How to Make God-time Fun and Easy for your Kids
Sometimes it can be hard to spend intentional time with our kids each day. Okay, make that all the time.
And when you do sit down for official family + God-time together, perhaps you get disheartened by the grunts and groans from your older kids? *Sigh*
Welcome to the world of parenting and trying to make God-time fun and easy for your kids.
Although I’m not sure what it’s like yet to have older children, I was already experiencing the difficulty of raising kids to know and love Jesus (without it being boring or feeling like a lecture) while getting my own much-needed soul care as well.
I subconsciously thought, how can I achieve both a time for me to de-stress and get still from the hustle and bustle of parenting life while nurturing the hearts of my children with God’s Word at the same time?
It was a pretty normal day. I sat coloring in a Disney character with my daughter when I noticed the therapeutic benefits of coloring that everyone was raving about. I was skeptical about it, until this moment when I noticed my heart slow to a normal rhythm as I sat across from my daughter soaking in this mommy time.
As much as I was enjoying the calming moment, it was missing something…
I flipped open my phone to a devotional app and began reading. Yes, I thought. This is what my soul is aching for. But with my eyes off the coloring at hand, not to mention my daughter as well, I knew this wasn’t going to work. Plus, I thought, how is this really helping her grow spiritually? It wasn’t.
I kept coloring, and slowly I began to hear a whisper in my head and heart. Is that you God? That’s when this idea began to form.
A year-and-a-half later, Big and Little Coloring Devotional was born! Let me tell you why it’s so good:
- There are devotionals for the “big” with de-stressing designs, and verses for the “little” to color-in, making it the perfect mix to nurture not only your heart but your child’s heart too.
- It can also be used for bigger siblings to read through with their little brother or sister.
- Even daddy’s, grandparents and caretakers are raving about this book!
- The images are neither too fanciful nor too masculine, thereby girls AND boys love it in equal measures.
- You experience face-to-face interaction which encourages conversation since the pages face opposite, also creating more room to color without elbow bumping.
There’s finally a way to achieve what we’ve been longing for: de-stressing and nurturing for our own hearts while making God-time fun and easy for your kids, no matter their age or stage.
It’s amazing how God can use my own desire for such a book in ways that now reaches the hearts of many.
It truly has become “so much more than a coloring book.”
Rachel C. Swanson is an author, speaker, and accredited life coach. Her best-selling book Big and Little Coloring Devotional was birthed by her own struggle as a busy mom to three children she lovingly calls “Twin 1”, “Twin 2” and “wannabe Twin 3.” Married to her husband for eleven years, they rear their tribe in an aspiring country town just outside Los Angeles, CA. Visit RachelCSwanson.com for more info! You can also find out about her Big and Little Coloring Book here.
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