Thursday, August 27, 2009

Family Devotional


In our family we are trying to get into a very new, sometimes difficult to achieve short family devotional before we go to bed each night. Now, for all of you who know our crazy family personally you are probably wondering how this gets achieved: a lot of patience and turns out a pretty good sense of humor on the dad's part (who typically presents our "lesson"). We learned some important things the other night that I will share here: when it comes to the different age groups in our family, short really is sweet; asking really open ended questions sometimes gets you in trouble, like when the dad asked "what did we just read" and Belle answered, "Go, Dog, Go". This was a completely correct answer because right before devotional Cam finished reading that book to Charlie and Belle! What wasn't the answer the dad was looking for?

We thought a book might help guide us that had a scripture and then a passage to guide you through the scripture and it probably does help, if you're not 5 and you're not Charlie rolling around on the floor trying too figure out why Freckles the dog is always trying to get away from him (a little honesty here). This particular night, mommy does not have the spirit and would not have earned her participation points had she been in school. The dad is trying his hardest to keep everyone engaged on this lesson about how God doesn't always give us what we ask for and He meets our needs as He sees them, not our wants. Very hard lesson for even this grown-up to understand, but he asks some good questions, gets some good answers. Cam asks THE question starting with the baby "what was this lesson about? what did you learn?" Any good teacher makes sure their students know what they've just taught. So, while we wait for Charlie's answer and it must be a good one because it's taking awhile, he says "God loves you". And the Pico girls start laughing hysterically and Cam can't hold out long before he realizes that is a perfect way to wrap this night up because that had nothing to do with our lesson. Not one thing! Don't get me wrong, it's the absolute truth, but Charlie knew it was a devotional and knew he had a shot a getting this one right.

Here's my final bit of advice: if you are ever stuck for an answer in Sunday school or Bible study class, follow Charlie's lead and answer with "God loves you"!

3 comments:

Grandma said...

Absolutely the cutest thing I ever heard!!! Maybe just doing the devotional once a week might do the trick but then you'd miss out on all the "correct answers".

Payback for Cam when we tried to read from the Bible about the birth of Christ and make Christmas special and spiritual and he and John would do everything to disrupt the evening!!!!

Love you Cam:)

Anonymous said...

Years ago, I asked my middle child what part of Mass she liked best. Without missing a beat she said, "The Speedy God parts." I took a minute to try to decipher what she meant but finally asked her to explain. "You know, Mom! Pray Speedy God, Thanks Speedy God!"

Translation: Praise be to God, Thanks be to God. It still cracks me up at Mass.

Ya gotta love 5-year-olds!

Cortney G. Huber said...

Kris! You all are so amazing! Inspirational. Who knew? Just kidding. I knew. I love you and your little family--I only wish we lived closer and could spend more time together. Can you imagine Hubers and Picos having a joint nighttime devotional? Ours sound amazingly like yours, so increase the mischief exponentially and you'd have your answer. But in spite of all the antsiness, I know they're learning and it's helping our family, and so we continue. Sometimes THEY remind US. And sometimes Calvin bites everyone and it's a thorough mess. It's sort of a microcosm of parenthood in general--do your best and hope something sticks. Thanks for the inspiration.