Salt the Oats

I heard a phrase this week that really has stuck out to me:  Salt the Oats.  What does this mean?  Glad you asked.  How do we get our children to come hungry and thirsty for God's word?  Salt the Oats.  When you add salt to oats it makes you thirsty!  Thirsty for some more!  So how do you salt the oats when pertaining to God’s word?  In my family we started a Christmas devotion for a month, a couple of years ago.  Well, we quickly realized how much our children loved that special time each night and we decided to continue that throughout the year.  I was pleasantly surprised when this time quickly turned into my children’s favorite time of the day and they were eager for Bible Time to get started!  It is a special time of pajamas, snuggles, and picking apart scripture and applying it to our lives.  We share struggles, stories, and praises for the day.  The praises (we just added this component) has really helped behavior during the day.  The kids really want to be praised for serving one another or showing kindness, so they make a lot of attempts throughout the day to get the recognition and eventually that just turns into learned behavior!  Where do you start with Bible Time?  Your Child Training Bible is a great start.  Go through those tabs with your kids.  Share where you struggle.  Write key verses on index cards where everyone struggles and stick them by your beds.  The more you read them and reread them, the stickier they will become!  I also bought a Time Line and it walks you through the entire Bible (http://www.gospellight.com/product_details.aspx?id=11887).  The possibilities are endless and The Bible says God’s word will not return void (Isaiah 55:11-so is my word that goes out from my mouth:  It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.)  Make Bible Time fun and suspenseful.  Sometimes, don’t finish a story and leave them craving for the next night so they can hear what happens at the end!  Memorize scripture together as a family – why not start with Romans 12?!!  And don’t leave out the best part……prayer.  Pray together.  Pray for each other.  Take turns.  The more your kids pray, the more comfortable they will be to pray other places and in front of others.  Go ahead…………..Salt the Oats………………I dare you!!!!!