Raising Rock Stars-Joseph Week One

This week our family studied about Joseph and his brothers.  Matt and I decided to break it up into two (or three) weeks since there is so much to absorb.  We read from Grayson's new The Anytime Bible and we loved it!  It's written in such an appropriate way for children to understand, yet contains enough meat in each Truth.

This picture pretty much sums up Grayson's mood that night...wild and uninterested in sitting still.  We were in Ava's room because that's the only place little miss could be happy for us to have Bible time together, and her room is Grayson's party spot.  I'm not sure what it is, but when he steps in there, he goes a little crazy, spinning and kicking and giggling.  Whew.

As I reminded daily, even though it felt like this week was not a "success", I know that God will use bits of it for the instruction and building up of my children (and myself).  It's important for them to see us spending time in God's word together, even if they are having a hard time concentrating.  They are still being spoken His Word and that's what counts!

Ava was loving that we were all in her room for a change.

Grayson's really into counting on his fingers right now, so he and daddy spent a while counting the 11 brothers of Joseph.  (Daddy looks to be concentrating just as hard as Grayson, right? :)

We read up until Joseph was sold into slavery, because again, it seemed too much to truly digest.  We talked about loving unconditionally and the danger of jealousy.  That we are to see our own selves through God's eyes and because of that, there is no reason to seek what other's possess on this earth....or the attention they receive.  What a hard lesson!  Even in my parenting, I'm trying to teach Grayson through questions more than "telling" and we tried to question him about jealousy and about how Joseph must have felt.  Next week, we will begin to focus on how Joseph, despite being left alone, did not feel alone and leaned on the Lord for his strength.

We then moved on to coloring together, and this lasted all of five minutes for Grayson.  As I finished my page, he cheered me on, "Good job, Mommy. I'm so proud of you."  I had this whole outfit set up for him to dress up like Joseph's coat of many colors (my bathrobe and a scarf), but he had no part of it.  I took on the role, but luckily no pictures were taken! :)

And we ended just like this.  It truly was another special, special night together!