A great way to spend time with your children and start teaching them some great habits can start in the evening before bed!
What do I mean? Well, here at our house my husband sits with our oldest son (2 1/2) in the evening and they read a Bible story and pray.
Sound simple? It is but my son loves this time and he has started looking forward to this time.
We use [the new] Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes by K. Taylor. This book has a very short prayer and a few short questions at the end of each story if you wish to use them with your child.
It can be a little difficult to get a two year old to pray but we wanted to instill the habit of praying to Jesus early on. My husband and I have prayed before meals ever since they were very young (in the highchair!). Now that our oldest is 2 1/2 after the Bible story my husband has him repeat a short prayer. It can be as simple as 'Dear Jesus Thank you for the day Amen.' Most children will be able to repeat that after mom or dad. We have now graduated to thanking Jesus for a few things (things like toys, brother, grandparents and mom & dad to name a few). My husband just asks our son what he is thankful (glad for or likes) for. Then we have him tell Jesus thank you for that thing or person. Yes, right now he may not understand all of what is going on and yes, he repeats some things back to us BUT it is a good foundation for his own prayer life that we hope he will someday have.
We have also found that this time with our oldest son is a good time to talk with him a little bit and interact about his day which is yet another way to let him know that we love him, care about him and want to spend time with him!
Perhaps you could implement one or two of these things into your bed time routine? It is well worth the effort!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment