First of all, let me say that I struggle with this practice myself. And since this was not something done in my house growing up, I'm kind of winging it. I only have one child who reads so far, so the idea of morning Bible time is not realistic for us, yet. And forget anything requiring self-discipline with our 2 year old. We are still working on making the bed, and that's something tangible, something she can see and touch to understand. So how do you teach and enforce a proper way for your children to start their day by giving it to the Lord?
In our house, I'm really trying to develop habits in my kids, so I knew some kind of prayer routine would be needed. Since my kids all need some degree of help to get ready in the morning, I am all over the place. Until breakfast. So I decided to incorporate our offering of our day into our breakfast prayer. But, again, not having anything from my past to fall back on, I found myself writing a prayer for this purpose. Crazy, I know! I knew it had to be simple, both to be able to learn, and to understand, and I also know how the girls like rhyming. This is what I came up with:
Thank you, God, for this food
And for all who made it taste so good.
And thank you, Lord, for this special day,
That we may please* you in all we do and say.
Be with us from up above
So we can share your awesome love.
Amen!
The girls love it! They want to say it at lunch and dinner, too. Kind of defeats the idea of a "morning" offering, huh?
So, again, I ask, how do YOU, or do you, teach your children the concept of giving each day to the Lord? Please leave your comment, or even a link to a post you may want to write about this idea.
I can't wait to learn from you!
*(I'm thinking about changing the "please" to "serve." What do you think?)
I have taught my children a morning offering, but I am sure they don't say it. (I taught the one in the 1st grade Baltimore Catechism: Oh my God, I offer you my every thought, word and act of today. Please bless me, my God, and make me good today. Amen). I usually say morning prayers while running, so I forget to do them with the kids, and it just slips by. But we do talk about it sometimes, so they know they are supposed to do it - I just haven't developed that habit for them. My sister (who homeschools) gathers her 2 children after breakfast and as they start school to say a morning offering. We all start at different times, so it just doesn't happen here. It's one of those things that I sometimes beat myself up about, but most of the time, try to avoid thinking about.
ReplyDeleteI think your prayer is lovely.
there is not one thing in particular that we do to teach our children how to give their day to Our Lord. instead, it is an infusion of the spirit of our Catholic faith in everything we do. dad and i try hard to make our faith be in the air we breathe. we must diligently work at this since it is not in our current culture. one thing is for certain, we must remain on our knees.
ReplyDeletethe morning offering is part of their morning routine. right up there with getting out of bed and brushing their teeth. in fact, it's the first thing on the list--morning offering before getting out of bed, before seeing mom, before making your bed, etc... we emphasize giving Our Lord our first fruits and this is a small practice in developing that spirit.
the most important thing, the children must see you modeling such pious actions.
just recently, i had my little flowers group create a morning offering pillow. the idea was that the pillow would help remind the girls to say their morning offering first thing upon waking. here is the link to that post http://joyfilledfamily.blogspot.com/2011/11/here-is-simple-and-quick-craft-that-i.html
Pax Christi -
Lena
I like the "please". It's a great little poem. Do you mind if we steal it sometime?
ReplyDeleteWhat I do with the kids is based loosely on the propositions of the Our Father. (We do this at breakfast, too).
"Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name". - This is praise for God, so we may sing a praise song, and then we say "I love you God."
"Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven". - This is submission to God, so we say, "I will obey you, God."
"Give us this day our daily bread." - This is petitions, so we ask God for what we want.
"Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation..." - Here we say, "I'm sorry for my sins".
"... but deliver us from evil." - Here the kids say, "I put my armor on", taken from Ephesians 6:14-17 (which I may actually say in detail, and then I end by saying that we put armor on all of us (meaning... we're praying protection around even those of us who are too little to do it themselves).
Thanks, ladies, for your comments. And thanks for sharing how your family does a morning offering. There are some really great ideas!
ReplyDelete