Teach them diligently

Family devotions can become a little tricky when you have children at different ages of maturity. In our situation our oldest (Kailyn) is 10 years old and our youngest (Claire) is 6 and we have one in the middle (Cade) at 8. My tendency is to speak to the level of the oldest child because it takes the least amount of creativity on my part. I thought that somehow our youngest would “get it” through the “trickle down” method, but that wasn’t the case. My wife one day informed me that Claire wasn’t “getting it.” She was sitting quietly during our family devotions and was content to sit, but she didn’t understand a single thing I was talking about. I was so focused on Kailyn and Cade, I forgot all about our little one. To remedy this problem I gave the older two an assignment. On Mondays I will read from the Bible the passage we are going to study, and I simply walk through the passage explaining the meaning of the text and the implications for our lives. After the Monday’s family devotions, Kailyn and Cade have the task of coming up with a lesson for Claire. I usually give them a specific theme to focus on and perhaps two key application points to “drive home”. On Tuesday they will begin planning on how they will present this to their little sister. My wife helps them with ideas. Sometimes they are encouraged to act out the scene; some times they are encouraged to use puppets to communicate the truth that they are trying to get across. Sometimes we help them to put the memory verse they want to use in song form. Sometimes we help them with hand motions that will aid in communicating the truth. Then usually on Wednesday night, they will lead our family devotions to instruct Claire in what we discussed on Monday. We’ve been having them do this for a couple of years now and they really seem to enjoy it. They are at the place where their creative juices are constantly flowing and they need less and less direction as the weeks and months go by. In fact Claire looks forward to it with much anticipation now. Initially she didn’t know how to accept the concept of her brother and sister teaching her about the Bible, but now she is eager to listen. This activity has actually been beneficial for the whole family. For the older kids it reinforces the things they are learning. It also helps me determine whether I’m communicating to them clearly because if they can’t explain it to their sister, then that means I wasn’t clear enough in my explanation. And Claire learns the truths of Scripture explained to her at her level.

I was reminded of this topic because Kailyn put a note in my lunch bag this morning reminding me that tonight she and Cade would be teaching the Bible lesson.