by Donna | May 3, 2011
“You shall teach them diligently to your children and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up” Deuteronomy 6:7
Yesterday I mentioned the advantages of having the computer in the main areas of the home for general listening together of things (as well as for protecting kids from dangerous internet activity). I will spend much more time on protection later in our character training journey, but suffice it to say that having the computer in the main areas of the home, not allowing internet activity when a child is home alone, and not havng internet (or television) in kids’ rooms (ours do not use laptops in their bedrooms-they use those in main, high traffic areas as well) are all ways to start in the protection of our children from dangerous internet actiivity.
We have the i-tunes loaded on the main computer (our desktop) with uplifting music. Any one of us can click onto I-tunes and choose a song or series of songs to have playing aloud for all to enjoy. I especially like to do this first thing in the morning before or after the Bible has been played.
While we enjoy contemporary Christian music and choruses, we also have a large number of hymns on our i-tunes collection. We do not sing enough hymns nowadays! Sometimes we just listen to a hymn over and over (oftentimes with the words nearby) to help us memorize the words to one.
Music is an amazing vehicle that God uses to speak to His children–let’s use it in our homes first thing in the mornings too!
by Donna | Apr 28, 2011
“You shall teach them diligently to your children and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up” Deuteronomy 6:7
Once things are underway in our home in the mornings, the kids have a tendency to put on the “listen of the time”—usually Adventures in Odyssey, Jonathan Park, Down Gilead Lane, Sugar Creek Gang, Father Gilbert, Your Story Hour, Focus on the Family radio dramas, or talking books (often Boxcar Children or Magic Tree House, though lately it’s been Little House books unless one of the older guys is manning the player, in which case it might be Les Miserable or Tale of Two Cities!). While faith and character are definitely included in many of those, especially Odyssey, Jonathan Park, Gilead, Sugar Creek, and Your Story Hour, I like to “do hard things” first. It’s easy to listen to radio dramas; it’s entertaining to listen to chapter books; but it takes work, brain power, engagement, and “putting on the mind of Christ” to do more devotional types of material.
Therefore, one of my favorite “listens” to put on in the morning is the Bible—either dramatized or not. We have had many of these through the years—and have many fond memories of them, like the time when Joshua turned twelve and listened to the entire Old Testament in eight weeks or when we have listened to an entire New Testament book during a family work evening. But clicking on a chapter or two in the mornings and having that playing in the background (super alternative to morning television or news radio!) is an uplifting, faith-building way to begin the day.
The link below is an awesome Bible listening link. If you have your computer in the main area of the home (another suggestion we have for families who want to protect their kids from harmful internet possibilities), you can “click” and listen to the Bible right in the main traffic areas of your home first thing in the morning!
Bible Gateway: Choose version and book of the Bible—then click the “speaker” to hear it on audio. A neat feature is that it has the text on the screen as well, so if you hear something you want to double check, you can look at the words as well. https://www.biblegateway.com/
The following link has “the Bible on one page”—click on the chapter of the book and you will go directly to it at the Bible Gateway. Then you click to hear it or read it—you may also change the version. This is a cool little page: https://www.jrsbible.info/bible.htm
by Donna | Apr 26, 2011
I just cannot say enough good about our family’s new “read aloud” Bible for this year. It has excerpts from Lee Strobel’s books as sidebars and insets within the biblical text–so we read the couple of paragraphs about the passage that is referenced, then go right to the Bible passage (New King James Version) and read it. It is amazing!
Quick enough reads for 5-10 min devos–or on evenings that we have more time, we read a couple or few of the entries. I love not having to flip from a book to the Bible, etc. We love the “Case for” books–and love them even more having the Bible passage that it refers to right there in its entirety. Great for ten to twenty year olds! 🙂
https://www.amazon.com/Case-Christ-Study-Bible-Investigating/dp/0310938945
