Heart Focus

I'd noticed that throughout the day our hearts were often not in tune with one another or the Lord. After reading a couple of things and assessing our home it became evident that the problem was in the way we began our day, we started our days off in isolation. We normally woke up did chores ate breakfast and started school. So this pattern need to change so we could seek first his kingdom in our home!

So in the morning we focus our hearts on 1 Peter 3:8-9-  Finally, all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble. Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.

Each day we talk about a part of the verse and I give practical examples of how to live the verse out. We encourage our children even our unrepentant children to think on the word of the Lord because we believe it does not return void. So this is just formative because we believe the Holy Spirit has to get a hold of our children's hearts and it is this heart change we seek.

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2-3 days per week we read from Leading Little ones to God. I've found that this book often providentially expands on the Catechism questions on which the children are working. We read the article, answer the questions, sing the hymn and discuss the memory verse.

Then we move on to Truth and Grace and we sing the hymn we are working on 3 or 4 times. Then we do our Catechism Questions together in an old fashioned recitation style. I read the first 25 questions and the children say the answers. We then discuss how yesterday went and try to resolve lingering problems and celebrate good things then I tell them what is on today's schedule. During this time I try to anticipate any "problems" that might occur and we discuss those things ahead of time.

This sounds similar to family worship but its not our family worship. My husband leads family worship in the evening which for us consists of Bible reading, singing & prayer.

This has really been a wonderful change it focuses our day on first seeking Lord. Then as I remind children about pieces of our Devotional or our focus verse it is fresh in their minds. This has truly been an encouragement to help this Mama press on to the harvest focused on the hearts of her children!

May this be an encouragement to you!