Sweet View!

This is one of my favorite sights...

It started as a happenstance really.
Makayla is our early  bird...she would come out about 6:30 in the morning and "catch"  David and I reading our Bibles and praying...independently but together.  At first, it started out as great accountability.  I didn't want her to get up and me not be there spending time with God...David felt the same way.  (For the record, Karissa is not usually up at this time.)

It wasn't long before she started saying, "I need to have a Bible study too."  We had been reading a preschool devotion and Bible story later during the day, but she really wanted to add this in.

So David, being the wonderful father that he is, seized the moment. :) 

Our pastor had given an illustrated Bible for the kids for Christmas...and we also have Operation World for children (this tells about people groups around the world that have not heard about Jesus). 

Our church is reading through the New Testament together this year.  One chapter a day, five days a week.

   David started reading the same chapters with Makayla.

Then they read about a people group or country.

They pray for the people/country and for the day.

Then, Makayla comes to find me. 

We mark on our world map where the country/people group are that she just learned about.  Next, she chooses a prayer card for a missionary family we know from a basket.  She and I pray for them by name.

It is a sweet time and hopefully Makayla is growing a bigger world view...

and a bigger view of God who loves so many different people. 

 I am not sharing this as "Oh, look at us!"  We are fumbling through this parenthood thing like many of you have, currently are, or one day will.  I write this to encourage you to seize those opportunities of interest/spiritual hunger in your children.  In the teaching world, we call these "teachable  moments".  I also wanted to encourage you that children understand more than we think they can, I think.  :)

Honestly, if David hadn't jumped right in with the illustrated Bible, I would have gone to get the little preschool devotional.  Not that that is bad.  It is more on her level.  But, even though the book of Matthew is quite often over her head, she is grasping a lot of it.  I would have sold her short.  David holds the philosophy in Bible teaching that if you put the cookies on the top shelf, your students will stretch and grow and get it.  This is how he teaches the youth group and preaches...he is not into watering things down...thankfully.  So, if you want to try something with your kids, they might handle it better than you think.

What a precious time of the day our mornings have turned out to be.  I imagine the younger two will join us at the dining room table when they are older and ready...We kind of stumbled into this one and what a sweet gift it is to share this time together.