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Children

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

Freedom: A Priority

Posted on July 7, 2025

The kids passed out flyers. They baked bread and put little cards in the bread that had scripture and an invitation for Bible study. They decorated their go carts and a little red wagon. They entered the seed-spitting contest, the tug of war and the blueberry picking contest. They got so excited that they could barely behave at all. The parade was so fun and so hot! There was one moment, at the very beginning, when I looked back at all the neighbors, many of whom I’d never met, dressed in red, white and blue, at all the little flags waving, hearing the sound of “God Bless America” and the little go-cart engine and I  thought I was going to cry. There’s something, today, maybe more than ever since the founding Father’s declared the great Independence, that’s so very precious about the liberty. When things are threatened, in 1776 and now,

Betsy Ross in cool shades…

they become more valuable. Our freedom is at a pretty high premium now. 

John Adams wrote  home to his wife about his picture for the future celebrations of the Declaration of Independence. He had to be so fearful at this writing:

“The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty.  It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forevermore.”

Illuminations (fireworks), parade, pomp and games were very much part of our celebration. But the very best part of my day was when it was all over and I was cleaning up my kitchen. Ezra sat in a chair there by the kitchen fireplace. “Mammy,” he said, “Did anyone say they will visit the church or study the Bible with us?” 

It mattered in his heart. That mattered about the day. The ultimate, eternal freedom offered in Christ, of course, infinitely eclipses, any temporary (look at world history)  freedom in any earthly country or kingdom. I thanked God, before pillowing my head at the end of that long day, that this mattered to him. I told him that folks didn’t read the cards in the bread yet, but that I did get to personally talk to a couple of people about the church and VBS and Bible study. And, you can bet, he was along when we went the next day to the hospital to visit a neighbor that we hadn’t yet met, who wanted to come, but couldn’t. I want him to love people…souls. Life is so tenuous. (Ask the people in the Texas floodwaters. I am praying for those lives that will never be the same.)  

We want Ezra (and all six grandchildren) to love our country and proudly wave the flag. But we want them to love the better country of Hebrews 11:16 even more!

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

Sunday. I can get bent out of shape, but…

Posted on June 2, 2025

It doesn’t really matter that I did not have the ingredients (or time to order and get them) that I needed to make the two items I really wanted to make for the luncheon that we were to attend. I made something and the new converts that we were trying to encourage did not even know that the things I brought were less than I had hoped. 

It doesn’t really matter that there was laundry all over the floor of my laundry hall for the entire day; partly wet and partly dry. We will still wear all those clothes again if Jesus doesn’t come first. 

It doesn’t matter that my car smells like fishing bait and my kitchen still smells like fish. There was a whole week recently in which it would have mattered even less because my sinuses were so inflamed that I could not have smelled it anyway. 

It doesn’t matter that Eliza Jane pitched one of her four major lifetime fits yesterday on our pew and her mother gave her appropriate punishment. What would have mattered is if there was either one (the fit or the punishment) without the occurrence of the other. Striving is growing. 

It doesn’t matter that Eliza Jane fell asleep on the floor (with fairy wings on) beside my chair in the home of the couple we were trying to encourage. In fact, it gave us a little more quiet time to try to encourage. And really, I was the chief one being encouraged. 

It doesn’t really matter that I was sprawled over two chairs in an office when my eyes would not stay open any longer and I fell asleep for about five minutes for that power nap. What matters is that the precious power was available in that precarious moment. 

It doesn’t matter that I forgot to look for the visitor (potential member)  I was supposed to be expecting and greeting in our assembly last night.  What matters and what is wonderful is that I am in a church family that had already greeted and encouraged her multiple times before she came to me and said  “Are you Cindy Colley?” …and I remembered. 

It doesn’t matter that the buttons on one of the children’s dresses would not stay buttoned—at all— yesterday. It matters that my mama took the time, when I was a little girl, to teach me to improvise on the spot and then mend later.  She taught me to do most all the things that keepers at home do. That matters so much to me now (Titus 2:3-5).

It doesn’t matter that the ice cream store we’d been promising Eliza all day was out of business when we finally made it there. It was a longer trip to the next best thing, but that is what exhausted grandparents and late Sunday nights are for. 

It doesn’t matter that Eliza really wanted “The Three Little Kittens” for her Bible time story last night and that is not a Bible story at all. Did you know that the three little kittens were disobeying  when they lost their mittens and there are lots of Bible verses about obeying? Did you know that there was a remedy when the three little kittens soiled their mittens just like there is remedy (a washing) for soiled people? 

Some things are so relatively trivial. Sundays always teach me that.

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

When Kids Have Doubts about Faith–12 Suggestions

Posted on May 15, 2025
  1. Answer (begin researching and compiling information) important questions as immediately as possible. Involve your kids in the process. They love discovering the answers!
  1. Do not stop researching important questions about faith until the child’s mind has settled and faith’s doubts are answered. Choose the addressing of doubts over other time commitments that are about temporal things.
  1. Never answer with the lazy answer “Just have faith in the Bible,” without showing both internal and external (Biblical and extra-biblical) evidences for that faith.
  1. Never become frustrated or angry with sincere questions. 
  1. Put your kids in environments in which there are good and studied people who have developed great faith. 
  1. Fill your home library with resources from Apologetics Press. (www.apoloageticspress.org)
  1. To answer alleged contradictions in scripture, check Christian Courier for studied resolution. (Particularly, study together, while they are teens, the “Notes in the Margin of my Bible” books.– www.christiancourier.com)
  1. Have an interactive family Bible time every day in which the kids are able and feel comfortable asking any questions and bringing up any doubts or challenging scenarios. 
  1. Show your children support for your local elders and have your children develop relationships with these godly men (and other men and women who are scripture-dependent in daily decisions). 
  1. Take advantage of the current immorality in the climate of our country. When it is “in the face” of your children and family, use those situations to show your children the scriptural “protection” God gives His people from the consequences of sin. Talk through the culture’s bold rejection of morality, especially as it relates to your community, and let God’s word echo the warnings when you encounter this brazen rejection. 
  1. As your kids grow, frequently point to the passages and examples in Scripture about persecution and prepare them for boldness even when the culture is mocking Christianity.
  1. If your children are enrolled in the public school system, constantly be vigilant. Be aware of the power that the system has to mold their thinking and their philosophies about truth. Constantly investigate, discuss with them and respond with time and diligence.
Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

“Well, God can hear my words…”

Posted on March 10, 2025

Don’t forget to make your guess! Lily’s weight and birth time. Instructions here: https://thecolleyhouse.org/wp-admin/post.php?post=19056&action=edit

And speaking of the babes/ It’s always “out of the mouths of babes”…

We have three with us this weekend, while Hannah is speaking at a ladies day at the good Sandyville church near Parkersburg, WV. When three are here it’s a noise competition and a general knock-down/drag out—not of people, but things. Today, I’m actually taking them to explore a nearby cave. I think the damage today will be under the earth and who will know? I think if Eliza Jane says “I a-uh-dentally” one more time, I’ll…well, I’ll probably grab her up again and tickle her. (Actually, I can no longer pick her up, which makes me very sad! But she is off the charts—both weight and height.)

So, it was 3:53 am and I was about done. I’d already been up with Ezra, who had a bad dream, when Eliza came pitter-pattering to my bedside and cried “I had a bad dweam!” 

I must say here that I didn’t really believe her. I really thought that it was all those other times she’d said that and I had lifted her into my bed and snuggled her back to sleep that had driven her to imagine that her benign dreams were a little bit “bad”; bad enough to come and climb in. I lifted her up and put her between Papa and me. That cast on her right arm is “to be reckoned with” in a double bed with three people! (It is a “violet” cast and she is so proud of it.)

Eliza then whispered “I don’t think you can hear my wuhds.” 

I said, :I don’t need to hear your words. We are not talking. We are going to sleep.” 

Then she softly whispered “Well, God can hear my wuhds.” 

I woke up then, for maybe the first time. “Oh, yes, you go ahead and talk to God. I can hear, too.” 

The she whispered, “Dee-ah God, PWEASE, oh PWEASE, don’t let me have any mow-ah bad, ‘cary dreams. In Jesus’ name. Amen.”

Well, I was pricked. I had doubted the severity of her dreams. But, I did go right back to sleep (With my arm securing the otherwise unruly cast) in spite of my conscience-ache . 

In the morning, I asked her if she could remember her dream. 

“Oh yes. It was mama and me and somebody else. Mama spilled a bag of cookies and a whole bunch of dogs came and ate dem all up. When dey finished eating dem, dey attacked us.” 

I said “Did they bite you?” 

She said “Dey didn’t get us. We ran and ran and while we runned, I waked up.” 

Lord, Help me to be more trusting of the innocent ones, more sympathetic and comforting in their little trials and more assured that You hear our whispers. And help me to remember that sometimes the innocent ones who need me may be bigger people, too.

Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish (Matthew 18:14).

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

Six in the Mix…and Praising!

Posted on August 29, 2024

The most fun news of 2024! I’m a grandmother of six now. One more sweet Colley baby is being formed by our Creator and  Glenn and I are praising and praying for this little one daily. Our baby’s Father hears our pleas to heaven and for heaven, ultimately, for all six of our little grandchildren and for their parents. We are in awe at the profound blessing we have already have been given, but we anticipate cradling this sweet bundle in our arms next March. It will feel really good to have a baby’s tiny fingers around my thumb again. And it will be the norm for all of me to be wrapped around a tiny baby’s finger. (And, as I rock this baby next March, I will rock on back, in my mind,  a few decades, to a nursery in Pulaski, Tennessee, where I rocked his/her daddy in the middle of lots of nights, and it will feel amazingly sweet!..way sweeter than it felt in my twenties–the decade of sleepless nights!)

If you know me at all, you know I’m over the moon. There are some very special children in my life. Ezra, Colleyanna, Maggie, Eliza Jane, Ellis  and sweet baby Colley are at the heart of this group. But some of you who are reading are my “daughters” in a precious spiritual way and your children are mine, too. That’s a big blessing of being in the big family of God.

Layla, Henry, Sasha, Elizabeth and Mel are specifically  in my prayers tonight because of physical struggles. If I try to imagine prayers without the names and plights of babies, I’m hard pressed. I’m so thankful Jesus made it so clear about how much He cares for our little ones. 

And they were bringing children to him that he might touch them, and the disciples rebuked them. But when Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God.  Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them.  Mark 10:13-16

I pray I will, in all ways, always, do all I can, as time goes by, to put THE good news down deep in the heart of this little one who is OUR good news! I know his/her parents will do just that.  God is so, so good! Just when you think you’ve had a little more than you can patiently take of some grief or problem, God says “See! I am doing a new thing!”

I’m so thankful for the original and ultimate  “new thing” of Isaiah 43:19 that also began with a tiny baby in Judea, and is the answer to all my griefs and problems! I can’t wait for heaven where all the tears are wiped away, all the evil is overcome and “all the things” that burdened are in the distant past of  a world that’ll then be ashes…a melted planet (2 Peter 3:10).  In the meantime, though, there’s a lot happening on the pre-burned-up planet that’s key to getting the people I love to that new place around the throne!

I love you fiercely to eternity, already, sweet baby C-3!

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

Mama’s K.I.S.S. #73–Teaching Kids to Teach Bible Classes

Posted on July 19, 2024

As you know, if you’ve been reading, for quite some time, I’ve occasionally been running little installments called “Mama’s K.I.S.S.” I know that lots of readers could give many more and far more creative ideas than I can offer, but these installments are just a few tried and true and mostly old-fashioned ideas for putting service hearts in our kids.  This is number 73 of a list of one hundred ways we train our kids to serve. K.I.S.S. is an acronym for “Kids In Service Suggestions”.

I remember well at the age of 15, becoming the teacher for the five-year-olds at the Adamsville church of Christ. I loved getting to teach and felt honored that the elders thought I could “handle that.” Of course the prequel to that was being the daughter of two people who were both actively teaching in the program and being called on to prepare materials and to be a part of many a cookout in our big yard for those who had achieved the attendance and memory work for their fifth grade year. My mom taught that grade and, every quarter, she planned a day at our house  for the students who were diligent throughout the quarter. (I was amazed at her funeral, how many came to me to tell me they still remembered her classes as the best of their lives, …”and she rewarded us with hot dogs at your house! That was soooo fun!”)

Growing up in a “culture” of teaching was hugely influential to the classes I was able to teach through the years, and to our family Bible times as our own kids were growing up.  I taught those five-year-olds until I left for college and it was a natural thing to sign up for teaching the four-year-olds with Miss Lora Laycook at the Henderson church when I went to Freed Hardeman University. From her, I learned invaluable tips and I honed skills. It was truly a joy to go in the basement of that old building Sunday after Sunday and watch a master teacher. I still sing songs with my grandchildren that I learned in that little room. Miss Lora spent  hours on hours each week making little clothespin dolls and cutting little robes out for their robes, making boxes for the kids to peek in as she told the story and making up songs that told the stories, musically. She was truly incredible, by the standards of college girls who had the privilege of observing and helping. Every semester there were two or three that had the blessing in that little concrete room in the basement. There was a never any curriculum bought…only a creative 80-year-old gentle woman with a meek spirit.

So for today and for “practical” get your pre-teens involved in helping you prepare for your Bible classes. If you aren’t teaching, get busy. I hear a lot of “…we just can’t find teachers.” Shame on the women in the kingdom when this is the case. We should be doing better; not just for our congregations, but specifically for our own children. It’s hard for us to show our own children the value of souls if we are too complacent to put any time into the most teachable, reachable souls in our own circles. 

If you haven’t been teaching,, go to your leaders and ask them to put you on the list. If you need to be in the classroom with a pro first, ask for that privilege. But whatever you do, stop showing your own kids the relative unimportance of little souls. Show the reality: Each child in the Bible school classroom has a soul that’s more important than all the money in all the pockets of all the millionaires of all the world, and, as for me and my household, we are determined to try to put Jesus in each one of those souls. Then get your own kids cutting and pasting and being part of the primary evangelism. 

You can do this. NOT doing it may be one of the most damning concessions you make in the area of service and evangelism to the little people in your house.