Family Devotions

A photo of the screened cosmos
(My phone camera doesn't do it justice)

When the children were young, it was next to impossible to do family devotions. We had to do a lot of behavioural management due to inattentiveness, chit-chatting, asking of irrelevant questions and squabbles. The older two were bored with the kiddy songs and simple lessons, whereas the younger ones couldn't help disturbing everyone especially when we tried to address the legitimate queries of their elder siblings. 

God had very graciously prompted me at the beginning of this year to split them into two groups. We use regular worship songs and read straight from the bible starting from Genesis. The lessons learnt are rich and the questions asked by our first two children are deep and pertinent. When it comes to the younger two, we still use an age-appropriate devotional with interesting stories and upbeat kids' praise songs to keep them interested. Thank God that our bedtime family devotions have now finally become peaceful and meaningful. 

Today, I had yet another inspiration. 

We actually have a home planetarium which projects the starry night sky onto the ceiling. We bought it quite some time ago. The boys have it in their room at night on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays while the girls use it on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays as they fall asleep. 

Tonight, I brought the machine into my air-conditioned room, prepared my favourite lavender aromatherapy, put on the soundtrack of sea waves accompanied by ethereal music and switched on an audio reading of the book of Psalms. All four children piled into our queen-sized bed, snugly tucked under my comforter, and listened to the bible while gazing at the constellations. It was such a beautiful and therapeutic time that I have decided to have this session every Sunday night.

Even though the little ones are inevitably prone to fidgeting and talking, I'm sure that in good time, they will learn to be still and know that He is God. I pray that this regular quiet moment of imbibing the Word of God under such soothing conditions, which is as close to the ambience of nature as we can possibly create at home, will enhance their relationship with their Lord and Saviour.