Dad, when I meet you in Heaven, you must tell me about it!

Dad, I want to know so bad how you encounter with Jesus was! What did He say to you, how did He receive you, what did He do? Did you recognize Him at first glance, or did you know it was Him because He ran to you, or perhaps you recognized Him because you felt an overwhelming love, the one we told to you so much, and perhaps you thought: "He, for sure, got to be Jesus!" When I meet you in Heaven, you must tell me about it!

I want to know, dad, how Jesus wiped away your tears. Did He do it with His hands, did he have a handkerchief, or maybe He dried them off with His clothes while He hugged you? What were you thinking at that moment? "Oh, I'm getting Jesus' clothes dirty with my tears and mucus. What a shame!" Or perhaps that kind of shame He also took away on the cross! Perhaps there is not even snots in Heaven! Maybe there are snots in Heaven, but Jesus didn't care about it because for Him, even though you were almost 94 years old, you are still His baby! When I meet you in Heaven, you must tell me about it!

I want know why you were crying! I don't ask if you cried or not when you met Jesus because I'm sure of that. Was His overwhelming presence full of love which here on earth makes us cry, and you have felt it there for the first time? Was it because you felt how every drop of condemnation left your being? Maybe you don't know why and you didn't even mind asking because you just wanted to enjoy that moment. I've never seen you cried (my mom has), and much less crying as a child. What a moving scene! Imagining it makes me cry! I hope somebody recorded it! =) When I meet you in Heaven, you must tell me about it!

How does feel to feel NOTHING bad? How does it feel to feel no more condemnation or guilt of any kind? What does it feel like to have no regrets about anything whatsoever? How does it feel to have NO sadness, NO anger, NO anguish, No worry? How does it feel to not have any physical pain at all? What did you feel when all of that left your being? Was it gradual or instantaneous? And, were you being filled at the same time with that fullness of joy that exists in His presence, which here on earth we can enjoy in part, but there in Heaven we can only imagine what it will be like! When I meet you in Heaven, you must tell me about it!

Dad, do you miss? Do you miss me? Do you miss mom, my siblings, friends, loved ones? Do you miss the house? Do you miss work? Do you miss the park? Is there such a feeling over there in Heaven, or even the feeling of missing someone cannot dwell next His presence? When I meet you in Heaven, you must tell me about it!

How does it feel to be reunited with with your loved ones that here on earth you said good bye to? What did you feel when you saw my meemaw Delia, your dad, the uncles, aunts, relatives and friends who got there before you? The Bible says that we'll have new bodies, so I wonder, did you recognize them, did they recognize you, did Jesus help you with that, or were there angels commissioned for that job? When I meet you in Heaven, you must tell me about it!

When I meet you in Heaven, will you recognize me? Will you be waiting for me at the side of Jesus?

I love you dad.

Talking to your Kids about Sex

I knew about where the babies came from when I was eleven by a "friend" from school who assumed that I already knew. I've never received an advice about this by my parents, not because they were bad, but because, I guess, the lack of awareness of the responsibility of teaching about sex to their children, and I also guess that was a consequence of their parents hadn't done it to them either.

I struggled many years with pornography and I think that this lack of guidance was one of the main reasons for that. This lack of guidance and its consequences were restored by my heavenly Father through His family, the church, my Camino de Vida, because there I found freedom, restoration, grace and the guidance I needed.

Now, as a father, I don't want my boys to go through the same, but I want to be that guide which I know they'll need, I want to build up trust so they may come to me when they have doubts or go through some problem about sex, I want them to have the confidence that they can tell me anything because they'll know that they won't stop being accepted, that there will be no anger, recrimination, guilt nor shame, but instead they'll find love, understanding, acceptance, guidance and, if there is any problem, we will find a solution together.

When to talk to them about sex
Then the question came: "When do I talk to them about sex?" The answer was revealed by heavenly Father Himself because it was in prayer that I sensed Him telling me that it is already the time to do it. That was in October 2016. I talked to my wife and we agreed that I'd do it after a trip we had planned for Christmas and New Year, and that I'd do it only with Juan Esteban who was 8 at that time. The same plan is now for Juan Pablo who just turned 8, I'll be talking to him after we come back from a trip for Christmas.

How to talk to them about sex
After my wife and me agreed, I told Juan Esteban that in January, when we're back from vacations, I'd have a very important conversation with him, only him and me, that we'd go out together, to the movies, to eat, and that there I'll tell him. I told him that maybe it'll be one of the most important things that I have to tell him. Juan Esteban was very expectant.

I prayed a lot for Jesus to guide my words so that the message is correctly received.

When the day came, we were eating an ice cream. I felt that the focus of the conversation had to be love and marriage, that that is the right place for sex to be healthy developed and in its fullness.

I explained it to him with my testimony about how his mom and I met, that we were friends for more that ten years before we married, that we loved Jesus and the church, that both of us met as friends in the youth meetings, that we served in the church, that our focus wasn't the other person, but Jesus, that when I came back to Peru from abroad I decided to fall in love with her and conquer her, and she accepted me (after much work, I must say 😀), that both of us wanted to do the same things for Jesus, that we had the same dreams, that we promised to loved each other for all our lives, that he and his brother are fruit of that love, that we prayed for him and for his brother even before they were born; in other words, I drew a picture so detailed in order to illustrate the right place where sex has to be developed: love and marriage.

I think that if we talked for 30 minutes, 25 minutes were about love and 5 about the sexual act. I wanted that the message of where sex belongs to be very clear.

Why to talk to them about sex at that early age
Your children are going to know about sex either by you or by someone else, and if it is by someone else, it's almost for sure that they'll know earlier that you think and they won't receive the right message.

As I said, I knew about sex when I was 11 and, according to my friend, I knew it late. Keep in mind that the access to pornography isn't that easy as it was 30 years ago. The devil is after our children, that's why I think that the best way to keep them away from his false and distorted message about sex is that when this  message comes to my boy's mind run into a fully-built, well-founded, almost-impossible-to-destroy fortress, which will be the truth of our heavenly Father about sex.

Proverbs 22:6 says that if we train up a child in God's way, the child will still be in that way even when he/she is old. But the same happens is we train up the child in any other religion or belief, even it happens the same with the habits we instill them when they're little ones, what they learn since that early age, normally stay with them for the rest of their lives. It happens the same with teaching them God's truth about sex.

That's why that when I talked to Juan Esteban about sex I talked to him so much about the frame of love and marriage which sex has to develop in, so that when a different idea comes along, it won't be accepted.

Otherwise, if I don't talk to my kids about sex, as I said, others will do it, and when I finally decide to do it, it might be too late, because the truth of God that I want to teach will be the one that run into a fully-built, well-founded, almost-impossible-to-destroy fortress, but this fortress is gonna be made out of just lies. My kids will possibly think that I am old-fashioned and fanatic, because those lies will have taken possession of their minds, all because I didn't talk to them at the appropriate time.

Take the responsibility of talking to your kids about sex
Don't think that the church or the school has the responsibility of talking to your kids about sex. If you don't take that responsibility, the devil will do it for you. Remember, he is after your kids, his focus is to get them since they're young, and he is already lie in wait. There are already schools wherein play "sexual education" videos to 8 years old kids wherein they're taught how to have sexual intercourse, because the devil wants to get their minds from very young. The devil wants also to teach his evil ways from that early age so that when they are old, they'll still be in those ways! I won't let that happen to my boys! Will you?

Don't run from that responsibility. Pray for wisdom so that your heavenly Father shows you the best way to talk to them. It doesn't have to be like I did because we all are different. Your Father will give you the exactly and most appropriate way for them. Remember, He loves them more than you do and is more interested than you in that the right message about sex come to their hearts.

Pray for your kids. Talk to them. Be the guide they will certainly need.

Hope this helped you!

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For more teachings and advices for parents, visit the following links:

• One Way to Curse your Children: Without knowing, many times I've been cursing my kids with my words. Don't fall in the same mistake!
• Do not Turn Off your Kids Imagination: When my kids play, they leave a mess, and I learnt that it is more important for me to be interested in what there was in their minds than to make them to clean everything up.
• The Power that Jesus gave to my Son: A testimony about how my Juan Esteban was set free from nightmares.
• The Honor to be a Father or Mother: Learn that more than the titles and achievements you can get, to be a father or mother is a great privilege and responsibility.

How to Juice

When you juice, you can combine cucumber, carrot and spinach. It not only has a good flavor, but also it's a good combination of vitamins. If you want, you can add to it celery, ginger and/or beetroot. In fact, you can add whatever you want. I recommend you to not combine veggies with fruit, because I heard that's not good for you. But above all, do it with much love, specially if it is for your wife!

I DON'T LIKE JUICING, but I felt that my heavenly Father was telling me that doing so is my ministry. And not any ministry, but your main ministry. I felt that He was telling me that I have to learn to do it with the same willingness, joy, excellence and anointing as when I taught behind a pulpit, because she, my amorcito, my Ceci, is my main ministry.

I understood that it'd be useless for me that I can give good teachings to many if I don't know how to serve her. I understood that when serving, it doesn't mean that you're gonna do ALWAYS what you like, and this doesn't mean that it doesn't have to be done with all willingness and excellence, always improving in what's being done.

Maybe the most important thing that my dear Father revealed me is that my marriage is not the preparation for my real ministry, but it is my real ministry! Whatever comes next will rest and develop on the foundation of our marriage. In the same way that the tree branches are sustained and nourished by the trunk, all the public ministry areas that my heavenly Father will add to us will be sustained and nourished by my marriage with my beauty (that's how me and my boys refer to her at home).

This changed everything in me. And it still does.

This revelation is the main anchor to which I constantly hold on, it's the main energy source when I have to do something for her that I don't want and it is my main "north", my compass that helps me to find the way and guides me everyday in my marriage.

When I received this, I remember that I felt the same presence of my loving Father that I felt teaching behind a pulpit, but this time it was making a papaya juice. While tears were coming down, I took it like a confirmation of the real, powerful and fundamental that this would be to me.

I hope this testimony may have helped you.

May our Father keep blessing you!

A TOP Marriage

Is your marriage to the fullest? Do you enjoy it? I want to share with you three ingredients to enjoy a TOP Marriage.

T - Time Together
Nowadays it's so easy to keep oneself busy. It's weird to have a free morning. Even vacations are busy, that's why we come back from them tired! We take, without realizing, this lifestyle to our marriage with grave consequences.
Remember that, after God's, your time with your spouse is the most important thing. You have to understand (because we haven't been taught so) to set time apart to spend it with him/her. THAT'S PRIORITY. THAT'S URGENT. Everything else, including your children, job and the rest of your family, cannot occupy the time that's meant ONLY for your spouse.
Get a time aside weekly: a Monday night, a Sunday morning, a Friday afternoon, etc., in which he/she will know that you both will be together. That not only will strengthen the communication between you and your spouse, but also it'll make him/her feel more important.
There will be moments where there may be exception to the rule for something that comes up, but if those exceptions become often, do not deceive yourself, and recognize that you're not giving him/her the time he/she deserves. Who decides if the exception already became often? Your spouse!

O - On Prayer
A while ago I heard a statistic of divorce in the United States that said: 3 out of 5 marriages end up divorcing, but if the couple starts to attend a church, the divorce probability goes down to 2 out of 5. But if the couple not only attend the church, but it gets involved, and also take courses for marriages and seek some counsel, the divorce rate reduces to 1 out of 5. BUT if the husband and the wife pray together regularly, 1 out of 1250 couples get divorce!
And not only praying together will keep you from divorce, but also, among its many blessings, it is the key to a much deeper intimacy with your spouse and the place where our loving heavenly Father pour out of His wisdom and direction for the problems you may face, and vision for you two, as a couple, may take what He has for you.

P - Purpose to Forgive
If you want to enjoy your marriage to the fullest, you won't be able to do it if you don't learn to use the weapon of forgiveness. And I told you that you won't be able, not because I'm pessimist, but because there is a reality: as much you as your spouse are imperfect; therefore, sooner or later, and more often than you think, you two will be offending each other. That's why you have to purpose to forgive.
Forgiveness is a weapon of personal defense. It's for you. It'll take care of your heart. It'll protect it. Purpose to forgive constantly! The more you forgive, more protected you will be. If you only forgive when a big offense comes up, it'll be difficult for you to do it, you'll make excuses, you won't know to forgive. That's why you have to forgive even the small and everyday offenses.
A successful marriage is not composed of people that never hurt each other, but of two persons that learnt to forgive each other.

If you practice these three ingredients and make them yours to get a TOP Marriage, people will say eventually about your marriage: "How lucky they were to have a marriage like this!", and then you will be able to answer: "It wasn't luck, it cost me a lot of work, but my Jesus never left me."

Hope this helped you! 😉

Choosing the Right Girl

One of the women's main complaints is men's indecision. There are those that are waiting for a sign from heaven to finally choose a girl, those that are dating somebody only to see if she is the right one and those with years being a couple, but still don't decide to get married.

Dr Edwin Loius Cole used to teach: "Decision is the mark of a man."

I think that the problem resides on man's insecurity to make a wrong decision. "But, what if I choose wrong, if she isn't the right one?", they say. I think that that insecurity is based on the error of thinking that the whole relationship will be "a bed of roses", and that's why married men assume that the reason of their marital problems that they'll go through is because they chose wrong, which takes them to the logical solution of getting separated, instead of to solve the problems together.

Remember that a great marriage is not found, but built.

Principles
God doesn't have to choose for your. You have to do it, and He'll bless your decision. Obviously, there are principles in His Word by which you have to make a decision, but the decision will always be yours.

The principle that I like the most is: do not be unequally yoked together (2 Corinthias 6:14), because it doesn't refer only to not yoke together with somebody that doesn't believe in God (because of the conflicts that'll come for it), but not to yoke together neither with somebody that doesn't share the same vision and call, because you'll get frustrated for not getting the support you'll need.

Other principles are: Learn to work first (Genesis 1:18-22, before God brought Eve to Adam, He first made him work), seek for your leaders consent (Hebrews 13:17).

When you make a decision according to the principles that our Heavenly Father gives, that decision is already according to His will. You don't need to ask Him if He agrees or not because you're already doing it according to His will.

For example, when God told Joshua to take the promised land, He gave him limits in which Joshua had to conquer (Joshua 1:4). Joshua didn't have to be asking God if it was His will or not to attack any city, because His will was already given.

The same happened to Paul. He knew that God called him to preach to the non-Jewish people, so that's why we don't find record of Paul praying to know if it was God's will to preach in Corinths, Ephesus or Thessaloniki, because he knew he was doing His will.

Recommendation
We recommend in church to have long friendship time, a short period of engagement and marriage for all your life. When we say long friendship time, we mean that the guy has to choose a girl among his friends, where they both had already the chance to know each other and to be authentic. The problem is that many guys think that long friendship time means to wait for a new girl sent by God and first to seek intentionally to be her friend in order to get to know each other. That's when he starts dating someone he didn't even know. If you do that, it's almost for sure that you won't be authentic in that process of being friends, but you'll feigning to impress and, sooner or later, the mask will fall.

If you are single, choose somebody among your friends, that loves God like you, that is serving like you, that wants the same as you. Go and ask your leaders or pastors what they think, and then, go ahead and win her heart, and decide to love that woman. Start that relationship with confidence and boldness knowing that your heavenly Father is blessing that relationship because you are doing it according to His principles.

Hope it helps!

"Are you crying just for that?!" - An advice for parents

How many of us, parents, have ever told our kids: "You cry just for that!"? Big mistake! Do you know what we're actually telling them? We're telling them: "The reason you're crying for is nonsense", and worse: "what is important to you isn't to me".

If you've been telling that to your kids, this is what you have to do:
- Tell them you are sorry for doing that. Tell them: "Son/daughter, forgive me because so many times I looked down on what is important to you".
- Promise them that you'll try to change. Tell them: "I promise you to consider as much important the things you tell me as they are to you".
- Ask for help to your heavenly Father to change that as soon as possible.

As parents of little children, we are in danger that if we don't change, they will grow with the idea that their problems aren't important, that they shouldn't bother us with their nonsense, that they aren't as much important as us, and consequently, they'll unconsciously seek to feel important in other places and ways, and many times it'll be with people that will demand from them something in return.

How does our good and loving heavenly Father treat us? Have you ever read in His Word something that says or suggest that what is important to us isn't important for Him? Have you ever felt looked down by Him? Have you ever felt when you cried out to Him for help that He says to you: "Are you crying just for that! Seriously?"?

On the contrary, He cries when we cry, He gets happy when we get happy, He is familiar with our pain, and in His Word says that He has even numbered the hair of our head (Matthew 10:30), and if He pays attention to that, something that isn't important, how much more attention will He pay to something that it is actually important to us, to what makes us cry, to what keep us awake at night! So, when we go to Him burdened by something, He will NEVER tell us: ""Are you crying for that! Seriously?", but He'll hug us, comfort us and guide us by the hand to the answer that He'd already prepared.

If there is somebody authorized to despised any of our issues, that'd be God, because for Him there is nothing impossible. But our Father, far from doing that, understands us perfectly.

So then, if you've been despising your children's problems, run to your heavenly Father, because He won't condemn you for doing that, but hug you, comfort you and guide you by the hand to the solution that He'd already prepared.

Hope it helps!

Christmas: The answer in form of a seed

What would you like to receive as an answer of your prayer if you're going through a serious illness? Well, I want a miracle!, that in a blink of an eye I may be healed! I think that's what you'd like to receive if you're as the rest of us, isn't it? But, what is what we normally receive? A process, a seed that we have to cultivate, something little that we have to take care of little by little.

The same happen if, for instance, you're going through a crisis in your marriage. All would want that, all of a sudden, everything may be solved, and already a the dream marriage. But, what is what we normally receive as an answer of our prayer? A process, a seed that has to be cultivated, something little that has to be taken care so it may grow little by little.

Being free from an addiction, from debts, having your family problems solve, etc., are normally prayers that our Heavenly Father answers but little by little, using the little we have in our hands, taking us through a process holding our hands, being faithful in little and receiving more every time, from glory to glory and from victory to victory.

What did our Father to save all humanity? Did He send Superman, Goku, Iroman, or an angel? No, He didn't. Our Father sent a baby. He was the Savior of the world but in form of a child. He was a seed that had to grow and go through a process. Our Savior was faithful in little and received more, and then He kept being faithful even to death and inherited eternal glory.

Maybe you are going through a difficult time in some area of your life and are praying for an answer. You know something, it's for sure that your Heavenly Father has already started to answer you, but because of that answer has "form of a baby", probably you didn't realize it, and maybe you're getting despaired and thinking that He hasn't heard you, but it wasn't so.

Open your eyes and see! Surely your answer is already around you! Quit waiting for that "miracle" and, rather, look for the seed of that miracle. Learn to find the extraordinary among the ordinary.

Do you believe that our Heavenly Father JUST STARTS doing something about your problem in the moment when you asks Him for help? In other words, if you don't ask for help, He didn't start doing something about it. Well, if you believed so, you are wrong! He already did something even since before the foundation of the earth, the way is already paved, NOTHING surprised Him! So, ask Him for help so you can see what He is doing, and wisdom and strength so you can go through this process toward your victory.

I hope this helped you =)

If you love your spouse, do not demand

If we read: "Love doesn't demand. Love gives. If someone demands you to prove your love, that person doesn't love you", immediately we think of that guy that manipulates his girlfriend to have sex if she really loves him. (Mental note: shame to him!)

Here I give you some other ways to manipulate which go unnoticed because they're not the most common case, but they are also ways to manipulate your spouse:
- If you love me, have dinner ready for me when I get home.
- If you love me, keep the house clean.
- If you love me, let's go out together at least once a week.
- If you love me, buy me what I want.
- If you love me, be more romantic.
- If you love me, dress as I want.
- If you love me, let's go to church.
- If you love me, read more your Bible.
- If you love me, etc.
Why don't you share other way to demand love that you've seen!

SOMETIMES WE UNCONSCIOUSLY DEMAND TO PROVE THEIR LOVE, and we do that not with our words but with our attitudes: we get moody, offended, we practice the ice law, we become rough, rude, etc. All of this happen if they fail to prove their love we expect.

As you may realized, the things that are demanded aren't bad, but this very fact is what make us think that we're right on demanding them. But this is a mistake. The fact that those things are right, don't make that demanding them to be right.

You can demand obedience to your children up to certain age. But once they grow and want to know the reason before to obey, you'd better know that reason!

Read 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 in all the versions you want, and I promise that you won't find this: "Love demands". On the contrary, verse 5 says: "Love doesn't seek its own".

So, what can we do to make them change? Well, what would you say to that guy that demands his girlfriend to have sex to prove her love? (Besides that to stay away from her!) "If you really love that woman, learn to wait". In other words, deny yourself for other person.

Renouncing to that desire for love for your spouse giving it to your Heavenly Father is the best way for you to get free of that constant inner dissatisfaction in which you live for not seeing your desire coming true. When you understand that your happiness has to be based on the fact that God is with you and not on that your desires come true, you'll start living in freedom

That desire of demanding your spouse, if you give it to your Heavenly Father, He can calm it down, appease it, and even take it away from you. And not only that, but He can help you to really love because He is love!

Of course that you can apply this principle with your friends, relatives, etc.

Why don't you share this to someone, but not so that that person may change, but to tell him/her: "Look, this made me reflect. I will ask for help to my Heavenly Father so that I may change" 😉

I hope this helped you! =)

Social Networks: "Excuse me, did you say something?"

We are already in the social networks era. Many are thankful for this, some are complaining and there are others that just don't know when to stop using them. Which is your group?

I'm not agree to those that complain about them saying: "There are people that even post their food! I mean, don't they have more important things to post?" I think that these people don't get the idea of what a social network really is. For example, if you are hanging out with your friends, is it really necessary to talk only about very important things? Can't you talk about the daily things of life? Well, a social network is like that gathering, but online. So, if you see somebody that posts something that you don't like, you're free to talk or not about that, but please, don't get angry!, and much less, don't share your anger to the group of people that do like that post!

I'm not agree either with those that ignore people that are physically present because are all the time on their phone checking their social networks. If you are with family at dinner time (to throw an example), your family around you is already your social network. So, put away your cellphone and talk to them, partake of the reunion, you are part of them! Not to talk to them because you're checking your cellphone it is not right. If you want, take a picture of your food and a selfie with them, but to post those photos in that very moment and to answer all the comments of those photos, I think it's too much. That's is ignoring your family, and examples like that are the ones that people that are complaining all the time take to generalize saying that social networks destroy your family, that they have formed a zombie generation, etc.

The social network hasn't destroyed your family. The lack of self control of the person to have balance, did.

The Bible says that there is time for everything (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8). When we do things out of their time, there are problems. But if you look for the help of your Heavenly Father, He will strengthen you  so you can do things in their proper time, and you won't be impatient nor in despair, and you will learn to enjoy the moment.

Gadol's Nugget: His children's free will

One of the characteristics of Gadol, the main character of my book, was his over concern about his children. He was convinced that they'd want to serve God thanks to the perfect testimony he thought he had before them (actually, before everybody!), that's why it was a surprise for him that they, being adults already, told them that they didn't want to serve God.

Being concerned about what would be of them away from God, he decided to take responsibility of their spiritual lives. They, in order to not make a division in their family, were agree to his idea, but obviously, since no one can approach God by force, manipulated or by being deceived, Gadol's idea didn't work.

Where was Gadol mistaken? He didn't respect his children's free will. He didn't let God to work in them, but on the contrary, by meddling in their decisions, Gadol interrupted what God was doing in them.

Advice:
If you have children, YOU CAN NOT OBLIGATE THEM TO SERVE GOD. You just can, by your example, make them want to do it.
Until certain age, you can "obligate" them to go to church, but you have to have discernment to know when you have to stop obligating them (just in case, that age is normally 12, 13 o 14 year old more or less -  if he/she is 35 years old and you're still obligating him/her, you need counseling! 😀).
The best way will always be your own testimony. The fact that they see you happy, carefree, that when you run to God they see you come out different, that you changed many bad things in you, are things that your children will see in spite of their age, and that will make them want to serve the same God you serve.

When my boys went through a hard time at school

When my Juan Esteban started the first grade, there were a few boys that bothered him. It's hard when your son tells you that he doesn't want to go to school anymore, and then you find out that other kids were bothering him because he was skinny. The same happened to my Juan Pablo, but in his case kids bothered him because he was a little chubby. Other than talking to his parents and teachers, what else to do?

My wife and I prayed for our Heavenly Father's guidance so we may know what to do, and we felt that we should talk to them about their identity, and also that they should know that, unless in that age, kids don't do that with malice.

About their identity.
We told them that they aren't what other people say, but what their Father says, that He was the One that created them so He is the only One with the right of saying what they are, what they can do and what they have. We told them that they're sons of the Most High, that He loves them, that He will never leave them, and that they can claim to Him and He will answer them.

Kids don't do that with malice.
When they when through this, they were 6 years old. Our Heavenly Father made us understand that those kids didn't do it with malice, but they just copied it from somewhere else: family, TV, other kids, etc. So, we asked our boys: "Do you guys want your friends to feel bad because of you joke around with them, or you just do it for fun?" They answer: "We joke around with them just for fun, we don't want them to feel bad". Then we said to them that it is exactly the same when they joke around with you. And then, we added: "If it's a joke, then just laugh! Do not take those joke so serious! Laugh at yourself!"

Thank God that we know they took those words because we saw the results!

If you are going through something similar with your kids, do not react in your own strength, but rather seek your Heavenly Father's counsel!, because He'll give you the guide you need to overcome that situation.

I hope this helped you!

The Power that Jesus gave to my Son

When Juan Esteban was two years old often suffered from nightmares. My wife and I were so worried because we saw his little face full of fear when he cried and called us at nights.

One night, I run to his room because he was crying once again, and when he saw me, he hugged me, and then he was frightened as he pointed to one corner of the room. When my wife and I looked at that direction, we saw nothing, but it was obvious that he could see something.

We prayed for many weeks until one day we talked to him about the authority that Jesus has given to him. We could feel that Jesus was talking to him in that moment. We said to him: "Son, Jesus has defeated the devil, he has no power and no authority over you. You can kick him OUT of that place because you have the power of Jesus!"

To be honest, we didn't know how much he understood us until that night, because we didn't wake up anymore because was crying or because he called us, but because we heard him yelling: "Out! Out!" Our son, being only two years old, was kicking the devil out of that place.

(this picture is when he was two)

I am absolutely sure that the answer of our prayers for him was that we felt to talk to him about the authority and power that Jesus gave him. I would never thought to do that because by natural instinct I myself was to defend him, specially at that age, but I can see that my Heavenly Father, who loves him and takes care of him more than me, wanted to defend him Himself. Instead of Juan Esteban depends on me, my Heavenly Father wanted him to depend on Him.

Moral: Better than worrying to take care of your kids all the time, let's teach them that the Almighty One, the Creator of everything, is their Father and that He Himself defends them.

I really hope this may bless you!

One Way to Curse your Children

About one year ago, I told my son Juan Esteban (he was 8 years old): "Don't be lazy!", because he didn't want to clean his room, but in that moment I felt that I was saying to him that he was lazy, and he should stop being that. I realized that the words "don't be lazy" had the same meaning as "you are lazy, stop being that."

As a father, I felt so bad because I was telling my son he was lazy, therefore, he was going to behave as he was. Without realizing, I was cursing him, bonding his life to a certain behavior.

I am sure that it was my Heavenly Father the One that put in my heart to stop talking to my two kids in that way (because I also talked to my son Juan Pablo in that way), and to start analyzing the way I was talking to them, which I supposed it was the right way because I've never insulted them, I've never despised them, I've never told them that they can't, etc.

From that moment on I replaced the words "don't be lazy" by "don't behave as if you were lazy, because you are not. You are disciplined". I replaced the words "don't be bad" by "do not behave as if you were bad, because you are not. You are good," and sometimes I add: "and indeed, you are very good" 😀. I replaced the words "don't be filthy" by "do not behave as if you were filthy, because you aren't. You are clean."

That wrong way to say things was part of me in such a way that I kept doing it out of habit, but I corrected myself immediately. I've also explained this to my boys, so that in the case I spoke to them in that way again, they may know that I was the one that was wrong, and that they are not what I said. There were times they corrected me, and I was so happy to accept that correction!

Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you those wrong ways to say things that are part of you, in which you might be cursing your children without realizing. May your mouth be a spring of blessing from which they may constantly drink!

I really hope this helped you!