Devotion Time with the kids...

As a working mom of two kids I find time management my biggest struggle. Time for the kids, the housework, the yard work, devotion time, time with my husband, my job, etc. There are days when it seems I have no time for any of that or such limite time. Devotion time for myself is very hard to find. It is not a habbit that I learned as a child, and it is one I struggle with daily as an adult. I love it when I do get that time alone with just God and myself. As my children have gotten old enough to read I felt that I needed to start devotion time with them so that they can learn it now before the pressures of others things press in and maybe they will not struggle as I did with the time factor for devotions.

It has taken us about two years to figure it out time wise. Summers are worse because we do not have as strict a schedule and we do not have just one sitter so every day in the week can be different. But during the school year we found the time and all three of us love the time we get to spend together and in God's word. We worked our morning routine so that we have about 18 minutes of free time between getting ready for work and school and getting on the bus. I admit that I have to really watch the clock and stay on them to get things done in that time frame but for the most part it works and when it does not they get upset we did not have time. But for the most part it works and we love it. We only wish that Daddy could be there with us. (He has to be at work before any of us get up.)

Finding something we can do in that short of time has also been a challange. For about a year we have been doing this series of books.. Little Book Devotions 31 Daily Devotionals published by Brighton Books. They are pretty neat. For 31 days you are on one topic, like sharing, kindess, forginess etc. Since we usually only do devotion time during the week it takes us over a month to do the whole book. I like the format, it is simple and you get kid tips and parent tips, bible verses to learn and a short prayer. It really helped me to get started since I had no clue how to do devotions with my kids. After we went through all the books I could find at my local Christian book store. I needed to do something new. My next post will be on one of the two new books we are going to try.

I just wanted to get out there the books I have been using and how much that the kids and I both love the time we get to spend together learning. There is just something about learning together and seeing them get it that gives me such joy!