Five Minute Family

Good morning, Five Minute Families. A couple of weeks ago we opened our discussion about privilege. We defined it and we gave many examples of the type of privilege we are discussing here. We each need to be more in tune with any “privileged” behavior that can damage our family or biblical community. Awareness about the privileges you enjoy as an individual or family is important because they can...

Good morning, Five Minute Families. Let’s discuss privilege. Now, we are not saying “check your privilege” in the current, woke, political way. So, please don’t check out on us. As Christ-centered families, we need to understand what special advantages or disadvantages we have in order to better serve in this world. First, let’s define what privilege actually is. Oxford Languages says privilege is...

Good morning, Five Minute Families. Does your family use nicknames? Many of us have affectionate, endearing nicknames to our friends and family members. Some of our children have nicknames that they use as their main name; I have a nickname that I am known by to everyone I meet. Some of us only allow the people closest to us use our nicknames without bristling that the other person has crossed an...

Good morning, Five Minute Families. While the rain has been falling quite a bit both literally and figuratively, we are thankful to the Lord for His provision of water to grow the plants and His love to get through the storms. Here at Clear View Retreat, we never deny that tough things happen in life. But, we do not go through any difficulties on earth without Hope - His Hope. We desire to be part...

Good morning, Five Minute Families. Thank you for joining us today. We are Jim and Kim Nestle with Clear View Retreat, located in beautiful East Tennessee. We want to encourage your family to live lives pleasing to the Lord. That involves being intentional in how you relate to one another. And, one of the ways folks relate is to label each other. Labeling can actually have both negative and positi...

Good morning, Five Minute Families. Would you rather have 100 pennies or 4 quarters? In terms of ease of carrying the money and paying with the money, most of us would choose 4 quarters. Now, let’s think about those times in school when we had to write a paper for the English teacher… how many of us sat down and wrote the paper the night before it was due, even if we were supposed to have an outli...

Good morning, Five Minute Families. Are you in a season of chaos? In a season that feels where every moment is filled with an expected event and then something comes along to derail or add to that? Today, let’s discuss how a God-honoring family can handle the chaos that inevitably comes in some seasons of life. Of utmost importance is to remember that God is a God of order as 1 Corinthians 14:33 p...

Good morning, Five Minute Families. We hope you and yours are doing well this week. As the seasons change here, we are reminded of the constant changes that happen in life, especially in family life. Change does not only happen when big events happen - events such as the birth of a new baby, moving, or a new job. Change comes in our families as our children grow and a new milestone is reached. Thi...

Good morning, Five Minute Families. Have you ever heard the words, “I want to be a Christian but I don’t know how?” The simplicity of that question hides the longing and surrender that came before and the further learning that will follow. If you have never had the opportunity to share the gospel message with someone, we hope that you will pray to the Lord that He includes you in someone else’s fa...

Good morning, Five Minute Families. Kim and I had a wonderful opportunity to go with our two youngest sons on an international mission trip. Our many thanks go out to the local church members who supported us and the entire team. While we may not all be able to go, we can all be mission-minded with our time, talents, and prayers. With our mission trip still fresh in my mind, I had another blessed...

Good morning, Five Minute Families. We are so glad you are joining us for the third and final devotion in our comfort zone series. If you missed the other two, please check them out on your favorite podcast app or head over to our website clearviewretreat.org. Comfort zone has its risks and benefits, and as we mentioned at the beginning of this series, the comfort zone can be a tool. If the family...

Good morning, Five Minute Families. Last time we were together, we discussed the risks of staying in the comfort zone. The comfort zone is all about what is known. It is the place or situation in which we feel at ease and without stress. For a reminder, if we fail to heed the risks of the comfort zone, we fall prey to only feeling over doing - our sense of ease over taking action. The good of the...

Good morning, Five Minute Families. How are you today? We have been under some chaotic, stressful, filled with unknown type of situations recently, and it got us thinking… wouldn’t it be nice for things to be how they were… comfortable, chill, and known? Known… That is what the comfort zone is all about. The known. The comfort zone is a place or situation where we feel safe, at ease, and without s...

Good morning, Five Minute Families. Have you ever gone snow skiing before? Some people have great spatial and physical awareness. And, for them, skiing becomes a dream of freedom and fun. For others, however, snow skiing when you do not yet have full awareness can be quite frightening. Now, if you have a parent or spouse who was told how to control their skis, and they have the spatial and physica...

Good morning, Five Minute Families. How are you doing this week? Do you have your daily, intentional family time carved out and part of your routine yet? If not, please take five minutes to go back and listen to the very first Five Minute Family podcast on your favorite podcast player. Our hope for your family is that you grow closer to one another, seeing the uniqueness of each individual creatin...

Good morning, Five Minute Families. Do you feel stuck, ill-equipped, or unknowledgeable? Think back to your early years of schooling. You weren’t born knowing how to read; you went through a process to learn how to read. The thing is that most of us forget the process of the things we now know and begin to do automatically. However, when something challenging comes along, we are often frustrated t...

Good morning, Five Minute Families. Tying back to our last 2023 devotion about demonstrating emotions, today we want to explore the Bible verses surrounding the appropriateness of emotions themselves. I watched a reel that demonstrated someone coming to their spouse and sharing that the spouse’s behavior had made them feel badly. The spouse immediately got defensive and said that they weren’t mean...

Good morning, Five Minute Families. Most of us who were raised in the church have heard at some point, “Don’t run or play in the sanctuary.” We get to know the sanctuary as a room in the church building. But, truly what does sanctuary mean and how does that impact the five-minute family? For most of history, the word sanctuary referred to the holiest of holy places in a church, usually where the L...

Good morning, Five Minute Families. This is our first devotional in 2024. As many are doing, we are taking this time to reflect back on last year and look forward to the new one. In years past, we have made different suggestions for families to have intentional discussions surrounding the newness concept. Last year we discussed standards, goals, resolutions, and new opportunities. The year before...

Good morning, Five Minute Families. It is holiday season as we write this. Thanksgiving into Christmas into New Year’s. Numerous work events, family gatherings, and community parties get added into most of our already busy schedules. Stress hits its highest for many folks this time of year. And, many of us begin to feel overwhelmed, frustrated, or downright angry. Thankfully, our society has come...

Good morning, Five Minute Families! Are you in the Christmas spirit, or do you have a touch of the bah-humbugs? Getting into the mindset can be a challenge if we focus on only what we want. Yet, if we choose to focus on our blessings, on our triumphs - no matter how small, and of the possibilities of the future, then getting into the spirit of Christmas becomes much easier. Ultimately, our full fo...

Good morning, Five Minute Families. This weekend our church had a baby dedication for the new little ones in our church family. Please note that a baby dedication is not a baptism, so if you want more information about the difference, please let us know. But, as to something our pastor mentioned… “it takes a village to raise a child.” For the longest time, that African proverb really bothered me....

Good morning, Five Minute Families. Do you ever complicate an issue? Overthink it? Spend so much time thinking about it from so many angles that you lose sight of what’s important? We are to plan, yet, we are also to trust the Lord as Proverbs 16:9 states, “The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.” In life there are five essential needs of human survival. Those are air,...

Good morning, Five Minute Families. We are rolling into the holiday season as we celebrate Thanksgiving this week. A question that millions of us will be asked in just a couple of days will be “what are you thankful for?” Sometimes in life, we aren’t feeling very thankful. Our dad may have died, we may have to move even though we don’t want to, our spouse may have lost their job, we may truly be i...

Good morning, Five Minute Families. We have replayed the three grief devotions that Kim wrote three years ago after the death of her stepfather in order to give our family time to grieve the loss of her father, Ken Willis. My father died almost a month ago. His philosophy was, "I'm a dad. That's my job." For his epitaph, we wrote "I was a dad. I did my job." Because he did. He was not a perfect ma...