One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret, the people were crowding around him and listening to the word of God. He saw at the water’s edge two boats, left there by the fishermen, who were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat. When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.” Simon answered, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.” When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink.
Luke 5:1-7
This year, our church is reading through the New Testament and Psalms together and so when we read this passage in Luke, we thought it would be a good one to share with Finn. We are ALWAYS working on obedience. 😉
For this family devotional, Tyler read the story out of our NIV Bible. He would read a verse or two at a time and then stop to summarize in a way that would make it more understandable for Finn. We really emphasized the “because you say so” part – that even when we don’t understand something, we can still obey. Then, after we finished reading/summarizing the passage, we playacted the scene. Finn likes to take our ottoman and turn it over to use as a “boat” so we brought that into the middle of our living room and put him inside. Then we got a “net” (a throw blanket) and some stuffed animals. Tyler played Jesus and Finn played Peter – Tyler would tell Finn to throw his nets into the water and Finn would say “because you say so!” and he’d throw the blanket out of the ottoman onto the carpet and I’d fill it with all his stuffed animals. It was so fun! We all laughed as Finn reenacted the scene several times.
Although we had a lot of fun with this one, I’m not sure how much Finn made the clear connection about obedience – particularly the nuance of obeying even when we don’t completely agree/think it’s a good idea, etc. However, we did open the Bible – which is always a win – and he was interested. And anytime we can emphasize obedience outside of a discipline situation is positive since that reinforces what we’re trying to teach him.
Click the link below for a free printable of this family devotional!
If you’re looking for more ideas for family devotionals, this is what we use! Check them out in my Etsy shop.
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