Lighthouses & Obedience

early in the morning at the boys bible quiz competition

Hannah, a little tired after her nap

waiting for the popcorn to be done

We have switched gears into our THIRD character trait this year. Going through character traits has been so much fun. Last year, we focused on Cooperation for nine months.Yet, I am hopeful that by May we should have four traits under our belts!

I had the kids sit in a circle and we discussed what obedience was: obeying immediately, cheerfully, unconditionally and thoroughly. If all those criteria are not met, than it would not constitute obedience. Some fun ways we used to demonstrate this was playing " Mother May I?", " Simon Says" - however instead of Simon we used , Daddy, Mama, Grandma, Grandpa, Pastor, Police Officer, satan, stranger, etc. to demonstrate who our authority is and who it is not.

The kids also played a fun game called "Ringmaster" where Jayden stood in the middle of a circle and would point to me and ask me to neigh like a horse and I would have to keep neighing until he told me a new animal noise, and then he would point to Austen and ask him to bray like a zebra, for Riah to hiss like a snake. Pretty soon our home sounded like a noisy circus tent and the kids thought we were all quite humorous, especially me :)

We read in the Bible about Abraham and Isaac and how God tested Abraham's obedience when he asked him to sacrifice Isaac on Mt Moriah. Yes we love that mountain. The kids will reenact this story tomorrow- I ran out of time to create a staff and some "wood" for the kids.

I picked up every book known to man on lighthouses at the library, fiction and non fiction. I love LOVE the library!!!! We read " Keep the Lights Burning, Abbie" and talked about Abbie's obedience to her father and how important her obedience was to not only her family but to the lives of the crew on ships in the Atlantic. We also read some other lighthouse books together that were super cute. One was about a boy, a dog and a bear who became friends and then lit the candles atop of the lighthouse and saved a ship from crashing into the rocks.

Finally, we talked about how following wrong authority is like walking in darkness and following the right authority is like walking in the light. If we follow the wrong authority, we will stumble. Psalms 119:105 states, "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path." I had the boys look into my eyes, as Riah was sleeping downstairs and warned them that there would come at time that the wrong authority or impostor leader would seek to sway them to follow him/her. Yet, when that time comes, hold strong to your faith, your commitment to God and your obedience to God and to your parents and resist the devil.

Wrapping up the day, we talked on electricity, natural and man made lights, we did some science experiments where we made electric loops and had a light bulb turn on and a motor. Discussing the sources of our electricity I showed how important it was for the circuit to be made complete. We will finish this week with a few more light activities and with our focus on obedience. I can't wait!

Popcorn and Ice cream capped off the day and now the kids are sleeping soundly, well most of them. This is the 2nd night in a row Riah has NOT gotten out of bed. Trust me, this is a big deal 'roun these parts.