I had one of those ah-has when I taught a Sunday school class for kids at church last Sunday. I always put so much time and preparation into any lessons I give at church because I feel a personal duty to God to inspire and love His children.
As I was thinking about how to make my morning devotionals with my own children more powerful and meaningful, I realized I should approach it like I do my church responsibilities. I should give it thought and preparation.
This week we have had beautiful, spiritual morning devotionals and it hasn't even taken any extra time really. As I study my scriptures personally I begin with a prayer in my heart and a question as simple as "What do my children need to know today?" Or "How can I help my children see the importance of forgiveness or kindness?" Each day I have come across a wonderful scripture or story that illustrates the principle they need to know.
How powerful to know that each morning I can prepare my children with the armour of God to be His valiant children!
Wow, so inspiring for me- thanks.
ReplyDeletePS if you are looking for some poems or thoughts to read/ memorize, Latter day Family Resources has a good one called: Favorite Family Devotional Poems. They also have a book of poetry called: poems for memorization. We like to read/ memorize theses at our devotional.
Thanks Kim!
ReplyDeleteDina, I was a bit behind on reading your blog but I went back and read your past posts! So Inspiring thank you so much for all your great thoughts! Especially this one about morning devotional! I needed the reminder I have done this before it works so well. Why had I forgotten! Thanks for the reminder! Loving your blog!
ReplyDeleteThis is my favorite part of the day. I feel like I have accomplished exactly what I should have when we have devotional. Here are some things I like to do:
ReplyDeleteThis is a great time to practice memorizing. We usually learn a new hymn and a new scripture or article of faith. With the songs it's fun to make props that the kids can hold to help them with different parts of the song or give each child one line or sentence and then they are responsible for just their part. My kids love this. One fun thing was helping them learn all of the apostles names. You can go to "newsroom" on LDS.org and see a picture of each of the apostles or it's fun to get conference DVD's and have the children have a race to see who can say an apostles name the fastest when their picture comes up. You can play a guessing game with their voices too. It's also fun to find fun facts about them and then find pictures that the kids can cut out or color about things they like to do and make their own little book about the apostles. one of the most memorable things we ever did was dress the kids up very simply like characters from the scriptures. For example my boys dressed up as the stripling warriors and put bandanas around their heads, took their shirts off, put bandages around arms or legs, held swords and shields and I took their picture. We did like 20 of these and then I put them all in a book with parts of the actual scripture verses that tell the story and I labeled the whole book "Likening the Scriptures". You can even take them places for their picture like the river for Moses mother placing her baby in the reeds or Thanksgiving Point's Noah's Ark. The kids love to look at it forever afterward. And you are already aware I'm sure but my kids love to do things from the friend on lds.org especially listen to the audio for the stories and color the pictures on the computer.
I would love to hear more ideas about what others do. I love this part of the day. Sometimes I just keep rolling with devotional and we spend an hour or two and all of a sudden I realize we have just accomplished many components of learning and "school" if you want to call it that. It's awesome!
These are awesome ideas and I'm going to try some Monday! Thanks Jessica!!
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