My furnace is acting up. It's a natural gas unit.

We noticed that the temp dropped way below the set mark and after turning the thermostat all the way up the furnace kicked in, then kicks back off. I watch it and it makes several attempts to fire up, I see flames in there, they go for a couple of seconds and then it shuts down.

I have a portable electrical heater for my son's room just in case but this furnace appears to be not functioning properly... any ideas?

This can be caused by many things, bad thermostat, a short or loose connection in the tstat wiring, a bad flame sensor, a faulty gas valve, clogged or dirty heat exchanger,etc.

Since the unit is gas, contact your gas utility. Many offer repairs to gas furnaces, and are usually reasonable cost.

They will at least come out to check the problem. It may be a simple fix they can take care of right away.

If the unit has not been serviced, as most people do not realize that gas furnaces need servicing, cleaning, and maintenance, the problem may be easy for them, without being too expensive.

Give them a call right away.

Unfortunately it is Saturday, and you may have trouble getting a service man and pay through the nose. Your problem sounds very similar to the one at
https://www.askmehelpdesk.com/showthread.php?t=22066 Make the same checks as I suggested there. Even cleaning the flame detector might restore service. Unfortunately if one of the sensors is bad, or the control board, you won't find them at your local hardware or Lowe's, and the furnace dealer likely is closed Saturday.

After I cranked it to the max it came on and stayed on. Then I turned it down to normal range and it has worked through the night and all morning. Definitely going to check it out. Thanks guys!

Based on that, sounds as if the thermostat is defective, say if you had it on 70 deg, and the furnace keeps starting and stopping, the switch is making and breaking too soon. Once you turn it up to say 80, this keeps the switch closed.

Have the t'stat checked. May be time to change it out to an energy saving set back stat.