Being Intentional

We started something new in our house a week or so ago. I didn't want to blog about it until I knew that it was really going to stick and so far, so good!! You already know that for the month of December we have a special devotional time as a family every night using the Jesse Tree and the devotional that goes with it. It was such a meaningful time (especially for Christian) that the kids would look forward to each day, so we knew we needed continue something similar through-out they year. I had been thinking about what Courtney's family does each night and pretty much couldn't think of anything better, so I copied her idea. I knew that it needed to have a "special" element to it. I could just make everyone sit on the couch and read the Bible every night. Thus "the candle" began.

Our first night, we "made" our candle. That's actually the unity candle from my wedding. What on earth was I saving it for?? When I asked Ryan if he knew the significance of that particular candle he looked at me with the "am I supposed to know this...I don't want to answer because I'm going to say the wrong thing" look. At that point I knew that I was the only person in the world who cared about that candle and it seemed appropriate that it would become our first "candle." We're going to change up the candle every few months. We put heart candy in it for the month of February. We'll change it once we get closer to Easter.

Every night before bedtime we light the candle (there is something special about lighting that candle...I guess it just symbolizes that it's family time and we're not going to run off and do anything else while that candle is lit) and sit on the couch as a family. We have several different Bible story books that we're going to be reading from. Some nights we just read the story. Several times so far we've acted out the story (Ryan was John the Baptist and he baptised Christian who was pretending to be Jesus...so fun). The other night McKenna got to pretend to be Peter's mother-in-law who was sick and Jesus healed her. She loved it when she got to pretend to be sick and Christian ran and got her an ice pack because she had a fever. It's been fun for all of us. It's great to make the Bible come alive for them. Sometimes we have props that we hold to help us focus on the story.

Then after we're done our story, we sing one song (usually McKenna chooses...singing is her thing) and then we pray. Each night I give the kids directions about how we're going to pray otherwise they would just do the same prayer every night thanking Jesus for a whole list of things. Jesus taught his disciples how to pray and I think that shows us that prayer is not something we're just going to automatically know how to do. You need to learn how to do it. So we all pray and each night we pray differently. On the night we learned about Jesus healing Peter's mother-in-law we all took turns praying for someone that we knew who was sick. So nights we each ask Jesus to help us with something. Some nights we ask Jesus to forgive us for something. Other nights we might thank Jesus for things or for things he has done for us. And after we pray either Christian or McKenna get to blow out the candle and we all head to the kitchen to have a bedtime snack. Then we head to bed. The routine has been perfect for our family. I don't know what it will look like after we have a new baby, but right now we are enjoying it and it's working.

My mom babysat the kids the other night and when Christian found out she was coming over the first thing he said was "Does she know how to do the candle?" We skipped the candle last night because the boys were outside trying to clear the driveway of snow and Christian asked me today if we were going to do two candles today because we missed one yesterday. I can't believe how much of an impact it's had on him so far. I'm so glad he treasures our family time and that he's learning to treasure God's word.