We have been meaning to do family devotionals for a long time. We have tried to start things in the past, Suzy has done some with her and the boys, I do something with them before bed, but we have never had a consistent time of the four of us getting together for worship, prayer and studying the bible.
That all changed this morning, and boy, was it not what I expected.
We are patterning what we are doing after what our pastor did with his kids when they were growing up, and that consists of each of us taking a day of the week (Daniel is Tuesdays, Sammy is Wednesdays, Suzy is Thursdays and I am Fridays) and that person picking some songs to sing and a passage or bible story to talk about. I was assured by our pastor that the little ones could handle things, with a little help from others getting them started.
Until child number three miraculously shows up we are going to have Mondays be a time of prayer and singing, no lessons. So that is what we did yesterday, and it went great. Suzy uke'd out some great praise songs, the boys kind of sang along, and we prayed for awhile.
This morning Daniel was going to go solo, so Suzy and I were a little worried. We kept asking him yesterday if he wanted help preparing, and prompting him to see if he knew what he was going to do. He was evasive. He wanted it to be a secret. Those were our warning signs. We didn't heed them.
When I got the boys up (15 minutes early to accommodate our new activity) Sammy hopped out of bed with his usual enthusiasm and Daniel gave a characteristic moan. After making sure that their morning routines were good and going I went to finish getting myself ready for work. We all stumbled downstairs fifteen minutes later to get started, and another warning sign appeared, Daniel was wandering around with a tissue.
As a brief aside, Daniel is a terrible sick kid. Good natured and pleasant most of the time, when he has the slightest cold it is like his life is ending. Yuck. And that is how he was this morning. Moaning, moping, the whole bit.
[Me, in a scared voice] 'You need anything to get ready for devotional, buddy?'
[Daniel, sniveling, half crying voice] 'I can't find a bible.'
Our house is filled with Bibles, kids bibles, adult bibles, at least seven translations, bibles all over the place. Much like with spiders, in our house you are never more than two feet away from a bible.
[Me, again, more scared] 'We have lots of bibles, is there one you are looking for?'
[Daniel, mumbling unintelligibly]
[Suzy, entering to save the day] 'Oh, that's right here.' (I don't know how she understood him, I don't know how she knew where this random bible was, I don't understand a lot about my wife's skills, but I sure do like them.)
So now Daniel has his bible and it looks like he finds a particular spot in it, so we all sit down to some more uke-ing from the multi-talented Suzanne.
After a few songs, we pray and all look to Daniel to get us started. He looks like he is about to collapse under the pressure. Nothing is coming out. He is flummoxed, he is crying. The gentle prompting from his parents do nothing but send him deeper into his hole of despair. The surprisingly gentle prompting from his brother helps not a bit. Finally I decide to throw him a lifeline.
'Daniel, do you want me to get things started today and you can do your time next week?'
[Daniel is barely able to nod 'yes']
'Ok, buddy, why don't we look at ...' and off we went to learn about seeds planted in various soils. Sammy was able to follow along and participate, but Daniel never got into the swing of things. When I left for work a few minutes later Daniel was still looking forlorn and barely keeping things together. I am more than a bit scared about how he does at school today.
Our first day of family devotionals was less than successful, and tomorrow, Sammy!
Please pray for us.
A very sweet card but what is up with the big old bloody hairs!?
I believe the prices are listed here and you can drop your money in the hole.
I love how Daniel puts a subject on top and of course I love the p.s. and how he spells 'attitude'.
I think this is Daniel and I. Very sweet.
Can't remember what this was on, maybe his door?
Daniel loves making maps.
Apparently there is a book in the works and you can buy one for the low price of $5.50. I was a little concerned about the lower regions of the boy in the drawing. I asked Daniel what was going on there and he clarified that it is the boy's pants and the "B" stands for barn door (which Daniel's is often open). I think I need to give him some lessons on drawing the lower half of a person before he offends someone.
