Thursday, September 26, 2013

Ask for Help

My sister and I were talking a few weeks ago about how we wanted to bring more scripture and more of our Christian faith into our homes and into the lives of our children.  As we were brainstorming we both came up with our own plans, which seem to be similar at heart.  We want to present the scripture in a fun way, not a forced way.  We want it to be routine but not 3 times a day every day no matter what.

My sister already has a family game night each week.  They don't make plans, they order pizza (so Mom doesn't have to cook), they play a game and sometimes watch a movie.  But they spend that night fully focused on their family.  Her kids are 7 and 5 now!  Whoa, that can't be possible.   Anyhow, she wanted to add a Biblical element to the night.  So she ordered a family devotional, I will have to get the name of it and her feelings on it this far.  It has daily devotionals that they are going to do weekly.  Then she is going to post the scripture on a new chalkboard she placed in the entrance/exit of her home.  She was hoping it would catch their eye and they would ask what it said.  She was right and it lent to a really nice moment of reading the scripture to her children.  As they leave for school in the morning they can read the weekly scripture, talk and pray about it.  Pretty neat idea!

One of the other ideas Angela and I had was to share prayer requests amongst the children.  Colton and Riley could give us things to pray about and Lachlan and Peter could share things with them to pray about.  This would not only teach them to pray for others but also to think of things to bring to God in prayer. 

For me I just kept thinking of the 2 boxes of Experience God curriculum that I haven't gotten to because I haven't made it routine.  My hope was to make it more routine than it is now.  So I have had the first lesson of the new month (we finally finished the first month, started in May) waiting for days.  Every time I pull it out Lachlan was grumpy, not in the mood.

So the lesson we finally finished today was called Ask for Help.  The question was: When have you asked for help?  Lachlan said "Uh Mom," like he was forming a question.  Then he told me that he asks me for apples.  I love their answers, not sure if he has ever asked me for apples.  Experience God had us write down letters on pieces of paper.  I wrote, L, P, T, and J, all of the first letters of our names.  All of which Peter can distinguish and tell me which family member they belong to.

I placed the letters face down on the floor and I picked one up with the letter facing out so I could not see it.  I asked Lachlan to "help" me figure out what letter it is but he can't tell me the name of it.  First he traced it in the air, then he formed it with his fingers, then I asked him what sound it made.  Turns out I had the letter T.  So then it was Lachlan's turn and there were three more letters.  He picked up J first and I traced it in the air and then I told him it was Daddy's letter and it made the /j/j/ sound.  "J" he exclaimed.

So the point of this little exercise?  To point out that we all need help sometimes and that we can always ask for help from God just like we asked for help from each other to figure out the letter.  The Explain strip through the middle of the page was actually a scripture verse.  Mathew 21:22 Jesus said to ask him for anything.  He wants to share his greatness with us. 

Wow, we can ask Jesus for help!  What do you think you could ask Jesus to help you with?  He didn't have an idea so I came up with some.  You could ask him to help you be patient and wait for Trick or Treating.  This is the first year Lachlan is getting this holiday and he chose to be a pumpkin.  I picked him up a super cute pumpkin costume at a children's resale store and he wears it all the time.  Always asking, when is Halloween.  Which is over a month away.  I gave him some other ideas, but this one apparently stuck.

A few minutes later he stopped me in the hall and said "I want to pray to Jesus."  Okay bud.  He started his prayer "Dear Jesus, I really want to wear my costume, I do, I just do . . ."  I thought hmm, he might need help figuring out how to finish this.  "Please help me to wait for Halloween."  He repeated after me and said "Amen."

It was so great for all of this to come together and for Lachlan, for the first time, think about how God could help him.  Not only that God could help him but that he could ask God in prayer.  He has prayed for things before but never thought through it quite like this. 

We finished up this time by sitting down and I had the boys each pick some colors they wanted to read from the Virtue Training Bible.  Another amazing tool for my family.  We read a handful of scriptures including one that called the Lord our God a fortress.  It was fun to tell Lachlan what a fortress was and how God can be our fortress.  It's been a good day.

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