Our Rock Devotions - Encouraging Our Family Towards a Deeper Relationship with Jesus

Sunday nite I gave each child a rock to paint. This rock then lived with them for 24 hrs.. They had to feed it, care for it and nurture it. Each rock had their own name too...Interesting tonite when we gathered for Bible to go over what some of our rocks experienced : Some were lost for some part of the day. Some were dropped by accident many times because they had no pockets or special place to carry their rock, some were hidden in a blanket and the parent of that rock had a hard time finding him. One rock even went thru the washing machine by accident. Someone else took a rock that was not theirs. Someone gave their rock to someone else. Some fell where they should not have been. One rock reminded someone of their past. Some took naps with their parents and some played with others. Some even joked about their rocks...they thought it was funny. All of the rocks taught us some things.....

First we read from the Bible diff. expressions of the Rock in the Bible, like Peter being called the rock and Jesus was referred to as the rock. We also listened to some songs with the reference to a rock...then my reason for this whole exercise was to equate a message about our relationship with Jesus with the way we treated our rocks. When we have a real relationship with Jesus Christ we treat him many diff. ways like we pretended to our rocks....Actually all the kids, even some of my adult ones found it easy to take care of their rocks...It was a novelty and fun to do. I encouraged them to nurture their relationship with Jesus...to carry Him always, to not hide Him under anything so others can see Him, to always place Him in your heart pocket , to share with others your faith and His love, to protect your relationship by walking where you should and not into places of sin, and always take your relationship seriously...It is never a joking matter. Our faith requires us to nurture and to spend time in the Word and with others who encourage us towards Him. It was a fun exercise and we all learned some interesting things about our relationship with Jesus and how we treat that relationship. This devotion was appealing to our wide age span in our family so maybe it would helpful to yours since we have from adults down to 2 yrs old..