Thoughts on GKGW Series: Devotionals- More than just Instructions on Behaviour

Some of the greatest periods of moral training take place in periods of non conflict. Devotionals can be defined as a time of imparting instructions with encouragement during non conflict times. I feel that encouragement is an essential ingredient during devotionals and it makes the time so much more attractive to the children.

The Ezzos have taught us about instructions on behaviour and skills, and the ways we can give encouragement (remember the discipline flowchart we had to memorize and reproduce). I have add in another category called "Adventure", as you can see in the diagram above. I think that devotional times in the broad sense, should include not only instructions on behaviour/ bible knowledge, but also include instructions on essential skills and times of adventure together.

Behaviour

We have been using the book "As for Me and My House" for my instructions on behaviour and teachings of biblical moral values. It has been fun. I think we have the adavantage that Samuel and Sunny's age gap is just 1 year, so we just have to tune to one frequency. Recently I got another book "The One Year Book of Devotions for Kids", so we can use that for next year.

The Ezzos taught us that encouragement on good behaviour can be done through the following:

a) Verbal reminder

b) Dialogue questions

c) Positive words

d) Verbal affirmation

e) Rewards

Oops, a long list to memorize! No. We don't have to memorize. We have time to prepare for our devotionals. During our preparation, we can decide which encouragement technique suits our lesson and use that to encourage our children during the devo.

Skills

On some evenings, I will just talk to my children about the skills they are acquiring and encourage them. For example, we will talk about their swimming lesson. We have got the goal incentive worked out: They will get the toy they have been eyeing for some time once they are able to swim the length of the olympic pool without float.

The Ezzos taught us that encouragement on achieving certain skills can be done through the following:

a) Verbal praise

b) Goal incentive

On the note of skills, I plan also to impart some household repairs and maintenance skills to them. I remember one life changing incident many years when I first got married and moved into our new house. One evening, one of the light bulb blew and I had no idea how to change the light bulb! My father have never impart any household repair skills to me. You should have seen the "Are you sure, I can't believe it" look on Sau Han's face. In the end, I called my father to come and change the light bulb for me. I feel so embarrassed just thinking of it. By God's grace, I have after that incident learnt many household repair skills through these years and I have my own tool box now. I got to give thanks to my other "bible" called " HDB Residents' Handbook- Your Household Repairs & Maintenance Guide". You can see the book in the diagram above.

Adventure

This category is not in GKGW and I have included it after reading the book "Wild at Heart". In adventure, we will face risk, uncertainty and danger. The scouts will know what I meant. It is during these times, our hearts are bared before God's heart. We need Him, depend on him, rely on him to carry us through the uncertainties and dangers. There is no room to hide any part of our heart. We draw close to God.

There is a part in our heart that craves for adventure. When was the last time you felt, oh work is so boring, I need some adventure? The children will probably feel sometimes that study is just eerh, I need some fun, some adventure. I think our heart is made this way because God wants to draw us close to him through adventure. Look at our own John Louis, he loves fun and adventure. I think he has a heart that is after God's heart.

I believe from young, we need to provide the right avenues of adventure for our children. We need to do adventure together with them and teach them. Many people have grown up without proper guidance and avenues on adventure. What kind of adventure do they turn to: Drug addiction, pornography, sexual addiction... their pseudo world of adventure.

I have decided to adopt water sports as our family's adventure. We are going to bring our children to swim frequently, go to water theme parks, kayaking in Krabi, river play at Kuantan, beach resorts.

We have been reading some adventure books on some evenings also. We are going for books like Enid Blytons' The Famous Five and the likes of Hardy Boys.