Five Minute Family

Good morning, Five Minute Families. We are feeling refreshed and renewed, ready to begin the next seven weeks of a busy time here at CVR. We will be hosting all three of our organized programs during these weeks - grief retreat, family camp, and a marriage retreat, too. We feel God allowed the timing of these eventful weeks because Kim and I were just at a Christian counseling conference. God affi...

Good morning, Five Minute Families. We are Jim and Kim Nestle with Clear View Retreat. Our prayer for families is that they will draw closer to the Lord and build strong relationships with one another. One way we do that is by sharing some of what we share here at CVR with you through our short weekly devotional. So, let’s get started. Do you feel lazy when you sit down on the couch and stream two...

Good morning, Five Minute Families. These past few weeks have definitely been different for our family. We know that God is in control, and He has a plan for us. Yet, I struggled a lot this week to think of an idea or topic for the Five Minute Family. And, then, I saw an empty toilet paper roll. Toilet paper rolls are like family arguments… To not quote a popular but rude phrase… they happen. A Mi...

Good morning, Five Minute Families. Let me ask you… are you a burden or a blessing? My mom is fiercely independent and does not want to be a burden to her family in any way. Through some recent medical needs, she has had to share a bit more with us about the things going on in her life. In fact, when she was rushed to the ER and had to be admitted to the hospital, the first words out of her mouth...

Good morning, Five Minute Families. It is wonderful to be with you today. Hopefully, you are still discussing and learning about the Fruit of the Spirit together, or working on some other devotional or study together as a family. If you aren’t, try starting with discussing the Sunday sermon on the way home from church next Sunday. We’ve talked about serving together before. But, today we want to s...

Good morning, Five Minute Families! Proverbs 16:18 Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. Proverbs 16:5 Everyone who is arrogant in heart is an abomination to the Lord; be assured, he will not go unpunished. How often do we as parents cite these verses and the others like these to our kids or ourselves? Nope, this five-minute family devotional is not about pride, vanity...

Good morning, Five Minute Families! Did you know that the Partnership for Solutions at Johns Hopkins back in 2004 pointed out that more than 130 million Americans suffer from a chronic health condition? That means with a population of 330 million, almost every family in American has someone who faces chronic medical issues. Thankfully, some of those households don’t have as heavy of an impact as o...

Good morning, Five Minute Families. Today we are closing out our series of the Fruit of the Spirit as listed in Galatians 5:22-23… “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. The law is not against such things.” Love is the first in the attributes list of the fruit of the Holy Spirit. And we know from 1 Corinthians 13:...

Good morning, Five Minute Families. Thank you for joining us this morning. We are Jim and Kim Nestle with Clear View Retreat. We have the honor and privilege of hosting family camps, marriage retreats, grief retreats, and more out here at our cabins in the woods of East Tennessee. It is a joy to do what we do. And, sometimes, it is exhausting, hot, trying, demanding, strenuous, lengthy, and downri...

Good morning, Five Minute Families. Thank you for joining us in this journey of discovering more about the attributes of the Fruit of the Spirit as listed in Galatians 5 - Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. This week, as we are progressing backwards through that list, we are talking today about peace. I woke up the other morning stressed… st...

Good morning, Five Minute Families. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Today in our series about the Fruit of the Spirit, we will be discussing patience. Do you ever find yourself frustrated in traffic? What about being irritated with a family member that seems to move at a snail’s pace? Patience is oft-discussed and highly encouraged. Yet,...

Good morning, Five Minute Families! Compassion - the concern for others - calls us to offer ourselves up for someone in need. Acts of compassion require the attitude of kindness. And God provides the fruit. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. We’ve been diving into the fruit of the spirit, in reverse order from the list in Galatians 5, and we...

Good morning, Five Minute Families! Thank you for joining us this morning as we continue gathering the fruit of the Spirit as we keep in step with God’s Holy Spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control This week is goodness. Goodness is defined in most dictionaries as ‘the quality of being morally good or virtuous.’ Because of the sometimes in...

Good morning, Five Minute Families! Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control … the sweet fruit of the Holy Spirit! For the past three weeks, we have been discussing the nine attributes in detail, giving ideas on how to cultivate the fruit of the spirit in your lives. Today’s topic is faithfulness. Faithfulness is almost a dirty word in the world to...

Good morning, Five Minute Families. Do you hold the door for others? Are you actively teaching your children to be courteous? Do you display chivalrous behavior when it is called for? We are at the second attribute that we will be discussing about the fruit of the spirit - gentleness. “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control...

Good morning, Five Minute Families. Thank you for joining us this morning as we continue our deep dive into the fruit of the spirit. Science tells us that self-control is what separates humans from the rest of the animal kingdom, that the part of the brain where we find the ability of self-control is the prefrontal cortex and that is larger in humans than in any other mammal. Humans make decisions...

Good morning, Five Minute Families. Last week, we replayed our original Five Minute Family recording. That’s because while we are called Five Minute Family, the goal has never been to encourage you to spend only five minutes a day with your family. The goal was to point out how we all have to start somewhere, even when we have colossally failed previously. So, we encourage families to begin thinki...

Good morning, Five Minute Families. As we discussed what our new topic would be for this week, we realized that there is more to discuss about remembering. Any good story, report, or project will go through necessary problem solving or information gathering, and the best way to do that is to cover the 5 w’s and 1 h who, what, when, where, why, and how. The who to remember is clear - God. The what...

Good morning, Five Minute Families. Last week we talked about how a family can intentionally remember and reflect God’s goodness - sharing our testimony and God’s goodness in our lives, memorizing Scripture, informal conversations, and more. This week, we want to ask… Do you have the “memory of an elephant” or the “memory of a gnat?” Seriously, though, what should we remember about God? The reason...

Good morning, Five Minute Families. This morning, we are going to look back as directed by God. Many times in Scripture God tells us to remember. Remember His goodness in creation. Remember His goodness in your family. Remember His promises for mankind. And the list can go on and on. Let us expand further into this concept of remembrance. Jim brought up the concept of remembering at dinner the oth...

Good morning, Five Minute Families. Let’s talk about worship. Worship is not simply singing on a Sunday morning. Worship isn’t just listening to the gospel station throughout the week. Worship isn’t merely an act or ceremony of reverence. Worship does not only involve songs or singing. We worship in every choice we make. We worship in every act we participate in. As Christ-followers, worship is ab...

Good morning, Five Minute Families! Christians around the world just celebrated Easter. What a roller coaster of a week Jesus had leading up to His crucifixion and resurrection. That week began with the Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem. The quickest synopsis we can give is that Jesus brings peace between God and man. Since entering a town on a horse indicated you wanted war with the people, but ente...

Good morning, Five Minute Families. We live in the digital age. As a five-minute family, let’s honor God with our technology use. But, how exactly can we do that? By making the most of technology. Let’s explore five examples, though I am sure there are many more. For family time, use online games to get everyone doing the same thing, even with a cell phone, computer, or tablet in their hands. We w...

Good morning, Five Minute Families. It will be the beginning of garden season soon. Spring has begun. New seasons, new plants, new development. Is your family ready to enter into a new season of growth? On Friday, I was at a women’s conference, and one of the other exhibitors was Josh MacLeod of Instruments of Joy. As he and my mother discussed theological issues, he shared the analogy of the acor...

Good morning, Five Minute Families. Thank you for joining us this morning. Today, we want to share something that has made an impact in a number of lives and the Bible verses that apply. Recently in a mentoring session, a lady and I were discussing how difficult it is to fight for a relationship when trust has been broken. I remembered a saying that I had heard a couple of years ago while I was go...