Favour's dairy blog

t The least helpful types of books for children under age 5: ones with simple photos—not illustrations—and minimal text. Compared with illustrated books, these don’t trigger as many conversation starters, which are critical to child development, says Michele Morrison, director of Training and Program Support at the  Parent-Child Home Program , a non-profit that helps low-income families build early parent-child verbal interaction and learning at home. (The Reader's Digest Foundation supports the Parent-Child Home Program). Don't miss these  classic children's book quotes every adult needs to hear again . Ask questions based on the illustrations Children between 16 and 24 months add more words to their vocabularies on a daily basis than they do at any other age, says Morrison. The first and easiest words to learn and label from book illustrations are nouns like "dog" and "tree," she says. If you see a picture of a dog, ask your toddler or

John O'Leary's knows what its like to overcome tremendous odds.  As a nine-year-old boy, he saw older kids playing with gasoline and fire. He went to his own garage found a can of gas and tried to replicate what he saw the other boys do. However, before the liquid even left the gas can, the fire consumed the fumes and severely burned John.  His brother Jim found him outside. Jim courageously beat back the flames with a rug, then laid him down in the snow and rolled around on top of him until the flames ceased, then returned to the house to call 911.   With 2nd and 3rd degree burns all over his body, John was given less than one percent chance of surviving the first night.  Miraculously, he pulled through. After that he was in the hospital for months. He went through dozens of surgeries, years of therapy, and lost all of his fingers due to amputation. In spite of John’s challenges, he maintains a positive outlook and enjoys a successful life. John is a college gr

“Fortune favors the bold.” -Virgil By now, I’m pretty sure you’ve set your sights on some territory you’d like to conquer. There’s just one thing hold you back… TAKING ACTION. I know you’re probably saying to yourself, “It’s easier said than done.” And you’re right. If taking territories was easy, everyone would be doing it. But the key to being successful and reaching your goals this year is forward movement. Can I let you in on a little secret? There’s no perfect time to pursue your goals. In fact, there will *always* seem like there’s something else you have to do or one more obstacle in the way. Do not sit on your dreams and goals this year. Take Action. Be dynamic, not static.  No more Excuses! START!  This week’s prayer Lord help me to overcome excuses in every area of my life.  Give me the guidance to start taking massive action toward the dreams and goals I’ve set forth this year. I lean on your grace today for wisdom in Jesus name. Amen. Take action

Enjoy your day! xo

Read James 5:13-15 Devote yourself to prayers being watchful and thankful. -Colosian 4:2 (NIV) Late one afternoon my eye doctor dilated my pupils for a routine checkup, and everything looked blurry. For several hours after I returned home I could not cook, read, crochet, watch TV, or enjoy my other usual activities. I wondered how I would spend the time. Amid my frustration with this temporary inconvenience, I suddenly thought to myself, “I can pray.” Then I spent an evening praising God and interceding for family members, friends, and government leaders. Isn’t prayer what God has always desired from us? Consider Noah making a new beginning (Gen. 8:13-20), King Jehoshaphat facing a huge invading army (2 Chron. 20:1-28), or the church at Jerusalem hearing of Peter’s imprisonment (Acts 12:1-17). Whatever we are facing, God is calling us to pray. Thought for the Day I can always pray Prayer Gracious God, help us to turn to you in all circumstances. Thank yo

Hello everyone! I thank God for the gift of life that He has blessed us with today; some wished they had the opportunity to be here today but are not. We can't say we're better than them or we're here because of our own righteousness; it is only by the mercies of God that we're alive today;  I hope we can keep reminding ourselves of this.  Go out there and be the best you can be, you owe it to God. Have a blessed day everyone! With much love from me to you all.

Today I want to get personal with you and yes, put you on the spot. I want to ask you a question that you MUST answer. The answer to this question is a matter of life and death. Before I ask the question, however, permit me to give you some background. In Matthew 27 we find Jesus standing trial before Pilate. Christ has been betrayed by Judas and arrested by the Roman soldiers. He is now facing Pilate who thinks he holds Jesus’ fate in his hands. Unbeknownst to him, what Pilate really holds in his hands is his own fate. As Pilate is sitting on the judge’s seat with Jesus standing nearby, he asks a question in that should cause each of us to stop and think. It is doubtful whether Pilate truly understood the magnitude of the question, nor did he understand that he was making a decision that would affect his soul for all eternity.  Matthew 27:22  provides us with Pilate’s question. “What shall I do, then, with Jesus who is called Christ?” The immediate answer that came from the p

In Psalm 102, this man was having an incredibly difficult time. He began to pray and went into great detail to list all of his troubles. He said, "God, I'm sick. I'm down to skin and bones. I can't sleep at night. I've lost all of my income. I'm lonely. My friends have left me. My enemies taunt me all day long. Now I'm just sitting among the ashes." For eleven verses, he goes on and on telling how about how miserable his life is and how he feels overwhelmed by his trouble. Just reading it can make you feel depressed. Just when you think he's about to give up, he says in verse 12, "But You, O Lord, are still on the throne. For You will arise and have mercy on Zion; for the time to favor her, yes, the set time, has come." Zion is the church. You can put your own name in place of Zion. "For You will arise and have mercy on Linda; for the time to favor her, yes, the set time, has come." "You will arise and have mercy on

God does not apportion talents equally to his servants. He gives more to some and less to others. Each apportionment has its unique temptations. But at one point, Jesus delivered a warning to less talented servants. How Britain Got Talent Our English word  talent  refers to a person’s innate ability or aptitude to accomplish something, typically an above average to extraordinary ability. But the only reason this word is in our lexicon is because of Jesus’s “Parable of the Talents” in  Matthew 25:14–30 . In Biblical Greek, the word  talanton , the etymological ancestor of  talent , meant a measuring unit of weight, often of money, such as a talent of gold or silver. In the New Testament, a talent was the largest unit of monetary value and some estimate its contemporary value in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. But in Jesus’s parable, he was clearly using this monetary word  talent  metaphorically to imply any God-given stewardship we are entrusted with, including our a

Have a blessed day!

Now these [Jews] were better disposed and more noble than those in Thessalonica, for they were entirely ready and accepted and welcomed the message [concerning the attainment through Christ of eternal salvation in the kingdom of God] with inclination of mind and eagerness, searching and examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. —Acts 17:11 One of my much-published writer friends taught a series of classes at a writers’ conference on beginning writing. He wanted to reach people who felt God had called them to write and show them how to get their articles and books published. At the beginning, he asked the attendees how long they had been writing and if they had ever been published. Two women, who sat in the front row, said they had both been writing for almost twelve years, but had not yet published anything. At the end of the first lecture, my friend overheard one of the women say to the other, “Oh, we know all of that. We don’t need to come back to

Hello everyone! I'm so excited about God's goodness concerning us today, and for His blessings that are new every morning; I can't get enough of His blessings and I hope you allow yourself to enjoy your blessings today. Have a blessed day!  xo

Michele caught her husband Mitch red-handed. She was going through bills, when she saw charges for Internet pornography. She told herself it wasn’t a big deal - the first time. “’It was just a guy thing. It was just something that men did.’ I just said, ‘Don’t do it anymore.’ I was going to ask him on a monthly basis if he had looked at anything, to kind of hold him accountable,” said Michele. “It would be something I would have to confess more than once,” said Mitch. Mitch was just a curious 7 year-old when he opened a pornographic magazine, left behind by his big brother. One glance started a habit that stayed. “It became part of my everyday life,” said Mitch.  Mitch couldn’t just stop. He was addicted to pornography and as the confessions kept coming, Michele’s feelings changed. “Then I just thought, ‘I don’t want to know.’ It was easier to just not know. You start to think, ‘Am I not good enough?’ It’s just betrayal. It’s heart breaking,” said Michele.  Michele was

Life is full of ups and downs, twists and turns. Sometimes it seems we are just getting the hang of things when a wave of the "unexpected" comes crashing down. But no matter what kind of storm is going on around us, we don't have to let the storm get in us. God wants us to stand steady and grounded in Him. You're not supposed to be tossed to and fro, one day up and one day down. One day you're happy, one day you're not. When you are born again, God gives you a regenerated spirit to connect with Him and His Word. When you are connected to Him, He becomes your anchor. That's why we need to meditate on the Word of God every single day. We have to fill our spirits, but another important key to staying grounded is to keep our emotional tanks filled up as well. Not everyone fills their emotional tank the same way, but I believe if you really want to have mental strength, you have to be your own biggest cheerleader. You have to keep your mind in the right d