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Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

Family Bible Time…It’s THAT Important! (Bookmark this one if you have little people in your life!)

Posted on January 28, 2026

I always love it when a young mom comes asking for Family Bible Time help. “What materials would you recommend?” …”I’ve never done this and my baby is now two. How do I begin?” … “Can you help me know what a five-year-old should know?”

If you’re a young mom trying to mold hearts for him, I think age-appropriate informal time in God’s Word every day is your greatest tool. Today, I want to throw just a few ideas your way. Let me know if I can further help, because there’s no greater calling, Mom, than yours –to put the souls in those little bodies you’ve borne (or adopted, or fostered) around HIs throne for eternity. YOU are key in that forever accomplishment. You really are more than “key.” You are primary.

Here goes:

  1. The fundamental purpose of the book “Picking Melons and Mates” is to give parents a 21-day guide for beginning Family Bible Time. You can’t mess this up. It’s step-by-step instructions and they are in the back of this colorful story book. https://thecolleyhouse.org/
  2. Kids Sing cards. Kids love the drill and reward system. This is not wasted rote memorization. I know middle-aged people who routinely use what they have learned from these cards in their evangelism. If kids repeat, they retain. You can watch a video about how to use these cards here: https://westhuntsville.org/kid-sing/
  3. That They May Have Hope” and “That They May Believe” series by Caleb and Rebekah Colley.

    One night, they got to jump on bubble wrap if they answered correctly. That was epic!

    These have study guides, timelines, flash cards, a memory game, etc…And I have watched pre-schoolers get very excited about Bible characters and accounts when mastering this material. https://thecolleyhouse.org/ 

  4. Hannah’s Hundred for Bible memorization through songs. This one’s classic by now: https://thecolleyhouse.org/ 
  5. In my blog, search for “Family Ties in the Social Distance,” Created during the 2020 Covid isolation time, each of these segments are catered to rich Family Bible Time. They have step-by-step instructions. https://thecolleyhouse.org/category/bless-your-heart
  6. Use one night a week for service. Also in the blog, search Mama’s K.I.S.S. You will find just under 100 ideas for kids to develop servant hearts. You don’t have to fit all of a project in your short FBT. You can introduce it there and incorporate into your week.https://thecolleyhouse.org/category/bless-your-heart
  7. But in all of the doing and learning and getting, don’t miss the ordinary games like Twenty Questions, Charades,  “Who am I?”, and scavenger hunts Kids love to play Bible guessing games and they are such  great family bonding tools!
  8. Then turn your board games into FBT tools, too. Kids get to move or spin or collect or toss when they answer correctly. All the classic games can be turned  into spiritual “play” that’s not really play at all. And you can adapt the questions/challenges to the age of each child.
  9. Those AP Discovery trading cards. I can’t really say enough good things about these for your elementary and middle-school kids. Each card can easily become a Bible Time. http://www.apologeticspress.org

    This night was the lame man in Acts 3–out on the trampoline.

  10. Don’t discount the value of good sound Bible story books. Face it. Every now and then, we need a little chill time, and it’s pretty nice to cuddle up and read what someone else has put together for us. https://sainpublications.com/product/bible-stories-from-a-rocking-chair/
  11. Finally, check out the treasure trove at Families of Faith. This young mama is busy, but she’s packing this little store with very valuable tools for people like herself! https://familiesoffaith.store/?srsltid=AfmBOorzzIX_RPrqE8zX6KEWdw8JQuJ4wsZ54wl9p4g3N1FEKVKryTXU 
Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

Making my day!…New (and, oh so useful) Tool Coming July 19th!

Posted on June 11, 2025

(I hope you can read to the bottom, because there’s money-saving news there…)

This! I’ve been waiting for this, but I had no idea until just a few days ago that it will be completely ready to drop onto our site on July 19th at 1 pm.  Simultaneously, with the Digging Deep reveal in Branson  and first availability of all the Digging Deep stuff, the brand new “That We May Believe” products will be available at Branson and on the Colley House website! All of this will also be physically available at both PTP sites.  (I hyperventilate thinking about that table in Sevierville on that Saturday.)

Now I am a huge fan of Caleb and Rebekah Colley’s That We May Have Hope set (and not just because their name is Colley!). I have seen those little cards (up close and personally) put eternal truth into five little souls that I’m very much counting on being around the throne with me. I’ve seen the timeline on more than one wall (last night, on my daughter’s kitchen wall, even) where kids were pretty adept at recounting character stories that are foundations of faith. I know of congregations that are stronger because of a year with some divinely inspired life stories.

But I’m even more impressed with this new That We May Believe series. For several years, Caleb Colley has introduced a 52-week congregational study on the first Sunday of January in the church where he preaches. On that first Sunday, every member of the local church is given a three-ring binder in which to keep each week’s new outline of the study. Every week of the year, a new study sheet is placed on the welcome desk or in some convenient location. At the end of the year, the congregation has a whole book about a particular topic or survey. And, they have heard a lesson, in class or from the pulpit, many of these weeks, about that topic.

So this book That We May Believe is the result of a whole year’s study and it is an excellent resource for your family. This book presents an overview of every one of the 66 books of the Bible. Sixty-six books about the redemption of man. That’s all we have , in the whole world, that’s written by God. This book-by-book travel guide through the Bible is a reference book I want to keep handy for the rest of my life. As I dig deep with women, I want to be able to quickly ascertain and remember the purpose and the general content of each of these books. I will be judged by the words of the Bible (John 4:28). I want to be intentional about learning every part of the Word of God. So I can’t wait to have this book on the shelf nearest to my digging place.

sample: back of flash card…

front of card…

For my grandchildren (and really, for me, too) I want the timeline and the flash cards. At home and in the Bible classes, we need visuals. My good friend, Kathy Plante, has beautifully illustrated the theme of every book of the Bible on flash cards for our children. These sturdy and beautiful cards are the 66 flash frames that will stick in your kids’ heads. On the back of each card, are listed the key themes and key verses of the books. We have one four-year-old grandson who, to be sure, at the end of a year with these cards will know the theme of every book of the Bible. I pray he will carry that through his life. It’s the most important memorization he will do in the coming year. And he will have fun in family games and competitions as he does it!

extracted portion of the timeline…

See the timeline size here on Hannah’s wall. The new one will be vertical.

Finally, the timeline is invaluable. These are sturdy–not too big, but just the right size for little eyes. Our kids hang theirs at eye level for the children. To be honest, I have often wished that our Bibles were all chronologically ordered. But they are not. I struggle sometimes, to get Job in his proper place in the Genesis time frame, to put prophets with the right kings, and to figure out which epistles were written first. I’m going to use this timeline, to be able to glance and tell where the study I’m doing fits into the complete narrative of the Word. It’s going to be a quick game-changer for me, let alone for the kids I love.

Here’s the good news for those who may not have purchased the first set, That We May Have Hope, but would still like to cover it in Bible time. While hard copies are still available, the authors have decided to make it available digitally. At the same time the new product drops to the site on July 19th at 1 pm, the HOPE set will be digitally available, along with the new BELIEF set. We are hoping digital pricing will make these affordable for both families and congregations. Here are the prices for both sets:

PRICING:

For individual or family use at home (Physical products shipped to you):

  • That We May Believe or That We May Have Hope (Book): $20
  • That We May Believe or That We May Have Hope  (Memorization Cards): $20
  • That We May Believe or That We May Have Hope (Timeline): $15
  • Bundle of all three shipped to you: $45

Either Belief or Hope set (all three products)– Digitally downloadable and printable bundle of all three products for single-family or individual use: $35

Digital book only–for congregational use–$200.00. (Printable for your congregational groups.)

All of this will be available at both Polishing the Pulpit conventions, along with all Digging Deep materials, beginning at 1 pm on July 19th in Branson! They will be on the website at that time, as well. Mark your calendar. Mine is cluttered, but I’ll be all up in this, if He wills!

 

 

 

 

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

Merry Christmas from The Colley House!

Posted on December 21, 2023

Merry Christmas from the Colleys! We wish you …

  1. Time in the Word. Our lives will all be better, richer, more holy, more hopeful if we can all spend lots of time studying the roadmap to eternal bliss. The bliss starts now in lots of ways for those who choose searching out and doing life His way. Anger, bitterness, regret and loneliness  start now, too, for those who know His will and choose, over and over, to reject it. Open the book in 2024!
  2. The heart of a child. There’s joy in little things for those who are open to changing for Him and who are still wanting to “grow up and be…” Choose to forgive. Choose to forget. Choose to dream. Choose to change in all the right ways. 
  3. Health and energy for your challenges. There are some things over which you have no control. Sometimes life blindsides us. We pray calm and peace for those who are connected to our family in Him this year. But when you have “those days” (and maybe weeks or months), we pray that God will give you an extra measure of strength and patience to bear the load. He is good like that!
  4. Obedience to His gospel. No matter the reason you’ve never been washed in immersion and added to his one church, put that reason away. Make the trip to see me and let’s talk. Let’s make now the time. Some readers have been wanting to make this most important change for a long time. You cannot even know the feeling you will have of freedom and hope and family if you choose this washing and future faithfulness. I can help you find a group of His people who are following His specified New Testament plan in your corner of the world. I can help you from afar to be faithful and to be in heaven one day. It’s really all that matters! Take the plunge–in a literal way–now!
  5. A Matthew 25 mission. “Inasmuch as you have done it to the least of these my brethren, you have done it to me.” For us, this has been a year of missing a vacation or four, missing outings to the catfish restaurant with friends, postponed husband/wife dates and missing movie nights. When it’s Christmastime at the Colleys and “It’s a Wonderful Life” has not yet happened on our screen, something may be awry. But, for every missed appointment, there’s been someone who is least, who needed us. Do you know what a blessing that is?! Jesus has been right here with us and we have had the most amazing privilege of doing something for Him! Choose to “wash the feet” of the one who girded the towel in that upper room! You will not find joy like that in any other way. And when you just can’t go on serving, drink a cup of caffeinated something and go a little bit more!

If you can unwrap and treasure these five things, clean up that Christmas mess, hug your loved ones tightly and move on with hope to 2024, it will have been a great Christmas. Play with your new edition of that board game, make a cake with your new red mixer, marry that Christian man-of-your-dreams who gave you that new ring for Christmas, do whatever it is you do with that antique wooden mechanism that you can’t even identify, or step out in those new leather riding boots. Play with the little (and big) things you unwrapped. But pray with the big, eternal gifts you are unwrapping and internalizing as this challenging year comes to its close. We pray His peace for you. But remember, peace doesn’t always come in a quiet place with candles and soft music. Jesus said “My peace I leave with you” (along with a promise of persecution and suffering) to 12 men who were being given the biggest commission ever known to mankind (John 14).

Merry Christmas from the Colleys!

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

The Colley House International Writing Contest for Kids!

Posted on September 20, 2018

You might know that the Colleys are pretty fired up about writing: blogs, books, articles, sermons, and Bible studies. In the interest of raising the next generation of writers, The Colley House is sponsoring an international writing contest for kids ages ten to thirteen.  So, if you or your kids are in that age range, get your creative neurons firing and follow these rules. Winner will receive the Colley House International Writer’s trophy and a $30.00 gift card to Chik-Fila. If the winner is outside of the continental United States, the award will be simply a commensurate cash award. 

  1. The article or story should contain between 500 and 1000 words and should begin with one of the following (your choice):

**It was the pinnacle of the trip for me…

**We were about five minutes early for worship when we walked into the building to see…

**I always knew I was born into the wrong century…

**I didn’t think it would happen in a million years…

2. Send your submission by midnight on October 15th to byhcontest@gmail.com.

3.  Be sure to include your name, telephone number, USPS address, and age with your submission.

4. Winner will be chosen based on creativity, grammatical correctness, and adherence to the stated rules.

5. Winner will be chosen by an objective and unbiased outside expert.

6. Winner will be announced on this blog within a week of the submissions deadline.

7. Entry in the contest implies contestant’s permission to publish any submitted material, but does not guarantee the publishing of any material by The Colley House. 

8. Prizes will be awarded via USPS. 

9. Judge’s decisions are final.

10. Parents/Teachers may offer advice and serve as writing coaches in this process, including proofing and grammar help, but the works must be original to the student. 

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

Mama’s K.I.S.S. #48: “Pure On Purpose”–Reader’s Special Today

Posted on November 6, 2017

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 48 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”.

 

“The wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle and reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering without hypocrisy.”  (James 3:17).

This verse, that my children sang throughout their childhood, draws a clear line from purity of heart and life to a heart that shows mercy to others; mercy resulting in good works. In fact, it places purity as the first step in cultivating God’s wisdom in our lives. This purity of heart ends in the bearing of good fruits with sincerity. That development of heart was something for which  I prayed often as my children were growing.

When Hannah was in college, She and I made several trips over to Chattanooga to a television studio to produce a study DVD series about purity of heart and life for teen girls. It was a fun mother/daughter project for us. We tried to include activities and discussions about the mind of purity and also the practicality of purity in our relationships, ending with maintaining sexual purity. The workbook is jam-packed with age-appropriate projects. This study has been used in lots of classes, but I wanted to include it in this Mama’s K.I.S.S. series, as well, since I’ve been thinking about this verse that connects purity and service.

Glenn says I can offer this set (a DVD and workbook) –a set which retails for $35.00– to blog readers today for $20.00 plus $5.00 shipping. Here’s how: Just email the phrase “POP Special” within the next week to  colley@westhuntsville.org . Your package will be on it’s way . Then please just send a check for $25.00 to:

Glenn Colley

234 Powell Street

Gurley, AL. 35748

or you can deposit it in PayPal at the above email address.

Hope this is helpful to some Mama who’s praying for this heart!

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

Sister to Sister: William Rotty was NOT his Real Name…

Posted on February 9, 2017

But it was close….

I remember in the fourth grade when Valentine’s day held an embarrassing kind of surprise for me as we all went to the blackboard tray to retrieve our little brown decorated bags full of tiny brightly colored paper cliche’ poems…the egg ones with the word “egg-cited” in them,”…the turtle ones that were all about “SLOWLY falling for you”…the elephant ones that were about “never forgetting my favorite valentine,”…and the ever- popular “nuts about you” ones. This year there was candy and a big regular store-shelf kind of card in my bag… from William Rotty.  Now William Rotty was older than everyone else because he’d failed a grade or two and I think he failed because he was too busy being obnoxious and thinking of devious ways to be disrespectful. It was the worst day of the fourth grade to have that big candy heart sticking up out of the top of my bag and have the whole class (including me) excitedly waiting for the revelation of its origin…only to find out that it was from William Rotty.

Some love letters are like that…the tender little expressions of relationships that are never meant to be. And we all got over the awkwardness of the moments that came in decorated class Valentine bags in the sixties. I got over the good and the bad of William Rotty, Jeff McCaleb, Mark Wolfe, Steve Cicero, Jimmy Hood, and Robert Bowman–all little boys from whom I, at one time or another, in elementary school received “special” Valentines.

And then we grew up. And so did our love letters. And so did the pain and the angst. And sometimes the awkwardness got really big and the ending of relationships was so much more traumatic than if they’d only involved a big red candy box sticking out of a brown bag taped to a black board tray.

And you know…whether you court or date, whether you live in a Christian home or not, I think there will be relationships that will change you, mature you, help to make you the woman, the mother and wife, after you finally make it to the altar of marriage, that you will be.

One day you will be telling your little girls about Valentines, about dress-up dates, about awkward moments and situations that made you laugh and cry through the dating years. That’s why I’m about dating purity. That’s why I wanted to help my daughter, in tangible ways, make it down the aisle as a woman who could give her husband the wonderful gift of exclusivity. I know what marriage can be like if there are no sexual comparisons (comparing my partner to someone else with whom I’ve been intimate or vice-versa) on the part of either partner–ever. I wanted that for her and I want it for you. It solves a lot of potential problems, not the least of which is guilt over sexual sin…a ghost that, because of His forgiveness, is sometimes not even real; but it still haunts in ways that are painful and sometimes destructive.

I may not know all the reasons for God’s very strong fences around the sexual relationship of marriage, but I do know that He is very serious about abstinence before marriage and fidelity in marriage. And I know that it’s because He wants what’s ultimately going to fill our lives with contentment and give us eternity with Him. He gives us His very best when we purposefully do life His way.

I recognize that abstinence and purity through the teen years is a purposeful choice. It doesn’t just happen. It takes the development of a relationship with God that makes a young heart pliable and submissive. It takes the rare ability, in a world of instant gratification, to wait for the time and circumstance when I can have the best He has to offer (and His best is THE best!). It takes an amazing amount of “turning down” the influences around you and “turning up” the influence of the Word. It even takes a lot of wisdom to decipher through a lot of psycho-theo-babble today from some youth ministers and religious leaders who would try and convince you to “not worry so much about keeping lists of dos and don’ts and worry just about loving God.” (Of course, loving God is about keeping his list of commandments[John 14:15; John 15:10]. The works of the flesh are listed…LISTED…in Galatians 5.) It takes, in short, your steel will to do His real will in a world that’s forsaken Him and His system of morality. Today, for the most part, you cannot look to your peers, your teachers at school, those who are touted as “good” in the media or the leader of the free world on Pennsylvania Avenue as any sort of moral compass. Some of you cannot look to parents and some cannot even look to religious leaders.

But you can look to God. Your relationship with Him is not contingent on your family situation, your educational circumstance, or the spiritual veracity of your elders or youth group. Your relationship with Him is settled in your willingness to get into His Word and apply it, to the best of your ability, in every relationship and decision. There is great power, beyond what you have asked or imagined, when you let the power of His Word live in you(Eph. 3:20)!

May I encourage you to help yourself to happiness? There are some teen materials at www.thecolleyhouse.org that might help you as you try to be light in a dark world through the teen years. Let me know if you need them, will use them, and can’t afford them.

That’s all for now. Except here’s my short list of practical tools for your walk in purity through the teen years. Some of these sound terribly old-fashioned for those influenced by 2017 culture. But I believe this list in strongly influenced by examples and statutes from the Word.

  1. Decide now that you will not be truly alone for long periods of time with any other young person of the opposite sex. This will, unfortunately, automatically mark lots of guys off your radar.
  2. Decide now that you will choose movies and television and music and internet sites that you’d be comfortable enjoying if Jesus were physically in your presence. This will significantly narrow your scope of entertainment, so keep in mind that entertainment is not all the world makes it out to be.
  3. Decide now that you will abstain from alcohol and drugs and from being present when others are drinking or doing drugs. This will be prohibitive of many parties.
  4. Decide now that you will never dress in a way that might be provocative or cause others to think sexual thoughts. Remember, especially for guys, the struggle is real. If this involves a wardrobe re-do, get on that. This decision will also automatically mark some extra-curricular activities off your list.
  5. Decide now which areas of your body are off-limits to the hands of others and never, ever compromise that promise to yourself and God. This will prohibit some activities that are a part of the 2017 teen world.
  6. Decide now that you will get in the word and spend some time in prayer every day. Every day. Ask for His help to be pure in your heart, dress, words and actions. This will open up some unbelievable doors of opportunity for you.
  7. Memorize Philippians 4:8 and decide now to let it saturate every decision and purpose. This will bring contentment and peace as the context of the verse clearly states.
  8. Decide now what you are looking for in a marriage partner. Make a list off “must-haves”, a list of “would-likes” and a list of “can’t-handles” based a lot in the Word and a little in your own tastes and then just stick with the list. Be patient.
  9. Decide now that, once you marry, you’re all in…forever. This should prompt some very careful thought and meticulous elimination of people who can’t be spiritual leaders. Believe me, you WANT a spiritual leader.
  10. Pay particular attention to the word “now” in all of the above. It’s the most important word. (If  past decisions have already messed up your “now”  you can still fix your eternal future. You will, almost always, face negative consequences to sinful past actions. But “now” is still the operative word.) Start now to be what He wants you to be and you will be surprised how He can work through His will in your life to give you victory and heaven!