Our family was given a precious little book for Christmas and just this past week I started reading it to my children. It's called "God's Alphabet for Life" by Joel Beeke and Heidi Boorsma.
The intro to the book is just wonderful and talks, very simply, about the fact that we all have a soul...the spiritual part of you that you cannot see but that lives forever. It stresses the importance of taking care of our souls through loving God and His Word above all and hiding His word in our hearts.
The expression "food for the soul" is an old one...but it truly is a GREAT analogy for our kids. My kids let me know, on many occasions throughout the day, that their bellies are hungry...and 3 times a day, without fail, we sit down and eat a meal. Those 3 times are all wonderful opportunities to "feed our souls" and the souls of our kids as well as feed our tummies. It doesn't take a lot of extra work...just a little forethought and planning.
I was talking to one mom this week and she reads a devotional to her girls while they eat breakfast before heading off to school. It's a great time to work on a memory verse or read a passage of Scripture. If your kids are home for lunch,that time has been a neat opportunity (for me) to read through books about missionaries....for the kids to see that the world is so much bigger than the town we live in and our God is the great God of all the nations. Dinner time is, for us, the best time for family devotions. After our meal, Bryan has been reading small sections of the book of John and boy do the questions fly and the conversation flows from our children's mouths!:)
Nothing I share has been done perfectly...and we are always working on being more consistent...but I have learned that establishing a plan...seeking to do the same thing each day...is a great start to feeding our souls and those of our children at each meal. THINK SIMPLE...but what a great opportunity to remind ourselves and our children about our never dying souls and their constant need to be fed the Word of God!
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...and on that same note, we should do some brainstorming while I am up there on what to do during vacation as far as family devos. I really enjoyed that one year when we (ok...you) put together those packets, and then didn't we have all the guys take turns teaching the next year...or something like that? Anyways, those were really special times, and I think we should most definitely do family devotions on vacation again! :)
I have to come back and catch up on the post below...looks good!