The devotional is broken into four days, but feel free to do it at your own pace throughout the month. Read the italic section or paraphrase with your children to fit their age level.
Arielle Lewis is an amazing mom and woman of faith who has a passion to help people with disabilities find acceptance and thrive in their lives and communities. She has been a special education teacher, special needs director, consultant, and more recently, God has given her a beautiful second daughter named Charlotte, who happens to have Down syndrome. She and her husband started a blog, The Lewis Pride, to help people see ability differences through “mighty eyes,” and they started a non-profit, The Mighty Waffle, a career development center that offers jobs and internships for those with intellectual and developmental disabilities, as well as providing education to the community about disabilities .
If we are teaching our children to be followers of Jesus, we must teach and encourage them to help others! Children naturally love to help, yet we often get so involved in what we need to accomplish as parents that we forget to include our children when we are serving. We can give them age-appropriate opportunities, and we can model what it looks like to help others, so they can learn to show God’s love by meeting people’s physical, monetary, emotional, and spiritual needs.
I hope you enjoy this devotional designed for ages 4-8 to teach your children how to have a helping heart. Read the italic section or paraphrase with your children to fit their age level. -Taylor
Introduction: Of all the people in the world, who do you think has the most beautiful heart? Jesus has the most perfect heart! He shows how beautiful His heart is by His character- the way He acts towards God and others. Can you think of some character traits that Jesus shows? [kind, responsible, prayerful] We want to be like Jesus and have a beautiful heart too!
Hurricane Harvey brought devastation to much of the Houston area with flooded homes, buildings, and loss of basic resources. An abundance of help was needed, and many felt led to go out and serve those in need. One of those families was the Ming family. With eight kids and a new baby, they had every excuse NOT to help, but because they are a family that prioritizes serving others, they put their kids to work and found ways to bless those who needed assistance.
This month I am highlighting the Brown family. Amy Brown has a special story of how God gave her a vision to do something special that no one had ever thought of at her church to reach children with the gospel. The idea is so amazing, that I believe it needs to be replicated at other churches with food and/or clothing pantries.
A year ago my family was blessed to meet the Erkmann family when we attended a World Vision walk to raise money for clean water. As we drove up to the race, we were delighted to find a family of smiling kids passing out necklaces and race bibs as others prepared for the walk. The Erkmanns have SUCH a heart for the poor around the world and involving others to make a difference. Our family was touched by their servant hearts and the overall mission of the walk!
When my kids were very young, I had a hard time not losing my patience with them on a daily basis. I love kids, but I just expected my kids to- well, be perfect, and perfect, they weren’t! Of course they were growing and maturing, but it felt like such a slow process when they were in the middle of it and still so young. When they went against my rules, the anger would sometimes get the best of me, and I would think, “How DARE those kids disrespect me like that?!”
I hope you enjoy this two part devotional designed for ages 4-8 to teach your children how to have a forgiving heart! Read the italic section or paraphrase with your children to fit their age level. Click here for the printer friendly version of this devotional.
I hope you enjoy this devotional on an obedient heart. Read the italic section or paraphrase with your children to fit their age level. You can do all in one day, or split into two days. Visual links entitled “visuals” in light blue can be printed ahead of time to show during the lesson, or click the link if using your mobile device.