Hmm… looks like my page is under construction! No worries, I’m sure they’ll get it up soon. BUT, I guess I’ll tell you a little bit about myself. My name is Jacob, but everybody calls me Jake. As I’m sure you know, I love inventing stuff. In fact, when I grow up, I want to be an astrophysicist.

My favorite virtue is uniqueness. God made us each unique and we should be thankful for that. What kind of world would it be if we all looked alike and liked the same things anyway?  Personally, I like science and math. Some of my friends in the clubhouse like movies and extreme sports, but we all get along because we understand that we are each unique.

So, I guess that’s it for me… for now. Hey, what’s your favorite subject in school and why?

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Welcome to our last edition of The Toolbox for this season of FamJamz. Parents, this segment was created with you in mind, to give you ideas to implement with your kids in relation to the virtue.

This month we are talking about the virtue of responsibility - showing you can be trusted with what’s expected of you. The Bible says that when we are responsible with a little, we will be given more: more opportunities, more relationships, more ways that we can use what God has given us to reflect His character to the world around you.

Your kids’ memory verse says it this way, “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much,” (Luke 16:10, NIV).

So how will we be asking you to put this virtue into practice? Take a look at this video!

Parents, this month your kids will be responsible for making the most of what God has given them. They have abilities, skills, talents that are amazing and can and should be used to make a difference in the world around them. That’s what we want them to think about and do this month. Now, what are you responsible for in this project? See to it that it happens. Help them make it happen. And then, we want you to send us pictures or video of your kids in action.

Email your pictures to elementary@ubcmiami.org. If you make a video, burn it to a disc and drop it off at the Filling Station or the FamJamz Tech Booth. Share your stories of responsibility with us.

Record them in your Family Yearbooks as well. And speaking of Family Yearbooks, if you’ve kept one, we need for you to bring it on Sunday, May 20th. Bring them to Cindy at the tech booth; she’ll have further instructions for you that day.

Responsibility is a good virtue to learn about. It is a really good trait to have. Every day we have opportunities to take what God has given us… stuff, words, relationships… and use them wisely. When we respond to God with the abilities that He has given us, we are responsible.

Welcome to April’s edition of The Toolbox. This is a segment in FamJamz designed with Big Kids (Parents) in mind. The purpose of it is to give you tools for you to implement at home with your kids.

This month, we are talking about the virtue of hope: believing that something good can come out of something bad. Puzzles are our theme. In our lives, Parents, there are times when we can only see one piece of what’s going on and it can be hard to picture something good coming out of it, isn’t it? It can be hard to see the big picture.

But hard times shouldn’t surprise us. In fact, your kids’ memory verse this month comes out of John 16:33b, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” Amen!

Yes, there will be trouble, BUT the good news is Jesus is in control. That’s it. Whatever happens, God is stronger than anything.

Hope is the one thing the church has always had to offer the world, and that’s our challenge this month. We want you to think as a family of a way you can spread hope to the world around you. Look for ways to help others in our community: your neighbors, the elderly, the homeless, even helping clean our environment, whatever.

Sit together as a family and come up with one project this month that you will take on to spread hope. It can look however you want it to look. To help you get started, you might want to consider serving as a family in UBC’s City Serve on April 14th. Or as a family, head to the grocery store and purchase items to help refill our Feed Miami Pantry. This is actually the missions project kids are up to this month in Hwy 252.

As always, we hope you write down your experience in your Family Yearbooks. If you want to, share your stories with us! Email them in at famjamz@ubcmiami.org. We’d love to feature a few of these in our weekend productions.

God never promised that if we love Him, we wouldn’t have any problems. But He does promise to be with us through it all. He says, “never will I leave you and never will I forsake you.” Remember that.

Don’t forget what we always say… the tools only work when you take them out of the box.

Welcome to another edition of the toolbox! This is a segment designed with Parents in mind. The purpose of it is to give you tools for you to implement at home with your kids.

This month we are talking about the virtue of conviction - standing for what is right even when others don’t. Standing for what is right can be a very challenging thing to do. Can we honest about this? Most of the time when we choose not to do the right thing, it’s not because we don’t know better. We know what the right thing to do is, but we don’t do it because we don’t want to. Or maybe it seems too hard to do… or maybe it would make us unpopular; make us not be cool.

The memory verse this month comes out of 2 Thessalonians 3:13, and it says, “And as for you, brothers and sisters, never tire of doing what is good.”

So here’s the challenge this month… for everybody, kids, big kids, volunteers: pray for God to show you an area where you haven’t shown conviction. Where does God really want you to take a stand for what is right?

Maybe you already know the answer and you feel scared or even embarrassed. BUT the truth is we should never be embarrassed about who we are and what we believe. If someone’s not going to like us because of that, then maybe they’re not a friend we want to have.

In your family yearbooks, we’d love for you to write down what God convicted you about. Write down what He told you to do the right thing about. Parents, we want you to do this, too. Share those stories with your kids because it’s important that they see you living out these virtues, too. You are the ones they are watching day in and day out.

Email your stories to famjamz@ubcmiami.org. We’d love to hear them. Remember, the tools only work when you take them out of the box.

Welcome to another edition of The Toolbox. This is a segment in FamJamz designed with you, Big Kids (Parents), in mind. The purpose of it is to give you tools for you to implement at home with your kids.

This month we are talking about honor - letting others know you see how valuable they really are. There are lots of ways we can honor people and honoring for what they’ve done is great, but we should also honor people because of who they are. That can be really challenging especially because we are naturally wired to put ourselves first, but honor is the opposite. Honor teaches us to see others first. In Romans 12:10 says, “Love each other deeply. Honor others more than yourselves.”

So here’s what we want you to do this month. Parents, as you’ve heard, our widget  is a badge of honor which your kid is supposed to give away to someone they admire. Well, we want you to make sure that this happens. Don’t allow for this widget to become just another toy in your home. Follow up with your kids and see to it that they honor someone this month by giving their badge away.

Kids, in your family yearbooks, write the name of that person down and why you  gave them your badge. If possible, take a picture of them and paste it on there.

As always, we love to hear stories from you so email them in to famjamz@ubcmiami.org.

Honoring others is the ultimate challenge this month. Everyone is valuable. We gotta look at this world and attach value to people.

So, that’s it for this edition of The Toolbox. Don’t forget, the tools only work when you take them out of the box.

Happy new year! Welcome to another edition of The Toolbox. This is the segment in FamJamz designed with parents in mind. The purpose of it is to provide tools and ideas to do at home with your kids.

This month we’re talking about self-control - choosing to do what you should do, not what you want to do. Self control is a tough virtue and not just for the kids, but also for us big kids.

Here’s our challenge this month. Count to ten. We’re asking adults and kids to count to ten when you feel yourself getting impatient or upset, or when you’re about to do something you shouldn’t. Think about what you want to say or do and ask yourself… is it wise? Ask God for the power to exercise self-control. Pause, think, and then act. See, here’s the thing about virtues, we never outgrow them do we? These are things we’ll need to practice for our whole lives. So Parents and Kids, this is an opportunity to help each other with gentle reminders that self-control can be just ten numbers and a prayer away.

And like every month, we want you to write down at least one story about self-control in your family yearbooks. It’s gonna be neat to look back and see all that God has done in your lives over this past year. You can do it as a family or individually. and if you want to share a story with us, email us at famjamz@ubcmiami.org

That’s it for The Toolbox. Don’t forget, the tools only work when you take them out of the box.

Parents, thanks for checking out November’s Toolbox! The Toolbox is a segment in FamJamz designed with you in mind. The purpose of it is to provide you with tools and ideas to implement at home with the kids.

Last month, Parents, we asked you to show us the different ways your kids were showing the virtue of creativity. This month we’re talking about gratitude — letting other know you see how they’ve helped you. And we want the kids telling us about the family.

Here’s what we want them to do. In your Family Yearbooks, we would like for kids to write thank-you notes to their family members. The idea is for them to let others know they see how they have helped them.

Parents, if it’s ok with them and with you, we’d like to know what kids are grateful for. Would you share with us the notes they’re writing via email? Send them to us at famjamz@ubcmiami.org. At the end of the month, we’re gonna celebrate the ways these guys are learning to be grateful. It’s important to be grateful. You know that. So let’s help our kids learn a little more about that this month.

Thanks for checking out The Toolbox. Remember… the tools only work when you take them out of the box.

Welcome to the Toolbox! This is a new segment in FamJamz  designed with parents in mind. The purpose is to provide you with tools,  ideas for you to implement at home with your kids. Last month, we told you about the family yearbook. We want all of you to be keep up with this because every month we’re gonna be writing in them.

This month, we’re talking about creativity: using your imagination to do something unique. Everyone is creative. We’ve used our imaginations at some point, whether it’s problem solving, decorating cookies, or coming up with our own dance moves. God created us to be creative. And here’s the best part: our creativity looks different than everyone else’s. And that’s ok! In fact, it’s by design.

So here’s what we want you to try out at home, Parents. We want you to be “Creativity Hunters.” For example, if you see your kids have made a really cool drawing or maybe built something original out of legos, we want you to snap a picture of it and put it in your Family Yearbook. The whole point of this activity is for us to celebrate our kids, to celebrate the creativity God has given them. Use those moments to build them up and remind them that their creativity comes from God.

Ask your kids to write about the picture in your Family Yearbook. They can write about what they created and add a “thank you” note to God for giving them their creativity. And if you want, send us a copy of the photo as well. We would love that!

And don’t forget, the tools only work when you take them out of the box.

Thanks for checking out The Toolbox! This is a new segment in FamJamz designed especially with parents in mind. The purpose is to provide you with tools to apply at home with your kids. This month we’re taking a look at the virtue of knowledge.

It is so important to let kids know that God loves them just as you know that for yourselves. And when we love God back, we give Him the #1 spot in our lives. We love with all our heart and soul and strength. And we want to impress that on our kids, right? Well, that’s where our widget, the Family Seal, comes in.

Make sure to put the Family Seal on your Family Yearbook, which can be one of the books we’re making available in FamJamz, or your own special book. Either way, put that seal on your yearbook and start talking! This month, Parents, we want you to tell your kids about how YOU came to know God. How did you learn about Him? How has your view of God grown over the years? How has your relationship with God changed?

Encourage your kids to ask questions. This is a chance for them to listen to your stories. We know you have some pretty cool things to share with your kids about your relationship with God.

Then comes the really fun part. Write down the highlights of your conversation in your Family Yearbook. Moms can write, Dads can write, kids can write. Anyone can even draw pictures and stuff. Whatever you want, it’s your Family Yearbook.

At the end of the FamJamz season, we’ll look back together and see what God has done in the lives of our families. Don’t forget… the tools only work when you take them out the box.

If you have any questions, email us at famjamz@ubcmiami.org
‘Til next time!