slot for each month. Every piece
of paper reflecting a purchase or bill I will claim goes into its slot as soon as I am finished with it.
10. When I start to see an area getting out of control, I do my five things clean up. Choose five
things from that area, and put them away. Its amazing how that little bit makes a difference. If
Im in a hurry, Ill do three things.
How about you? What are your top clutter-busting secrets?







Smash Prayer Journals
Have you seen these Smash Journals that are popular right now? (Or Smashed Book, or Junk
Journals...) Think scrapbook, diary, and doodle pad rolled in one with no set plan. They are very cool and
a neat project for teenagers.

A friend of mine was cleaning some things out and gave me this "Tear It Up" journal to see if I could use
it for something. The pages in this book had directions like "spill your coffee on this page" and a place to
glue tickets and other memories from trips.









So, I thought why not take this Smash Journal idea and make it about a prayer experience for teens? A
place to smash things that reminded them of God, items that helped them to pray, and a place to write
prayers, quotes, and Scripture. I pictured something that would be fun to make without much of a plan,
something that could be added to for years, and something that would foster a love for beauty and faith
and communication with God. (There is a printable at the end of the post with prayer journal topic ideas.)

First I gathered some supplies:

Composition Notebooks- donated to me from a parent's left over supplies. Score.

I actually found some actual Smash Journal elements on major sale. Awesome.

Then I gathered some of the cool patterned and color duct/masking tape that they have out there these
days. Not cheap, but a bunch of the girls brought their own to share, so we ended up with lots of patterns.

Next I cleaned out those desk drawers, boxes, baskets, etc. that have those pretty holy cards, calendar
pages, prayer booklets and religious pamphlets. This is a perfect reason to save all those free religious
things you get in the mail-the ladies at church love to give me bags of them. My office desk has never been
so clean.

I also collected some random office supplies- another great opportunity to clean out. Here I have some
envelopes, file dividers for index cards, cardboard cards, etc. You will also want to gather staplers, tape,
glue, etc. The office supplies below are from a stash I have been working on for the entire school year that
were donated by my cousin after she did some office cleaning out. (Do you sense a theme here of people
giving me things that they want to be rid of? At least you can see that I am putting them to good use!)

Assemble supplies with assorted colored paper, stamps, pens, markers, scissors...

...books, calendars, magazines to cut up, etc.

Finally gather a group of teenage girls and get ready for some fun. I did this activity with about 10 girls
from my youth group, with rave responses. I had explained it before what we were going to do, so several
of the girls came armed with their own supplies, including boxes they had of their own mementos- cards
from people, religious pictures, holy cards, etc. They were able to include personal things from the start,
just like the ones that they will be able to add in the future.

We worked on out journals for a few hours over the afternoon. Before we started, I talked with them a bit
about the different ways to pray, and how sometimes journaling or writing prayers to God can help us
focus. It also can be nice to have a place with beautiful spiritual things, quotes, Scripture, etc. That's what
I wanted them to create- a tool to help foster prayer. It also wasn't something to create in one
afternoon. It could be written in and added to for years.

Here is my final journal. They all looked so different and unique to the girls' personalities.

I added tabs to split the journal up. (I know Smash=no organization, but I couldn't help myself.) I
created them by stapling in index card dividers. Some of my sections included prayers, journal, beautiful
things, Saints, quotes, Scripture, etc.

Here is one of the tabs stapled in and then decorated:

Here is my inside cover:

Smash stuff in:

Make an envelope page, ready to tuck small notes, cards, etc. inside.

The girls loved this idea:
We delegated one section of the journal "colors."
On those pages, they just smashed pictures, quotes, etc. of that color. My pages aren't quite done, but you
can see the effect





Some other ideas:

Use paint sample strips as a place to make a list:

Make spaces where journaling can be "private" or set to open at a certain time. One of the best things
about journaling prayers is that we can look back at how God has answered them. Yes, no, or something
you don't expect.

Lists are always a good way to send quick prayers heavenward:



Make sure to throw in some favorite Bible Verses:

Here's my pretty back cover:

There is the general idea. Of course there are thousands of variations, but here is a printable with some
possible journal starters. They can be cut up and glued to pages in the notebook, or can be written in your
own handwriting.

I would love to know how people adapt this idea and make it their own, or how you use it with kids!


The Creed & Notebooking
Notebooking can be a great way for CCD kids to collect a visual model of what they are learning
throughout the year. I think that the short, once a week format of most CCD programs tends to make it
tough for kids to pick up where they left off. Notebooking could help. Here are some ideas that could be
used for any concept, but all of my examples are about the Creed. I think that it would be kind of a cool
way to start the CCD year, with the Creed as a base, and then move on to the curriculum. You could then
readily tie the Creed into everything that you are learning.

Click on anything black and white for a printable to get you started.

Start with a good cover. I thought that "I Believe" is a good statement. Then kids can look at their
notebook and say that they believe everything that is contained inside. This time, I used a Composition
style notebook, but a spiral bound notebook works fine. (I do recommend glue sticks, tape, and staples
over liquid glue for obvious reasons. A notebook that ends up only having one page because they are all
glued together isn't much of a notebook.)

Add a copy of the Creed, with a twist. Print a copy of this two-page, word by word Creed, have the
students cut it apart, mix it up, and see if they can glue it back in order. I don't recommend cutting each
word apart unless you have very dedicated, detail oriented students and a lot of time. Instead, cut it into
strips, which is much more manageable.


Glue in a KWL Chart, to assess what students know before you begin (Know), as you learn (Want to
Know), and as you complete your lesson (Learned).


To make the Creed a little more accessible, you can do a shrinking summary. Hand the kids a large index
card and have them write a summary of the important points of the Creed. Then give them a smaller
index card and have them par down the summary even further. Finally, have them limit it to only a few
words on a post it note or half an index card. It can be very powerful to discover what the key words are
that convey the meaning of such a large amount of text.

Try Wordle. I love Wordle. Paste in or type a bunch of text and it randomly creates this cool word
art. Students can change the colors, fonts, layouts, etc.

The size of the words is proportional to the number of times the word appears in the text. On this one, I
intentionally made "The Nicene Creed" large, but the rest of the words help us to see what words are used
most often.



Add some flip books or other fun things. Directions and printable for this one abut tough words in the
Creed can be found here.

Add some lift-the-flap-facts about connections between the Creed and Scripture. There is also a blank
area for writing notes. You also could add Catechism references.



Finish up the section with a "Yes" flow chart. Since "I Believe" is the theme, have the students add things
that they can say yes, they believe.






There are some ideas to get you started, but the possibilities are endless!