Jesus calms a Storm

My 2 1/2 boy and 5 year old girl loved this devotional we did this week. We read the story of Jesus calming the storm (Mark 4:35-41) using the Play-and-Learn Bible. After reading the story, we acted it out. The kids have recently been using the pillows in our living room area to build forts and tents. It was the perfect opportunity to ask them to build a boat, and they were very creative with it. We acted out the story, taking turns to play different roles. First, daddy was the wind and waves and as he knelt by the boat, he had a spray bottle in his hand that he would occasionally squirt water at them. The kids were in the boat - one pretending to sleep like Jesus and the other acted as a disciple rowing the boat. The story enacted out went like this:

Daddy: pretending to be a storm all around the boat

Child 1: Pretending to sleep in the boat

Child 2: Rowing the boat and gets scared because of the fierce storm (and not to mention getting wet). He wakes up Jesus and says "Wake up! Wake up!"

Child 1: Stands up and says "Quiet down! Sshhhhh"

Daddy: Stops.

Child 1 looks at child 2 and says: "Why are you so afraid?" Do you still have no faith?

Child 2: Still looking scared says: Who is this man. Even the wind and waves obey him.

Child 1: Don't be afraid.

As a family, we took turns playing different roles and reaffirming the lesson of how even nature obeys the words of God and how we don't need to be afraid because God is always with us.

Extra fun: We ended the night by having a game of flashlight pumpkin hunt around the house. We had a cute little toy pumpkin. The kids took turns hiding it using their flashlight, because we turned off all the lights in the house. Then the other kid used his flashlight to search for the pumpkin.

Family Devotionals Link

I recently received a link from a friend of another blog site that provides free family devotional ideas. http://www.familyblueprint.org/Family.htm

There are so many ideas out there already that we can take and use for our family and even adjust according to our kids ages.

The goal is teach God's word using methods that are fun and that will help us apply it to our daily lives.

Sunday School Follow Up

Our children are so blessed to have great kids programs (a.k.a. Sunday School, Kids Kingdom) where they are weekly learning the different stories of the Bible, lesson applications, crafts and learning new songs. We find that it's useful and beneficial to use the reinforcement method by talking over with them the lessons that they learned on Sunday. This is something fun to do with each kid individually before bed by asking them what they learned and taking a few minutes to talk it through with them. If they made a craft that day, maybe they can show you what they did and how that related to the lesson. Some children programs also send home a follow up sheet. Use the ideas and tips given to reinforce what they have learned and use it as an opportunity to bond with your child. We find that bed time is a good down-time to talk so it's another easy way to incorporate talking about Jesus in our lives.

For example, our daughter has been attending Vacation Bible School this week. Every day she comes home with a craft and a Family Page that tells us what she learns and gives us practicals and ideas of things we can do as a family to reinforce the message for the day. It gives us parents something to focus on daily, rather than just having family devotionals once a week.

Spiritual Growth of Children book

Here's a book that comes highly recommended by several families who have kids ages 12 and below. The Spiritual Growth of Children has really helped our family by giving us some great ideas on how to have family devotionals that are fun and inspiring. You can click on the link under Book Recommendations on this blog and it will take you to the Amazon site that gives a helpful review on this book.

Moses and the Red Sea

Teaching obedience is a lesson that is sometimes challenging and is done on a continual basis. Even as adults, we are constantly trained by God to obey him throughout our journey here on earth. We recently did a family devotional with another family where we taught the story of Moses and the parting of the red sea. A fun activity to do at the end of the story is to act out the story. For toddlers and preschoolers, this is fun to add after the story: 

Take two large pillows and have two people hold it across from each other. We would then ask the kids if they were an Israelite or an Egyptian. If they were an Israelite, they would show their trust and obedience by walking safely through the pretend sea between the pillows. If they answered Egyptian, then as they walked through, the pillows would come crashing down on them - gently, of course. Acting out stories is a good way for them to remember these stories of faithful men and women in the Bible and most importantly, reminding them of God's faithfulness and power to do amazing things in the midst of very difficult situations.

Appreciating God's Creation

Growing up going to Sunday School as a little child, one of my favorite songs to sing was "If I were a butterfly" by Brian Howard. I think it's a fun song to learn with your kids and come up with your own actions for the different animals. Click here for the lyrics and to listen to the audio clip. Learning new songs can be a fun way to have devotionals together. Maybe you can print out pictures of various animals and teach your children about how God created those intricate details. Spend time out in the gardens and parks together!

Jonah Learns to Obey

One of the first devotionals we ever did with our daughter was shortly after she turned 2. We bought her her first Bible - The Play-and-Learn BIBLE. The thing we loved about that Bible was it was interactive and it taught her to read. We read that story countless times because I think she felt like she could relate to Jonah in the aspect of obedience. At the end of the story, was a great memory scripture using Ecclesiastes 12:13 (NLT) - Obey his [God's] commands.

Each time we read the story, we would talk about a different aspect of the story. We would talk about the city of Nineveh - as she liked the sound of the word. Sometimes we would talk about why Jonah disobeyed God and how Jonah felt about it - then eventually relating it back to how we can learn from this story. Sometimes we would focus a few minutes on the big fish that swallowed Jonah and we would try and imagine what it felt like being inside the fish. We have a story-teller type of child so she could easily share with us her imagination. 

Different kids need different illustrations and tools to help them get the idea. Sometimes we need to learn what works best by trying different methods. If a method is not working or keeping their attention, we just stop and change directions. It's okay to stop and come back to the story at a different time when they might be more interested. The point it to keep reinforcing how the Bible applies to our lives and how Mommy and Daddy use it as well.

Good song to learn as a family: Trust and Obey 

For kids who are young, even learning the chorus is simply enough and easy to remember.  Another idea would be to jazz the chorus up with a rap of your own!

Happy Heart

Ever since the kids were little (as in starting around 9 months old), we used the word "Happy" a lot with them. It seemed like it was close to age 1, they started showing more emotions. When a toy was taken away, they would possibly throw a fit and break down into tears. Or if they did not get something their way, the same would occur. Our daughter learned the word "Happy" by 10 months old and whenever we would see her get upset about something, we would say "Happy" and she would sit there and clap her hands. Now she is 4, and we have been talking about having a happy heart. 

Great Devotional Idea: Watch the Veggie Tales movie titled "Madame Blueberry". It's a hilarious half an hour movie that kids of most ages will enjoy. The kids learn that a thankful heart is a happy heart. The first time I watched it as a parent, I remember feeling totally challenged in my heart to change and be grateful myself. 

Hint: If you want to cut down on the movie time, you can fast forward those Special Bonus Songs that are part of the movie intermissions. But be considerate of any of the older siblings that might want to see them.

Additional Ideas: Make some popcorn for the kids and serve them in brown paper bags shaped into cones. Get them into PJs and tell them it's going to be a special movie night with Bob and Larry.

Questions you can ask at the end of the movie:

1) Why was Madame Blueberry so "blue" [sad] in the beginning of the movie?

2) Did she have a lot of things in her house? 

3) Was she being grumpy or happy?

4) Madame Blueberry learned that a grateful heart is a happy heart? How can you have a happy heart? 

The point is to talk with our kids about being grateful for the things we have. Ultimately having a happy heart. Maybe talk about the times in the week that we haven't been happy and explain why. It's good for us parents to share what makes us unhappy and how we can get grateful.

Memory Verse: Rejoice in the Lord always. Phil. 4:4 or for younger kids we re-phrased it to say "Be Happy Always". 

Take a Walk

This is an idea we got from The Spiritual Growth of Children book. 

Our kids chose to sing 3 songs. Then we sat down and had them close their eyes. I said "Imagine that we are now taking a walk in the forest". Do you see a deer? Do you see the trees? Then make sounds of different animals in the forest. Have the younger ones guess what animals make those sounds. Example, make the sound of an owl, snake or woodpecker.

Have them open their eyes. We gave a piece of paper to each kid to have them draw an animal that they saw in the forest. Our 4 year old drew a big picture of a tree that looked scary to her and I drew an owl. Then we cut out those pictures.

We turned off the lights and used a flashlight to reflect the images that we cut out on the wall. We talked about how we feel when we see those images in the dark. We asked them what makes them scared? 

We turned on the lights and read Psalm 23: 4 "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. For you are with me".

We talked about how God is with us and protects us everyday. We ended with praying at bedtime and sang the song "God is bigger than the Boogey-man" from the Veggie Tales movie.

Practice Hospitality

We often have friends into our home for dinner and the kids are used to seeing new and familiar faces on a weekly basis. It's been neat to teach both kids how to greet guests coming into our home and making them feel welcome. For our devotional this week, we thought it would be appropriate to do a short lesson on hospitality.

Scripture: Romans 12:13-14 

Easy scripture for our 4 year old to read and the memory scripture is "practice hospitality". 

Questions we asked:

1. What does hospitality mean? It means to have people into our home to encourage them.

2. How do we show hospitality? By making a meal, by playing games, asking them questions to learn more about them, watching a show together.

3. Who have we had into our home lately? Were they encouraged? Who can we invite to our home next time?

4. Why should we practice hospitality? To encourage others and because the Bible teaches us to do so.

Fun activity:  Both kids pretended to be the host and Mom and Dad played the role of being guests to their home. Using their kitchen toys and tea set, the older kid set up the table and pretended to make food while the younger kid pretended to pour out tea. Role play was a lot of fun but at the same time, we were able to talk about some good things to do and not do when guests are over. For example. when guests come to the door, our kids like to go hide. Now they know that it is more encouraging to come and greet people at the door and if appropriate, to give hugs. When food is served, it is not encouraging to show disrespectful unpleasant facial expressions if they are unhappy with the type of food that is served. There is a more appropriate way of dealing with that situation. It was also fun to watch the kids clean up the table before setting out their toy plates and utensils. We took note of that and told them that in the same way, we should also help clean up the home when we have guests so that it won't look messy and so people won't trip over toys, etc.

Sing 2 songs

Prayer: Thanking God for all the wonderful blessing that he has given to us and that we have so much that we are able to share with others. Help us to love others sincerely just as you have loved us, by practicing hospitality. We pray hat others will be encouraged when they visit our home.

Hide and Seek

Take about 15 minutes or so to play a game of hide and seek. Then sit down and read Psalm 139 together. If your child is learning to read, point to some of the familiar words (sit, heart, dark, bed, etc.) for them to read out while you are reading the passage. Just like Mom and Dady always find you when playing hide and seek, God knows where we are at all times.

Questions you could ask:

1. Does God know you? How does he know who you are?

2. Did you know that God even knows what you are going to say next? Guess what I'm going to say next.

3. Isn't it wonderful that God knows us so well? We never have to be afraid. 

4. When we make a mistake or do something wrong, do you ever hide it from your mom and dad? God already knows and he can find us, so don't hide it. Be honest about it.

Sing a handful of songs

Pray: We thank you that you made us so wonderfully and you know us inside out. Help us to always tell the truth and to never hide anything from mom and dad. Thank you for always knowing where we are at all times so we never have to feel lost and lonely in this world. 

Comment: If your child easily gets distracted, you don't have to read the entire Psalm. Maybe pick out some key verses that you can use to apply.

Wall of Jericho

Our kids love to sing so we often start out devotionals with songs. Our 4.5 year old is good at picking out songs, so we let her do that. 

Song Recommendation: I'm in the Lord's Army

Bible Story: Joshua 6 or read the story of Joshua marching around Jericho from any Children's Bible.

Activity: We acted out the story. We took large pillows from our living room and made a wall around Daddy. Then the kids and Mommy marched around Daddy and the pillows, pretending to have horns and trumpets in our hands. While we marched for six times, Daddy would make fun of us and say that God was not with us and it was silly to think that the wall will fall down. On the 7th round, we blew our pretend trumpets and shouted as loud as we could. Then Daddy made the pillows around him fall down and the kids caught him and wrestled on the floor. We acted this out several times.

Memory Scripture: 2 Chronicles 20:15 The battle is not yours, but God's.

Lesson: Is God faithful to his promises? Did the people obey God's command to march around the city of Jericho? What happened when they obeyed? God is with us and he is bigger than any problem that we have. 

End by taking prayer requests and remembering that God is faithful and the battle is his. We can be happy about that and not be afraid.