the candle

i debated just emailing julie and amy back (they asked for more details about "the candle") - but thought maybe someone else might be interested.

first of all, i am NOT in any way saying that we have a "magic" formula for this time. it is what works for our family, our schedule, our kids. you need to figure out what works for you and the "personality" of your family.

the candle started when Rebekah was a little over 2 years old. at the beginning of december, we started doing the "Adornaments" with her every night. we lit one of the advent candles each night as we did it. thus, the name, "the candle". it just stuck. we do not light a candle every night of the year (just in december when it's advent time).

with the exception of the "Adornaments" at Christmas and the "Resurrection eggs" at Easter, we don't use any special books. we read from Pat's (or my) Bible. there are lots of great children's Bibles, storybooks, etc out there...but we feel like our kids need to be read to from the ACTUAL, COMPLETE Word of God. no, they don't understand it all. and we take little chunks and explain it to them in a way that they can understand. but we feel like this is very important. i think our kids can understand and grasp way more than people normally expect.

some topics that we've gone through:
-creation:this is a great one to start with. just reading through the creation story. and then you can get as creative as you want with it. we made a book at the end where Rebekah (she was about 4 at the time) drew what each day meant. it's one of my favorite things to look at!
-Ephesians 6:1 "Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right." -memorize this and talk about what it means
-the Sermon on the Mount - we just read through it little bits at a time and discussed it
-the life of David (Pat was teaching this to our Shepherd group - so he was very familiar with sections of scripture that he could read to walk them through the life of David - LOTS of good practical application!)
-prayer - this is what we're doing now. reading a psalm each night (piggybacking off of "the life of David" - since he wrote most of the psalms!) and talking about the different "ways" we can pray to God (Ex. confessing our sin, praising Him, asking Him questions)

our candle time usually lasts about 15-20 minutes. we do it pretty much every night. our kids' see us have a lot of "priorities" in our lives - and we feel like it's very important that they see this time as a family as a priority. they love it. they are disappointed when we don't do it. it's not a "you must do this" activity.

we start by reading a portion of scripture (sometimes just one verse, sometimes a few - never too, too many)
then Pat explains it (this is where my kids are so blessed and don't even realize it - Pat is the BEST teacher, seriously), asks them questions to keep them engaged
then we pray. lately, since we've been talking about prayer, we are having each of them pray.
some nights Pat just prays. some nights we let them pray about whatever they want (those are fun ones!) some nights we have them pray for missionaries we support, or something that someone we know is going through.
that's it.

i'd love to answer any questions you might have. and, like i said at the beginning. this isn't a magic formula. it's not going to "make" our kids love God or change their hearts - but it's a way for us to teach them the Word (which is part of our job as their parents) and for us to look them in their eyes and hopefully see what's going on in their hearts. it is a sweet time for us as a family.