"Cultivating a Spiritual Home"

Hello!  Oh boy, big topic for this blog entry!  Those who have known me for a while can easily picture the 7+ years that my involvement with MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) was a defining feature of my life.  I "graduated" out of MOPS this past May when my youngest child finished his own preschool years.  Around that same time I also became the Team Leader for women's ministry at our church here in Erie, PA.  So I am still in touch with MOPS and I LOVE hearing all about what is happening there these days.  The friendships that I developed during my MOPS years are of lasting value.  Tomorrow night I will have my monthly get-together with my "MOPS table from 4 years ago".  We added a couple of other friends to this circle and formed a "book club".  Not that we read or anything.  Talking about life takes up all of our evenings together!  But calling it "Book Club" gives us something concrete to put on the calendar.  :)

Okay, before I get too far off track, I will return to the topic of this blog entry!  The MOPS group asked me to come and share on "Cultivating a Spiritual Home".  EEEEKKK!  I began to put some thoughts together and hoped that they would flow well.  This became a time for me to look closely at where we are right now and where we have been.  Through this reflection and self-examination, I actually ended up shifting a few things within our current approach here at home.  My children are currently in grades K and 2nd.  Everyone at MOPS has at least one child between birth and kindergarten. My approach to this topic needed to be geared towards how to begin in the infant/toddler/preschool years.  Okay!  I began to feel a bit more at ease on approaching this important topic.  Had I been asked to share about how to tackle spiritual development beyond very early elementary, I would have been really nervous!   

Here is the outline of what I put together for the group.  I realize that it is not going to make quite as much sense without having heard this in person!  But you will hopefully get the gist of it and please feel free to ask me about anything!  More importantly, I am going to link in some favorite resources below this outline.  

1)   Focus on sharing stories rather than rules! (Deut 6:20-25)

a)     Evening prayer – who can we pray for from our day today?

b)     Dinner conversation – high point and low point?

c)      In general conversation, look to highlight the eternal.

d)     While listening to music – ask what is this song about?

e)     When kids are asking the big questions, don’t plan to say anything that you would have to go back and later retract.  Build a foundation!

f)       Show them your own relationship with Christ.  Ups and downs!

2)   Determine your family values and priorities.  What defines you?

a)     What is the lens through which you will shape your world view?

b)     Who are we spending our time with in everyday life?

c)      When encountering something iffy, ask “Is this something that we want to learn about?” and talk through it together.  Kids will learn to think!

d)     If attending church, preschool, AWANA – use the materials, experiences and people there as resources for your spiritual growth!

e)     During the Christmas season, be strategic with what you highlight.

3)   It is more about who you are than what you do.

a)     What do our children see us doing on a daily basis?

b)     1 Corinthians 13 – love is of the most value!

c)      Show the joy within your own faith as expressed in everyday life.

d)     You are the leader – illus. of the hose and buckets.  Fresh love!

e)     Share examples of Children’s Bibles. (See below for photos and links!)

f)       Suggestions of resources for family spiritual growth.
(See below for photos and links!)

g)     Invest in growing as a person of faith yourself and you will become a mother who is equipped to cultivate a spiritual home!

 Tiny Bear's Bible for the youngest of kids!

The Beginner's Bible is perfect for ages 6 and under.

The Jesus Storybook Bible is geared more towards kids ages 4+.

Big Thoughts for Little People is best for ages 3-6.

My Big Book of 5-Minute Devotions is so much fun for ages 4+.

In the spring of 2013, my daughter was attending kindergarten at Ridgefield Elementary.  This was a Millcreek Township school which was just a minute from hour home.  Ironically, we had actually purchased our home in March of 2010 because Ridgefield was the assigned elementary school.  Long story short, Millcreek schools fell into a budget fiasco and Ridgefield was one of two elementary schools that closed.  Three days before this news hit everyone like a tidal wave, my husband and I had begun to talk about the idea of homeschooling our daughter for 1st grade!  Over the next two months, this plan began to take shape.  We home-schooled in 2013-14 for her 1st grade year and our son went to preschool three mornings per week.  For the 2014-15 school year, I am enjoying having both of them at home with me for school!  To say that I NEVER saw this coming would be an understatement!  Oh my goodness.  But it has been good.  

Just as we were in the process of deciding whether or not to home-school, a friend had posted on Facebook that "What you plant is what grows."  This simple statement hit me like a ton of bricks!  I felt as though we had not been planting much of anything around here within recent days.  We decided to go all-in and I continued with my research of curriculum.  We wound up going with "My Father's World" and picked up the deluxe package for 1st grade.  I LOVED it.  THIS was what my heart longed to share with my daughter along the lines of "cultivating a spiritual home".  I actually just re-ordered the 1st Grade "consumables" as we begin to make plans for our 2015-16 school year.  This is what I can hardly wait to begin using with my son!

I really love the philosophy and approach to learning which I have found through My Father's World.  They do offer preschool-aged curriculum as well!  You do not need to be a "homeschooling family" to take advantage of what they have created at My Father's World.  You could pick up a few of their tools and use them to supplement whatever your child is currently doing.  

In closing, as I think about the things that have had the MOST IMPACT towards cultivating a spiritual home, one BIG THING comes to mind.  Honestly, this is no surprise to me.  God's Word itself is most powerful and has the ability to shape and change our lives - at any age!  Last year, it was a part of Kylee's first grade curriculum to learn a Proverb each week.  These Proverbs had been strategically selected to match up with what we were learning throughout our My Father's World curriculum from that week.  

This is my own "best tip" on how to cultivate a spiritual home.  Get God's Word into the hands and hearts of your kids.  Allow it to settle deep within them.  Talk about it together.  Apply it to life.  Soak in the fullness of what He is saying to us.  God has promised that His word will not return void but will accomplish His purposes in our lives.  

You could take the following approach with any simple passage of scripture:

We would begin with me reading it to her.    

Then she would sound out the words with help and we would read/say it together a few times.  

My daughter is wired to be quite creative.  Her own favorite part was to "act out" the proverb a few times.  She would sometimes use Barbies or stuffed animals.  Or me and her brother.  She would put together a scenario that illustrated the truth of the proverb.  Then she would want me to put together a scenario and "perform" it for her.  

The next day, Kylee would copy the proverb onto her own worksheet.  The idea was to use her very best handwriting.

We would discuss it again and I would oftentimes pull out correlating examples from other places in scripture.  We would look at how they fit together.

Throughout the week there would be moments in real life where we could naturally highlight the truth of the proverbs!  Pretty amazing!

We would also practice reciting the weekly proverb and it is incredible to think of how quickly these things "stuck" with her and how they are still familiar a year later.  I thank the Lord for HIS faithfulness in this.  What a neat reminder that it is not just our own efforts in reaching out towards him.  HE is reaching for us and wants to be at home in our lives if we will allow Him a place there!