We’re all about routines in our home, the newest of which rolls out each school day morning between 7AM and 8:35AM. It goes like this:
Breakfast, brush teeth, make beds, get dressed, wait for Mom to pour her second cup of coffee, devotions, free play (in separate rooms when possible to promote a bickering-free morning), shoes & backpacks, leave for school.
Today I want to highlight the devotions portion of our morning to tell you about a great little book we’ve really enjoyed having in our home called Big Truths for Little Kids. The book is broken up into a number of short, thematic stories about characters named Caleb, Cassie, Angus, and Daniel that are paried with a list of applicable catechism questions and answers.
Each morning we review the previous story’s catechism questions (ex: Are there more gods than one? In how many persons is the one true God?) before starting the new set of questions, and at the end we go through some compreshension verification questions that allow the kids to reitterate what happened in the story and what they learned about God from the story.
For example, we recently established an allowance/tithing system for Landon and Evan, so today we read Chapter 22 where Cassie (one of the “Catechism kids”) begins doing chores to earn money for a new doll. Along the way she learns about tithing, saving, and spending as well as about how easily things (like a new doll) can become idols for us. So the boys and I were able to have a very directed and informed conversation about their allowances, their tithe, and the importance of being careful to not let other things (like earning money for new Legos) become so important that we start loving those things more than we love God and his people.
In 15 minutes we were able to cover everything from: how God provided enough money for us to adopt Selah; to the kinds of things our family’s tithe will pay for in Advance Church’s new facility; to how important it is that we be generous because God has been generous to us; to why obeying the second commandment is difficult, even for Mommy and Daddy.
(You see now why me pouring a second cup of coffee before we sit down for devotions is a crucial part of our morning routine!)
So I love Big Truths for Little Kids because it leads us into some really important, timely, and even challening conversations with our children that we don’t have to spend much–if any–time prepping for. And the stories keep the kids entertained and interested along the way. A lot of it is definitely over Selah’s head (she’s 3), but our intention for her during our morning devotion time is that she a) learn the discipline of it and b) learn to sit still and listen.
For days when we need something a little lighter and quicker, we pull out one of these by Sheila Walsh:
I am Amazing Because God Loves Me
God’s Mighty Warrior Devotional Bible
I am Loved (God’s Little Princess)