file: /pub/resources/text/Our.Daily.Bread: db940303.txt
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          OUR DAILY BREAD                          Thursday, March 3, 1994
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          Read:  Deuteronomy 11:13-21

                                   LITTLE SPONGES

                      You shall teach them to your children ...
                      when you lie down, and when you rise up.
                                  Deuteronomy 11:19

          Most household sponges that we use today are synthetic, but  many
          people are surprised to learn that real sponges were at one  time
          living  sea animals.  When a live sponge is removed from the  sea
          and  its  living  matter is cleaned out, it  becomes  useful  for
          household  purposes.  The skeleton that remains, with  its  open-
          celled structure, can soak up and absorb liquid.

          Children are like sponges. They soak up attitudes and ideas  with
          which they come in contact.  We must be very careful,  therefore,
          about what is allowed to fill their minds.

          What  are  your children absorbing in your home?  What  are  they
          getting  from television and from magazines?  As they  listen  to
          your  conversations, what kind of words and attitudes  are  being
          taken  in?  Are you setting a good example of love for  the  Lord
          and  concern for others?  Is there a warm spiritual  emphasis  in
          your home?  Are you doing what you can to fill their hearts  with
          God's Word?

          When  children become adults, they will give out what  they  have
          taken in during their formative and impressionable  years.  Let's
          make sure that those little sponges in our homes soak up what  is
          pure, wholesome, and uplifting.

          Author:  Herbert Vander Lugt

                         Our children need a home where love
                                 Provides security,
                         Where what we teach is not confused
                             By what they hear and see.
                                       --Sper

          THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:
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          The values children absorb now are sure to flow out later.

          THE BIBLE IN ONE YEAR:  Deuteronomy 10-12




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