Definition: Approaching a need, a task, or an idea from a new perspective.

The "I Wills" of Creativity

·         I will use my talents for good

·         I will see things from more than one perspective

·         I will use principles to solve problems

·         I will learn all I can

·         I will look for new ways to be a person of character

BIBLE VERSES

Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

Psalms 51:10 Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. {right: or, constant}

 Isaiah 40:28 Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, [that] the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? [there is] no searching of his understanding.

Isaiah 42:5 Thus saith God the LORD, he that created the heavens, and stretched them out; he that spread forth the earth, and that which cometh out of it; he that giveth breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein:

Isaiah 43:7 [Even] every one that is called by my name: for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him.

Isaiah 45:8 Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness: let the earth open, and let them bring forth salvation, and let righteousness spring up together; I the LORD have created it.

Isaiah 65:17 For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. {come…: Heb. come upon the heart}

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if any man [be] in Christ, [he is] a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. {he is: or, let him be}

Ephesians 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. {ordained: or, prepared}

Ephesians 3:9 And to make all [men] see what [is] the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:

Colossians 1:16 For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether [they be] thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:

Revelation 4:11 Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.  

How to Demonstrate Creativity

at Home

      Discovering ways to make household chores fun, such as playing music while working or going out for a treat after the work is done.

      Starting traditions, creating new games, and finding new places to go on birthdays, vacations, and holidays.

      Learning to make your own unique thank-you cards.

      Turning homework into learning games and putting memory work to music.

at Work/School

      Looking for alternative ways to find solutions to problems.

      Making wise use of free time.

      Looking for new ways to influence those around you for Christ.

      Seeking alternative ways to help you get the job done more efficiently.

      Asking yourself the question, "How can God best use me to reach others for Christ?"

at Church

      Looking for new ways to serve others.

      Searching for practical application from each sermon and Bible lesson.

      Using different teaching methods in Sunday School - lecture, small group, drama, questions, games, multi-media etc.

Three Probing Questions

       Are you quick to say no to a new idea?

       Does a new task bring fear to you or challenge?

       Does an insurmountable problem cause you to give up, or motivate you to search out God's Word for wisdom?

-Character Clues Game, IBLP

OUR UNIVERSE

To begin to measure the immeasurable is from the beginning a hopelessly futile undertaking. But as we try to comprehend things too awesome for our finite minds, let us begin with something familiar: a summer storm. The delay between the sight of the flash of the lightning and the sound of thunder demonstrates the great difference between the speed of light and the speed of sound. In one second, while sound can travel only 300 feet, light can reach 186,000 miles away. It would take sound 36 hours to circumscribe the earth – 25,000 miles – but light, in one second, could make the same journey 7½ times. Keep this concept of the speed of light in mind as we consider the universe and its amazing dimensions.

Our beloved planet, the earth, is one of 9 planets in our solar system. We revolve around the sun, which burns at 20 million degrees F. – a temperature so fierce that if a marble were heated up to the same temperature it would fry everyone and everything in a city the size of Philadelphia. Situated 93 million miles away, our sun provides the perfect amount of light and heat. Its rays, travelling at 186,000 miles per second, take 8½ minutes to reach the earth and cross our entire solar system, 6,000 million miles, in one and a half hours.

Our solar system is an infinitesimal part of the galaxy called the Milky-Way – a swirling myriad of stars estimated at 100 billion. While it takes only 1½ hours for light to cross our solar system, our galaxy is so vast that it would take 100,000 years for light to span the distance from one edge to the other. While our sun is a mere 8½ light minutes away, the next nearest star is 4½ light years from us. The light we see today actually left that star 4½  years ago. If the earth were represented by a sphere only one inch in diameter, that star (Alpha Centaury) would have to be placed 51,000 miles away. And that is the nearest star. In our galaxy alone there are over 100 billion stars. If you counted 250 of them every minute – day and night – it would take you 1,000 years to count them all. And most of them dwarf our sun in size. If our sun were hollow, I million earths could fit inside; but astronomers have discovered a star so big that 500 million of our suns would be required to fill it.

In all its magnitude and splendour, our galaxy with its billions of stars and incomprehensible size, is rather insignificant in the universe. There are actually billions and maybe even trillions of such galaxies in space – each with at least 100 billion stars. The nearest galaxy to ours, Andronema, is ½ million light years away, a distance so great if every man, woman and child in the United States had a library of 65,000 volumes, there would be more miles separating our galaxies than all the letters in all the words in all the books in all those libraries – and that is only the nearest galaxy out of billions. The most distant galaxy that has been discovered is 8 billion light years away, so far removed that it is only one millionth the brightness it would take to be seen by the human eye.

On the clearest night we can see at the most 3,200 stars in the sky, an impressive sight in itself. But consider this: a man looking up at the sky on a clear night sees as much of the universe as a protozoan – a one-celled animal – might see of the ocean in which it drifts. The moon, the planets and the few thousand stars which are visible to him are as a single drop of water in the boundless sea of the universe. Think of it – what we see on even the clearest night is as a mere drop of water in the ocean in comparison to all there is out there.

And consider this: if the distance from the earth to the sun, 93 million miles, could be represented by the thickness of a piece of paper, the distance to the nearest star would be a stack of paper 71 feet high. The diameter of our galaxy would be a pile 310 miles high, and the edge of the known universe would be a stack of paper 31 million miles high, a third of the way to the sun.

If only unbelieving man would lift up his eyes to marvel at the heavens, it would do his soul much good. For staring into the void above him, man faces concepts like infinity and eternity, where science and imagination stand together on the drink of darkness. Then indeed he can but echo the philosopher, Schiller – "The universe is a thought of God."

And if we are awed by this created universe, how much more should we be awed by its Creator Who by the word of His power, without effort, brought it into existence where once there was nothing.

"And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so."

And this Creator desires us to walk with Him.

Compiled from various sources

Creative Challenge

A creative mind is usually one that is active. Creating an active mind is not difficult - you just need to exercise it on a regular basis in order for you to go beyond mediocre thinking. Below are some interesting exercises designed to bring out the best in creative thinking. Try your hardest to resist looking at the answers until you have a solution (if you can). Enjoy...

1. 10 Apples

At the end of a birthday party, the hostess realises that there are 10 apples left in a basket. She distributed an apple to each of the 10 children who are leaving. After all the 10 children have taken their apples, there is still one apple left in the basket. Why?

2. The Jump

A man is drinking coffee at his table by the window. He is enjoying the view outside when suddenly he decides to jump out of the 20-storey building. He lands safely, unhurt in any way, although there is nothing to cushion his landing. How is this possible?

3. The Clock

The clock in the tower of the main City Square takes 2 seconds to strike 2 o'clock. How long will it take for the clock to strike 3 o'clock?

ANSWERS

1. Ten Apples

After giving away 9 apples, the hostess gave the basket away with the last apple still inside.

2. Jumping out from a 20-storey building

The man jumped out from the window of the ground floor of the 20-storey building

3. The Striking Clock

Start your stop-watch at the first strike and stop the watch at the second strike. You would have measured the time interval between the 2 strikes (which is 2 seconds in this case). This interval is a constant. To strike 3 o'clock there will be two time intervals of 2 seconds each, which means that 4 seconds will be required. Try it out, and you'll see.

www.mindbloom.com

TOYS YOU DON'T HAVE TO BUY

      Shops. Save all your empty grocery cartons for a week or so and you'll soon have a shop any aspiring grocer would be proud of. Gluing down the flaps makes cereal boxes, jelly packets etc. look unopened. Clothes, shoes, and toys can all be used as "stock". Paper bags and real or play money add to the fun.

      Doctors/Nurses. A roll of white toilet tissue makes this game much more fun as Dads, Grans, teddies or dolls are bandaged before your eyes. Plastic medicine spoons and cardboard box hospital beds for toys are extra props that make the game last longer.

      Cardboard boxes must be about the best free toys you can get hold of. Push in the ends of large ones to make tunnels and caves to crawl through. Draw on windows and doors with felt tip pens to make a house, add a flag and portholes for a boat or paper plates and a steering wheel for a car.

      Miniature gardens. The foil trays that pies and prepared foods arrive in make lovely containers for miniature gardens. The children can enjoy hunting around the park or garden for twigs to make trees, moss for a lawn, stones to arrange as a rockery or a waterfall. Keep twigs or stones where you want them with a little blue tack or plasticine. Add toy people or animals and maybe a little water if the container is watertight. This can be a very creative and enjoyable exercise if you have children of very different age groups to entertain. A variation is to use play sand (not builder's sand - it stains everything yellow) to make a beach scene, maybe adding shells, stones and a blue paper sea.

      Dens. Building a den must be one of the most memorable parts of childhood as we all seem to recall the bliss of blankets draped over the airing rack in the garden or over the backs of chairs indoors. Even today's sophisticated kids seem to find the thought much more exciting than just erecting the shop bought plastic play house. I think the secret is to give structural advice about making the thing stay upright, but let the children do as much as possible themselves. Really large boxes of the type that washing machines and fridges come in can be had for the asking from the big electrical goods retailers and are useful for rooms within dens. Indoors, one of the simplest dens can be made by throwing a large sheet or duvet over a table. Cushions, torches, biscuits and books will all be needed at the housewarming.

      Easy boats. Recycle your empty margarine cartons. Use them as boats for the bath or paddling pool. These are so easy that even very young children can help to make them. Cut out triangular sail shapes from white or coloured paper. Make a small hole at the top and bottom of the sail so that you can push through a straw to make a mast. Let the child fix this to the bottom of a clean margarine tub with a lump of blue tack or plasticine. They sail extremely well and will even take a couple of toy people on an exciting cruise.

Colleen Moulding

How to Encourage Good Character

One of the most effective ways to encourage good character is to praise your children for even the smallest display of any character quality. Criticism creates insecurities, bitterness and rebellion; but praise creates an atmosphere of love, joy and acceptance.

The son of one of my college professors asked a very profound question about his little newborn brother. He said, "Mum, does he know who he is, or does he just lie there and think he's nothing?" He doesn't have the slightest idea who he is. The only way that little child will ever know what he is like, whether he is worth anything or not is to look in the mirror. And during those early years, that mirror is the significant people who stand around him, primarily his parents. That's why it's so important to replace our natural tendency to criticise with praise.

It's amazing what a little bit of praise can do to encourage a son or a daughter. And if you can’t think of anything to praise your children for, then ask the Lord or ask your wife to show you areas where you can praise that child. Someone has said that even a conceited person has at least one good quality - he doesn’t talk about other people. So praise your children for even the smallest display of any character quality.

Proverbs 27:21 says, "[As] the fining pot for silver, and the furnace for gold; so [is] a man to his praise." What this verse tells us is that praise is a purifier. It motivates those we praise to develop more of that same quality. That’s why you need to be very careful what you praise your children for; because whatever you praise you will get more of. If you laugh at a child’s rude behavior, you will get more of that same rude behaviour. But if you continually praise a child for his truthfulness and his diligence then you’re going to get more of these positive qualities.

Praise is one of the most powerful motivators for good character. One Christian leader has said that you need to praise ten times just to balance the damage of one negative, critical remark. So replace those negative, critical words with encouragement and praise; and give your children a motivation for showing more good character.