I remember a few years ago one of my blogger friends saying she was having a hard time writing on her “mom blog” because her kids were getting older. She felt more and more that she was sharing their story instead of hers. And maybe, her kids didn’t want all that information out for anyone’s perusal.
I’m feeling that same thing.
Lydia is going into 3rd grade and the things she’s dealing with are similar to what we’ve dealt with since she was 3 years old, but now they are on a 3rd grade level. And it’s hard for me to write about them. I want to share with you so you can be encouraged but I’m having to weigh heavily how I share them in order to honor my daughter.
This is one of those stories.
This week has been hard. We’ve had lots of misunderstandings.
Today was the hardest one. I walked into my room to separate myself from the problem and am not even sure I was praying but within a couple of minutes God answered my prayer as Lydia walked into my room and said, “Will you pray for me?”
Even though my heart was still hard from the misunderstandings, that question opened a door to understand one another and more importantly understand some truth of God’s Word. We sat down together, talked and hugged. I pulled out my Bible and Power of a Praying Parent because I needed some specific Scriptures to share with her. Before I could even open either book, the Lord brought to my mind the perfect chapter from the Bible.
We talked through each section with soft tones and lots of back-rubbing and hand holding. Then, we did something that turned out so much better than I could have ever planned. We doodled.
That’s right. We doodled about the Scriptures we’d just read.
She grabbed a blank journal and I found a piece of cardstock. We wrote one of the verses and then just drew, decorated and doodled. It gave us time to calm down, to concentrate, meditate and interact with God’s Word.
We’re going to do this each day until we’ve gone through the entire chapter and I believe God’s Word will accomplish it’s purpose, cleanse our hearts and set us free.
Next time you’re at your wit’s end with a situation, go to God’ Word. If you have to sing it, read it or doodle it, let it be the cleansing, smoothing oil in the middle of your hard, sticky problems.
How do you and your kids meditate on God’s Word?
I pray Jeremiah 32:17 often: Oh, Lord GOD! You Yourself made the heavens and earth by Your great power and with Your outstretched arm. Nothing is too difficult for You!
Perfect!
Amanda, So proud that you allow the Holy spirit to be yours & Lydia’s teacher. love you! Gail
Thank you, Gail! 🙂
a
Thank you for this post! I love the idea of doodling the scriptures! What a great way to spend time with your children and be in God’s word.
I purchased the Child Training Bible (http://www.childtrainingbible.com/) and am still putting it all together. I’m hoping to use that as I work to train my daughter and son for God. Love the idea you mentioned though. I teach 3rd and 4th at a Christian school and we did something similar for Bible time. The students really got into it. I think it was so meaningful to them.
Oh, what a great idea! My girl would just love this! So would I actually! Thank you for sharing!
I absolutely adore this idea. My 7th grader & I often find ourselves at an impasse and I truly believe this would get us “unstuck.” Thanks for the brilliance. 🙂
Thanks for sharing. I AM encouraged. As my daughter gets older (she’s now 3) I hope I’ll have the wisdom to do these types of things.
Amanda, I know how you love the Donut Man/Rob Evans. He has an album Just for Kids: Good Shepherd. Last year I went through Psalm 23 with the kids line by line. We used the songs a lot. I did it to get my 5 and 3 year old girls ready for their baptism. (My 7 year old son did it, too.)
Try also reading for yourself A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23 by Phillip Keller. It’s great. Thank you for including Susan Hunt’s book Sammy and His Shepherd in the photo with the journal. I am going to get it. (I already have her ABC’s book, thanks, to your recommendation way back.) The kids want to revisit the Good Shepherd theme again this year. (We will do it after their week at spy vbs and going through the Bible Detectives for the rest of the summer.)
I loved the idea you also did with Lydia about putting the oil on her…and getting her ready for summer camp. He anoints our heads with oil…
One more on the Good Shepherd…check out this site to talk about the Good Shepherd laying down his life for us and a good visual about communion:
http://www.elizabethfoss.com/reallearning/2009/04/the-good-shepherd-and-world-communion.html
Teaching the kids about the good shepherd has really deepened their relationship with Him, and helped me explain a lot of situations to them. I pray that it continues to do so with your kids.
(Sorry, this is a book, but there is so much to share…and I could see you writing an e-book one day about our Good Shepherd. I have a ton more ideas; I did this all last year with the kids.)
Blessings,
Amelia
Amelia! THANK YOU!! I totally forgot about the Donut Man songs and then the other day (before camp) Lydia and Asa watched an old Donut Man show on TV (it was like one where they did all different songs from different shows) and they ran into the room when it was done, “MOMMY! The Camping Donut Man show has a Sheep song in it!” Which was another perfect connection for her to have with camp. (It’s the “Although the Good Shepherd counts sheep, he never sleeps…” song)
Anyway, thanks for all the other tips and yes, the Susan Hunt book is good. It’s not AMAZING but it was a great tool to lead them through the whole passage. I need to write about it sometime.
THANK YOU again, friend for all your kind and encouraging words! 🙂
a
God is so good!!!!