God's Word in our Home

with 4 small children I crave time in God's Word all by myself in a quiet house. Last night I had 30+ minutes of time reading the Bible and praying with absolutely NO interruptions of any kind.
What?! I don't even know exactly how long it lasted except it went til I was content...
And of course it included coffee with sugar&spice creamer {yum} Such a lovely moment.
And that's about me and my time with God but now I'd like to give you a glimpse into the James fam bedtime routine with our boys, because around here:

Bedtime = Bibletime

(Almost) every night we read to the boys from their Bible before bed. We've tried some other kids' Bibles in the past, but we keep coming back to this one. We've probably read through this Bible 4-5 times from cover to cover since our oldest, Jonathan, was just a toddler. As you can see, it's pretty well "loved" We really like how it makes the Bible so understandable for kids. There are questions at the end which usually lead to more questions and sometimes even deeper conversations about Jesus, and God, and the Bible, and heaven...

(they're curious...and well, it's bedtime, you know!)

One son's "delay bedtime" question of last night:
"Mom, did you pray for us to be your kids or did you just all of a sudden have us?"

(prayer, son, YES. lots and lots of prayer...)

I love how my kids are at different points in their faith and understanding of God

• Jon is very focused on sharing the love of Jesus and what that means in his second grade world. He really can't understand why anyone wouldn't love Jesus.....what's there not to love? Jesus is love and died for us so we can be with Him one day. Case closed for this 7 year old!
• Caleb is all about heaven. In his 4 year old mind He knows Jesus is there listening to all His prayers and is convinced the house Jesus is making for him in heaven is green because that's his favorite color. Today he added that he's sure Lucky Charms are going to be in his house because (duh) that's his favorite cereal. And Jesus knows!
• Matthias is all about praying. He wants to pray first and he wants to pray longest and he'd really like it if we'd all just give him our undivided attention as he talks to God. His main concern is that Jesus understands that he wants to see his Papa and Nana and Epa and Ema (grandparents) every. single. day. Hey, he's 3.

Do those kids look ready to sleep the night away or what?!