“Teach your children to make wise choices. If they make wise choices, all the other things you tend to worry about like behavior, character, and attitude will for the most part take care of themselves.” (This advice was given to Alta Faye and me by Bret Wells, a 92 year-old man, on the birth of our first child.)

This is great advice, but how do you teach your children to make wise choices? Teaching a child to make wise choices is much more than telling a child to make wise choices. So, how do you accomplish this difficult task of parenthood?

Wisdom results from integrating truth with our own experiences or the experiences of others. One of the great values of studying the Bible in small group settings is that you not only hear the truth from God’s Word, but you also hear how others are applying this truth to their own lives. During the “Jesus: The Starting Point” emphasis, I am encouraging each church member to engage in individual Bible reading. This individual study is very important, but you also need to participate in our Sunday morning Bible Study ministry. Sunday School is not only a time and a place for children and youth to learn how to make wise choices; it is also an important time and place for adults for the same reason. I hope your Bible reading is the starting point for your day, and Sunday School is the starting point for your week.

Since integrating the past experiences of others into the present is part of wisdom, let me tell you about some exciting things occurring in the present at Dawson. At one time, January 1-February 15 was a time for churches to catch their breath between the Advent season and the weeks leading into Easter. This is no longer true at Dawson. The ministry and mission pace has accelerated during the first 45 days of 2008. The fantastic D-Now weekend involved and impacted over 300 people. We have over 700 people involved in Upward Basketball for children and nearly 25 youth teams that use our Family Recreation Center each week. The Scripture Seekers Bible memory program on Sunday nights is making an eternal difference in the lives of our older children. Our Hispanic congregation hosted a large and effective Marriage and Family Conference and an exciting Bible distribution program in our part of the city during the last few weeks. Several participated in a mission trip to Honduras. In addition to all of these exciting ministry opportunities, the response to the “Jesus: The Starting Point” booklet was so overwhelming that we ran out of them in the first 15 days. God is presently moving among the Dawson Family of Faith as we seek to be found faithful as God’s people both in the ministries that are happening at 1114 Oxmoor and the ministries we support in other parts of the world.

See you Sunday.

Your pastor,

Gary Fenton