How has your week been? This year is an exciting year because it is a LEAP YEAR! Every four years, we get an extra day added to our calendar, and it falls on February 29--tomorrow!

Knowing that we have an extra 24 hours this year, what do you plan on doing with your time?

In 24 hours, you could watch 48 cartoons.
In 24 hours, you could play 72 video games.
In 24 hours, you could run 180 miles (if you had enough energy!).
In 24 hours, you could wash the dishes 32 times.
In 24 hours, you could do so many things!

God has blessed us every 4 years with this extra day, so He wants us to prayerfully consider how to use the
extra  time He has given us instead of doing all those things, maybe you can:

- Spend time with your family, maybe watching cartoons together
- Hang out with a friend who likes to play video games so that you can tell them about God and
  invite them to church
- Run a mile to exercise and take care of the body that God has given you
- Wash the dishes for your mom so that she can take a break for one day

Transform the way you think about the time that you have. Time has been given to us by God only through grace. He has no reason to give us the time that we have. So when you feel that someone is "stealing" time from you, know that it wasn't yours to begin with, so it's not yours to keep. It was a beautiful gift from God and He wants you to use it to glorify Him.

Hope you have a happy leap year day tomorrow!

Until next time,

Sorry for the late newsletter. It's been a hectic week!

I came across an interesting article by Pastor John Piper about helpful acronyms that he has been using to guide his spiritual life. I thought I would share one with you that I think would be helpful. As you've been learning at church and from my newsletters, it's important to daily spend time with God. One part of that is reading the Bible  and the other part is praying. Since we've been discussing those things, I  thought this acronym would be especially helpful: IOU'S. Sort of like an "I owe you." These are the things that we may "owe" to God.
      
Incline my heart to you, not to prideful gain or any false motive. (Psalm 119:36). That is, focus my affections
and desires upon you, and get rid of everything in me that would does not please  you.
        
Open my eyes to behold wonderful  things in your Word. (Psalm 119:18). That is, let your light shine and show me what you want me to learn from reading the Bible.
        
Unite my heart to fear your name. (Psalm 86:11). That is, understand how awesome God is.

Satisfy me with your steadfast love. (Psalm 90:14). That is, fulfill me with the fact that your everlasting love has been poured out on me through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

How do you see these things in your life? Ask yourself if you are keeping these attitudes and glorifying God. 

Until next time,

Did you receive a lot of cards and candies today at school or from a loved one?
Did you give someone a valentine card or gift?

Presents not only bring joy to the person receiving the gift, but also to the person giving the gift.
Knowing how much a friend may appreciate a written card or handmade picture frame, it brings me much joy to see them excited to receive a gift! Do you feel that way? How do you feel when you receive a gift? How do you feel when you see someone receive a gift you have given them?

In the same way that we love to give and receive gifts, God, our Father, loves to shower us with blessings and gifts. He gives us air to breathe, food to eat, clothes to wear, and houses to live in. He also gives us friends to hang out with, games to play with, and parents who love us. BUT the surprising thing is  that God does not need for us to give Him gifts! He is an all-powerful Creator,  who can satisfy His own needs, desires, and wants.

So what does that mean for us? Does that mean that we don't ever have to serve God, or give offering to church, or help one another? No! God's delight is to see us worship and glorify Him in everything that we do. He also feels extreme joy when we give Him our daily gift of worship to Him. Now that doesn't mean that we should just  recite a prayer so that God will be happy with us. It means that our hearts should reflect a desire to worship and surrender our whole lives to Him whenever we do pray or we do anything else!

So because God first loved us by giving us His Son as a gift to die on the cross so that we wouldn't have to experience eternal pain and suffering, we should also give God the biggest sacrifice that we can-- to live each day and each moment for Him and not for ourselves. This will bring the most perfect joy to both us and to God.

Until next time,

This past Sunday was probably one of the biggest Sundays of the year: Super Bowl Sunday. It seems to be a holiday which all of America understands. Whether you watch football or not, whether your team made it to the Super Bowl or not, even whether you watched the game or not, if you live in America, you probably knew that something was going on Sunday night.

However, I would like to bring attention to something else that happened this weekend that maybe some of you did not know about: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7HzhtJaCo0&feature=youtu.be 

Watch the video! Pay particular attention to the video at the 6:20 mark.

This is Jeremy Lin. He is a Taiwanese American basketball player for the New York Knicks who also graduated from Harvard University. Impressive right? Well what's most impressive is that Jeremy Lin is a Christian. He's not just a Christian who has gone to church all his life and says he's a Christian without living the life of a Christian. He lives and breathes what it means to be a follower of Christ-- a disciple. He acknowledges God in all things, even in his basketball succeesses. He probably put in hours upon hours of hard work to become the player he is today, but he knows that at the end of the day, all of that work was nothing without God's grace. You can see how he chooses to put on the character of Christ rather than his own selfish desires when he acknowledges that the success of that night was not due to him alone, but due to the teamwork he had with his team. He doesn't take the spotlight for himself!

In the Bible, we know of Abraham, Daniel, Paul, and Peter--men who have done amazing things for the glory of God, but we don't need to forget that there are real life examples here today who are also living out the Gospel in their everyday lives. 
 

Until next time,