Traditions part 2

I mentioned in an earlier post about Traditions. A book that has shaped my view of tradition and how to incorporate that into the home is Noel Piper's "Treasuring God in our Traditions." Amazing! Chapter 5 is called "Everyday and the Ultimate." This chapter helped put into practical terms how you make spending time with God normal. Mrs. Piper said, "How wonderful it is when family worship is just as normal a part of the day-so that the day is uncomfortable and off-kilter without it." Now, while we do not have daily family worship I have incorporated this practice into our home school time on Tues and Thursday. They love it. I found a kids worship dvd and we do a few songs after our bible time. I love it when I look beside me and I see Caroline w/ baby doll on her hip swaying back and forth with the other hand up in the air praising....then I realize that I am holding Wyatt, swaying back and forth and have my other hand in the air. They are watching.
The next daily kind of tradition that I thought was beautiful was the teaching of spending time w/ God in His Word each day. I have heard several teachers say this...from Andy Stanley, to Reggie Joiner that you can't wait until they are teens to teach them about a daily time with God in His Word. Mrs Piper says the same kind of thing later in Chapter 5 - "Why would we wait to train up our children in this essential discipline? ...When we train our children in godly patterns,godly traditions, we're helping them get ready to move with responsibility into adulthood." Amen. She described how her children before they could read would have time listening to God's word for about 15 min a day...as they grew older it would turn into reading and journaling once they could write. I began to think about this process of training up my children in the way that they should go...how could I do this. I loved Mrs. Piper's way of using audio Cd's for her children before they could read. I thought this would be a great addition to our library of listening.
I found on line "The Word & Song Children's Bible" created by Stephen Elkins of Wonder Workshop. It is 5 CD's of the whole bible w/ over like 100 songs that go w/ the stories. Now as an actor, I would say that I often think "I could get together some AMAZING talent and rerecord these so much more believable and just better"...one thing at a time...maybe sometime later that will happen. But, if you can get over a bit of the cheese sometimes this has been an amazing tool in our home. I started w/ it in the car while we would be driving...but they wanted to listen to them in the house too...so now that's how we start our day at breakfast. I put in one of the cd's and it is playing during breakfast and that early morning playtime that all happens right there at your feet. Questions get asked, songs are sung...and honestly I find myself when they have journeyed from the room being challenged w/ the amazing obedience of Abraham as he is about to sacrifice his son and I wonder Lord am I that obedient? So I am learning again right along side my kiddos.
This has been an amazing tool that I have loved incorporating into our daily routine. I am thankful for Noel Piper saying some unusual things in our culture. Oh may my family be unusual.

*(The picture posted here is Caroline falling asleep at night reading her bible. I used to think that falling asleep reading my bible was a bad thing...somehow irreverent to God. The more I think about this photo I think...what a great way to fall asleep. Perhaps that is the way to go instead of "Friends", or "Will and Grace" reruns.)