Thursday, April 9, 2015

Teaching My 7 Year Old to Have Daily Quiet Time with Jesus

I am officially back to the blog! :)

Last week we were busy getting the house ready for Big Brother's 7th birthday party (a LEGO party, of course!).



This week, since Big Brother is a "big" 7 year old, we added a new aspect to his day - personal "Quiet Time with Jesus."

For his birthday, we felt led to give Big Brother a new Bible. We chose The Illustrated KJV Study Bible for Kids and he could not be happier with it!



So on Monday morning, I began teaching Big Brother how to have his own personal "Quiet Time with Jesus" (aka devotions). He has his time with the Lord while I have mine, and Little Brother is pretty content to play in the floor at this time.

We are doing Quiet Time before breakfast. I want him to get in the habit of thinking of the Lord first in the morning. I told him that he is not doing this for Mommy or necessarily for school. (We still do a Bible lesson time together after breakfast to start school.) This is just a special time for him to grow closer to the Lord and to start the day off in a good way.

He responds best to written instructions, so right now while he is still learning, I give him an index card telling him what to do. He finds himself a cozy spot and follows each step:

1.) Pray and ask God to help you understand His Word.

2.) Read _ (I give him 3-6 verses to read. Eventually he will choose his own Scriptures. I am marking the page for him with a bookmark.)

3.) Think about what you can learn from what you just read.

4.) Pray again! Is there anything special you need to pray about today?

Quiet Time with Jesus generally takes him about 5-10 minutes total right now, but I think it just might be his favorite (and it is definitely the most important) 5-10 minutes of his day!

It is so sweet to hear his little prayers and see him actually able to begin to read, understand, and apply God's Word.

My personal quiet time takes a bit longer since I read a whole chapter, so he is free to play quietly with Little Brother while I finish. During breakfast he likes to tell me what he read about and what he learned. I have also shared with him some of what I am learning lately in my Good Morning Girls Bible study.

I think it is so important to teach children that they can have a personal relationship with the Lord rather than simply teaching them about Him or, worse, just teaching them a list of religious do's and don't's!

Do your children spend personal time with the Lord daily? I would love to hear about it! Leave me a comment below! How do they fit it into their schedule? What do they do during this time? When do you have quiet time with Jesus, Mom?

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4 comments:

  1. Such sweet ideas! My "big brother" will be 7 next month. I'm excited to try this with him. Thanks for sharing.

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  2. So glad you found this helpful! God bless!! :)

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  3. I've never heard of this book but we'll be getting it! We're just starting to think about teaching our 7 year old son to do the same. Thanks for sharing on the Mom 2 Mom Monday Linkup! Featuring your post as one of my favorites tomorrow. :) http://www.proverbialhomemaker.com/tag/mom-2-mom-linkup

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    1. Thanks so much! I enjoy reading The Proverbial Homemaker, and I am so glad you stopped by! God bless!!! :)

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