Seeking God in Our Family Traditions

“These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.” Deuteronomy 6:6-7

“Each day of our lives we make deposits in the memory banks of our children.” Charles Swindoll

 

  • Time for your weekly prayer call! It is such a blessing to have a friend to pray with you and for you!
  • Quiet your heart before the Lord. Ask Him to speak into your children’s lives and your family’s traditions.
  • Read Deuteronomy 6:4-9. Ponder the meaning of impressing God’s Word and His commandments on your children’s hearts. Write verses 6-7 in your journal.

Easter is a joyful day–complete with new clothes, pretty shoes, decorations, and a delicious dinner. These are endearing traditions but they pale in comparison to the wonderful truth we celebrate in our Easter worship services: Jesus Christ is risen today! This is the central message we want to convey to our children. Through the years, my family has found several engaging and memorable ways of doing so, which I’d like to share with you.

There are many traditions that expose our children to God’s Word in fun ways! At our dinner table, we always have Scriptures about our Lord written on the back of the name cards. This is an activity where your children can help. Older children can find the verses themselves, and younger ones can write the verses you have chosen on the cards. We then have each person at the table read his or her verse before we say grace.

One of our favorite family traditions brought special meaning to the customary Easter basket we always made for our children. In the basket, we put not only candy, but also spiritual items like a Christian book, a bookmark with Scripture, a magnet, or other small gifts. We hid the basket somewhere in our house or close by in the yard. Then we made 10 clues that would lead each child to their basket and placed those clues in 10 plastic eggs. We handed the first egg to the child who had to figure out the clue that would lead him to the next egg with another clue—until the last egg led him to the basket.

The clues in the eggs were riddles or rhymes and often contained Scripture references that the kids looked up in their Bibles in order to figure out the clues. If we hid an egg in the washing machine, we might use John 9:7, “‘Go,’ He told him, ‘and wash in the pool of Siloam.’ So the man went and washed and came home seeing.” For an egg hidden in a bedroom, we used Psalm 63:6, “On my bed I remember you; I think of you through the watches of the night.” We made different clues for each child, depending on their ages. When our children were very little, we even drew pictures. As our children grew older, the clues became more complex.

With three children spanning six years and thirty clues to be made, you can imagine we worked hard! Don’t wait until the night before the hunt to begin! Our children enjoyed this tradition so much that we did these hunts into their young adult years.

Hiding God’s Word in our children’s hearts can take many forms. Sometimes it’s a serious study, and other times it’s fun games. Be creative, like our Creator, and bring the joyful news of the Resurrection to your children in many ways. There are a great many traditions to make the study of Scripture pleasant and memorable!

Blessings and Love,

Mary

Questions to Ponder

  • How can you encourage your children to hide God’s Word in their hearts this Easter?
  • Many fun Easter traditions are completely secular. How can you include the Lord in your family’s favorite Easter traditions?

Faith-Filled Ideas

Pray that the Lord will show you how to make learning His Word fun and natural for your children. As parents, we can take every opportunity to teach our children God’s Word. Deuteronomy encourages us to teach them in everyday circumstances. Thoughtfully ponder how you can bring Scripture into your children’s lives in practical ways! For example, if your child has a fight with another child, you might encourage them with the Proverb: “A gentle answer turns away wrath” (Proverbs 5:1a); or with Jesus’ words: “Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you” (Luke 6:31 NLT).

 

easter day 10 graphic 1

 

Mary Frieg
Latest posts by Mary Frieg (see all)

14 Comments on “Seeking God in Our Family Traditions”

  1. Using Scripture for clues adds not only a creative layer, but also a new dimension of practicing the spiritual discipline of reading God’s Word. I hope to do this kind of hunt this year, but give them references as clues so they can practice physically looking up verses in a Bible. No online version for them! (= Thanks so much for sharing, Mary!

    1. Thanks Daphne! So glad you are going to do it this year! Yes, that’s what I meant, that you give the kids the reference and they look up the passage. (I just wrote out the scripture so you could see the verse).Enjoy and God bless you!!

  2. Hi Mary! Thank you for this Bible study and for sharing your wisdom with all of us younger mamas. Your idea of having a scavenger hunt with verses for the kids to find their Easter baskets is so fun and intentional. I love incorporating the word of God into as many activities as possible. God bless you today! 🙂

    1. Thank you Rachel. I hope you enjoy using this idea as a spring board to more creative ideas to expose your children to the Word in fun ways. Bless you! Mary

  3. That sounds like so much fun, and a great way to teach scripture! I can’t wait to try this activity with my kids!

    1. Thank you Heather! Hope you have as much fun as we did! Warning: get ready to do it for many years to come!

  4. Thanks so much for sharing this wonderful study and ideas Mary!! I love how you pointed out that Scripture is practical!! What an important concept to teach our children!

    1. Thanks Deb. Yes, it is practical and as we apply it to our daily lives things go much better, just as God intended. Another reason to memorize Scripture and have it ready to share with our children. And thank you Deb for sharing so much Scripture with all of us.!

  5. Love these fantastic ideas! These are the things our kids will remember years from now. Thank you for sharing!! I cannot wait to do the Easter basket/scripture hunt.

    1. Thanks Tara. Our kids do remember it fondly and I hope they will share it with their children some day! Bless you this Easter!! Mary

  6. I love how you remind us to be creative like our Creator! I will remember that for my family. You are a wonderful mom Mary!

    1. Thank you Tara!! It’s a great joy in life to steward these little ones even when we are tired. Have fun on the journey! Mary

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