Two nights ago, we were starting the Resurrection Eggs (late) with our kids. We hadn't used them for several years and the younger four kids were enraptured with the eggs and discovering the surprises in each new egg.
As I looked at Steve sitting on the floor, surrounded by our younger kids, my heart was filled with love. I smiled and was thinking how special the moment was, and how glad I was that we were doing it again, even if we did start very late.
Just when I thought I should grab the camera and snap a picture, reality struck.
As Steve attempted to move onto the second egg (because we were late, remember?) the kids disintegrated into goofy laughter over bad jokes. Then the fighting started over who hadn't held the surprise yet. One of the kids kept opening and shutting the egg, even though Steve was asking them not to (because we all know plastic eggs don't last very long.)
Yeah. That's what our family is really like. No idyllic moments of beautiful family devotions here. We wrestle (figuratively) the Scripture into them, working around sibling squabbles and potty humor to get them to hear the Truth.
Sometimes we feel like giving up. But then one of the kids talks about something they learned and we realize that maybe it's sinking in after all. So we persevere, even if it's not always pretty.
We try to keep our patience, though sometimes we raise our voices, threaten to NEVER do this again, and tell everyone to SIT STILL and BE QUIET! But, sometimes, we do it right, and sometimes they learn something important.
I won't promise to ever post a picture of our devotions here, because our living room is probably messy and the kids are probably fighting, but I just wanted to encourage you to keep trying, even if your house looks like mine at devotion-time.
One day, when talking about their testimony, one of your kids might mention those devotions as a time when they realized they needed God. Our 11 year old son did, when he was baptized last year. I keep hanging onto that memory when I want to throw down the devotions and NEVER do it again.
April E.
