BERRY BONDING

A long time ago we started family devotions with TJ that we called "Berry Bonding". It was a silly name we came up with for our family to have some intentional spiritual conversation- on a kid level. It has aways been after dinner with a brief bible story, dessert, and some kind of project or craft. It sometimes had a memory verse and sometimes didn't. Initially, we tried to do it weekly. It would work for a season, and then we'd end up with some conflict and have to put it off to a different night or take a break during summer or whatever.

Well, last night we started 2008 with out new series of Berry Bonding on Monday nights. For this quarter of school, we're going to be going through a Bible I've given the older boys to read along with their homework everyday. It's the One Minute Bible for Students and it has various readings from scripture and a brief thought; all of which amounts to one page per day. I'm hoping it will help my boys to be in the Word and asking questions about what they don't understand and stuff. It goes roughly along with the pattern of scripture from Genesis to Revelation and this week it's been filled with readings and reflections on Genesis 1 and the creation narrative.

So last night we picked up trash that the wind had blown the night before into the empty lot next door to us. Then we built lego creations- whatever we wanted. We talked about what we made and what cool things it could do and how proud we were of what we made. We then talked about how it hurts us when someone destroys it.


We read Genesis 1:1 and talked about how God created all of us and the world around us and how important it is to take care of our bodies and the planet and not destroy it. As cheesy as all of this may sound, my boys, at least for now really love this time in our world and often ask, "Is tonight Berry Bonding?" with some excitement in their tone.

But I know the window of their enthusiasm for this is natural as a kid and very unnatural as a pre-teen and teen and so I'm trying to really maximize this treasured time while we still can. Hopefully we can figure out how to keep it consistent later if we get enough of a running start in the coming year.