I had recently been checking out some homeschooling blogs when I came accross www.charlottemasonhelp.com. I was looking into the Charlotte Mason Homeschooling approach and was quite inspired by many of the ideas and suggested resources. In particular, I loved their prayer journalling routine.
I must confess that my prayer/Bible reading time has seriously deteriorated with the birth of each of my three children. With constant interrupted sleep the past few years, I find I’m dragging my body quite unwillingly out of bed to the demands of children. The day is often a whirlwind of activity and then after the children have been fed, bathed and put to bed I am utterly exhausted. I used to use the hour before bed to read my Bible and prayer journal, however, my eyes can hardly stay open in the hours before bed.
I really want to establish great Godly habits in my children, particularly when it comes to quite time with God. However, this is not really going to happen if Mum can’t even be setting the example!
I loved the routine the Johnson family have established in their home with prayer journalling in the mornings. Each of her children rise, dress and spend quite time reading their Bible and journalling their prayers and noting Scriptural insights. I particularly loved this quote by Charlotte Mason,“We begin by believing in the children as spiritual beings of unmeasured powers––intellectual, moral, spiritual––capable of receiving and constantly enjoying intuitions from the intimate converse of the Divine Spirit.”
We have begun the practice of prayer journalling each morning. As both my boys are still quite young, we’ve been sitting at the dining table after breakfast reading a Bible passage and then prayer journalling together. It’s been really great. Isaiah particularly loves this time and is always asking to read more and draw more.
In a few weeks, I’ll be getting them to do this themselves before they get out of bed in the mornings.
