Good Morning, Jesus

Morning Devotions with the Kids

Each morning I like to set the tone of the day by reflecting on the Lord with the kids.  Since the kids have been waking up earlier and earlier it seems I have to plan the night before what book we will read or what story I will tell from the Bible...sometimes I use a children's bible or children's devotional book and sometimes we just talk about the Lord.

But while I have them eating and sitting still it is the absolute perfect time to talk about God and all He is to us.  Recently the Weavers gave us an awesome book called, "Oh, Yes! Oh, No!"  It's a God made me special book by Christine Harder Tangyald and it discusses obedience, not talking to strangers, car safety, and even not letting anyone touch private parts where your bathing suit covers.  It is an AWESOME book for 3 and 4 year olds.  This author also wrote our favorite: "The best thing about Easter."  She is an awesome Christian author for children.

John read it to Julia last night and I read it before nap time, and tomorrow morning we will read it as our devotion.  It's a short easy read but it talks about how special God made us and how we need to take care of ourselves.

Morning devotions is not only good for the kids...it's great for me too!  It keeps me accountable to read the bible first thing in the morning and set the tone for the day!  We get to thank God for all the blessings we have, read His word, and pray about our concerns.  We take time to pray for safety for John as he heads off to work, and lately we've been praying for potty training successes for Marky.

I want my kids to see that I read the Bible and make it a priority.  It's not just a check off list thing, it's important because God helps us all throughout the day and we can start our day by acknowledging him and inviting him into the rest of our day by sharing it with him and talking about His goodness.

The blessings I've seen from this time we set aside for the Lord, is children who realize the importance of prayer, Julia and Mark always bring their concerns to me and say, "Mom pray for me!"  They know the power of prayer!  I love to see their faith growing in the Lord.  It's exciting to plant these seeds now while they are young.  Also, we get to hear them share bible stories they've heard before.  It never fails, while I am reading the Bible, Mark will say, "Mom, I want to tell that story!"  Then he will re-tell it in his own words with his own imagination, and every story ends with "Jesus died on the cross for us!  For the whole wide world!"  Emphasis on whole wide world!  He is definitely our little preacher.  Julia is our teacher who likes to hold the book and turn the pages so everyone can see.  I love the enthusiasm for God's word.

Mark and Julia also have their own Bible verse that before bed each night we say together...Julia's verse is Psalm 23:1 The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want  (Julia loves the sheep at the farm and she loves the fact that God takes care of us like a shepherd watching his sheep...sometimes the sheep don't obey but God loves the sheep and he gives them everything they need)...Mark's verse is found in Deuteronomy 6:5...Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might...(Marks name means strong and mighty warrior so we have hand motions for that verse and his favorite part is to say loudly, "with all your might!!!")

This June and July we will be doing a Bible study on the fruit of the spirit and each week we will focus on one of the fruits found in Galatians: Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Gentleness, Goodness and Self control...so each morning I can tell a Bible story relating to one of our "fruits"....I'm really looking forward to that!

Suzette and her family!

Check out Suzette's blog: The Joy of Homemaking by clicking on the title to see what she has to say about Morning Devotions also!

Suzette and I used to be NJ buddies and go to the same church when we were in our teens.  We have kept in touch over the years and both blog faithfully about our faith in God and our precious growing families.  Our daughters Julia and Addie are only months a part.  And we both have young sons.  Suzette is a godly woman who takes raising her children very seriously.  I love her dearly.