Adventures in family devotions

Ever since Christmas, our family devotions have been preparing us for, and leading up to the appearance of the Wise Men on Epiphany.  Perhaps we were over-educated and too prepared with the story, for when Shawn asked the kids what the gifts the Wise Men brought were, it resulted in responses like, "Mold, Frankenstein and manure!".

Encouraging them to settle down and be serious about the devotion is not always successful.  While we have standing jokes (our devotional always reminds kids that their pastor, father, mother and Sunday School teacher are there to teach them about Jesus- who are only 2 people to our kids), we do want the tone to be worshipful and give them the opportunity to ask whatever questions they may have.  However, there is peeking through the fingers during prayer time, tattling- "Look, she's not praying!", fighting over who gets to light or extinguish the candle, and the unending argument over whose turn it is to put up the next Nativity figure.

When Jonah was 4, he decided he didn't like church and didn't want to go anymore.  We explained to him why he had to go and what he could do there to keep himself busy during the "boring" parts.  His response, obviously, was that he did not require church, as he worshipped Baal and not Jesus.  This convenient Baal worship continued on for several months--usually when he was supposed to do something that Jesus would want him to do- like share, attend church or stop hitting his sister.  I realized, though, that he had really paid attention in Sunday School when we studied Elijah.  Although his application was not quite what I wanted it to be, the information was there.

So, although the Wise Men in the Stafford home apparently brought stinky and scary gifts to the child Jesus, the message was heard.  Even with all the silliness, they heard the Word.  They know the story.  They know what each gift represented.  They're just PK's--and you know what trouble they can be!