Join us for quick meditation on how God is our hope.

That word hope means to be patient, to wait, and to trust.

God is our hope. God helps us be patient and wait on Him.

Sometimes He is working in our lives, but it doesn’t happen instantly. It takes time, and He helps us wait while He is working. 

God is trustworthy, and he always keeps His promises. Sometimes it takes time though. and sometimes it is hard to wait. 

Just like our baby does not like to wait for food when we are hungry, we struggle to wait for God. Nick knows that I’m going to feed him, so he trusts me.

In that some way we know God is going to help, because He’s trustworthy. Knowing that helps us wait for Him.

Verses:

Psalm 42:5

Why, my soul, are you downcast?

Why so disturbed within me?

Put your hope in God,

for I will yet praise him,

my Savior and my God.

Reflection Questions:

What are you waiting on God to do?

Ask Him to help you wait.

Activity Ideas:
Have your kids role play waiting on something that they really want.
Maybe it is food, their birthdays, a turn with a toy, or a visit from family.
Create a simple scenario, and have your kids act it out.

Follow-up with questions: What did you notice about waiting? How did it feel? What could you do to make it easier?
Follow-up with some suggestions: God helps us wait by helping us be patient. All we have to do is ask Him to help us be patient and trust Him. Patience is a fruit of the Spirit, which means that God gives us patience when we have the Holy Spirit inside us. We love to sing this song to help us remember the fruit of the Spirit.

Resources:

Visit my website for lots more prayer resources for your family. 

Visit Blue Letter Bible to learn more about that word “hope.” 

Connect with your kids during a quick time thinking about how God loves us out of His goodness. 

God does not love you because of things you do right.

God loves you, because He is good. That’s just who He is!

You could act like a silly willy and God would not love you any less.

God loves you just the way you are, no matter what you do.

That is called unconditional love. His love does not have conditions. It does not change based on what we do. He loves us because He is God and He is good.

Even if you make bad decisions and go in a direction away from God, He loves you the same. He would welcome you back with a party, just like the dad in the story of the prodigal son.

Verses:

Psalm 107:1 NIV 

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;

    his love endures forever.

Luke 15:11-32 NIV

*Story about the Prodigal Son

Reflection Question:

How have you experienced God’s unconditional love this week?

Thank God for His good love.

Resources:

Visit my website for lots more prayer resources for your family. 

Join my friend Dorina Lazo Gilmore-Young and me for a few minutes of Biblical encouragement and a quick time of prayer for you. 

Dorina shares a wonderful devotion about waiting like eagles from Isaiah 40:28-31. This passage is often used for encouragement, but Dorina shares a few super interesting things that I didn’t know before. She also offers a beautiful and powerful prayer over our listeners, which you don’t want to miss. 

Dorina Lazo Gilmore-Young is a "glory chaser,” who meets God running trails in Central California or near the Pacific Ocean. She is a speaker, spoken word artist, Bible teacher and mama to 3 passionate girls. She is the author of two Bible studies, Glory Chasers and Flourishing Together, as well as the award-winning children’s book, Cora Cooks Pancit. Dorina is passionate about helping people discover God’s glory on life’s unexpected trails. 

Dorina and her husband Shawn are also the authors of a new devotional book for runners, walkers, and movers called, Walk, Run, Soar, and the hosts of a podcast with the same name. The book and the podcast are like Spiritual pep talks for all people who are interested in moving their bodies.

Verses:
However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.
Acts 20:24 NIV

Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
    the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
    his understanding is unsearchable.
He gives power to the faint,
    and to him who has no might he increases strength.
Even youths shall faint and be weary,
    and young men shall fall exhausted;
but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;
    they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
    they shall walk and not faint.
Isaiah 40:28-31 ESV

Connect with Dorina:

www.DorinaGilmore.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DorinaLazoGilmore/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dorinagilmore/

Spend a few minutes as a family connecting with God and thinking about His infinite goodness. God’s goodness is also abundant. There’s so much of God’s goodness that we could never count it all. As Mack said, “it’s more than the stars in the sky.”

You cannot measure God’s goodness with a ruler. His goodness is infinite, which means that God’s goodness is so big that it goes on and on and on. God’s goodness has no end, and He will never ever run out of His goodness.

Verses:

Psalm 31:19 ESV

Oh, how abundant is your goodness,

    which you have stored up for those who fear you

and worked for those who take refuge in you,

    in the sight of the children of mankind!

Reflection Question:

How has God been good to you this week? Thank God for that.

How can you see more of God’s goodness?

Resources:

Visit my website for lots more prayer resources for your family. 

Connect with your kids and spend a few minutes thinking about how God is always good.

God is good, which means that He is always kind, loving, and gracious. He always does the right thing.

Always means that every moment of every day God is good. From before the earth was created and into forever and ever God is good.

God doesn’t ever change. He is not like us in that way.

He’s not good one day and then bad the next day. God doesn’t ever have bad days!

We change so much. Our baby Nick changes every single day, learning new words and skills.

God is not like that. He does the right thing all the time. He does the good thing all the time. God does not ever do anything bad, even when we don’t understand why He does what He does.

Verses:

Psalm 100:5 TLB
For the Lord is always good. He is always loving and kind, and his faithfulness goes on and on to each succeeding generation.

Reflection Questions:

How has God been good to you this week? Thank God for that?

How have you struggled to remember God’s goodness? Ask God to help you remember that He is always good.

Resources:

Visit my website for lots more prayer resources for your family. 

Join Mack and me for a few minutes thinking about how good God is, and what that really means for us.

God is good, which means that He is kind, loving, and gracious. He always does the right thing.

We can experience His goodness when we know Him, when we read the Bible, and when we talk to Him.

Mary Poppins says that she is practically perfect in every way. God is perfect in every way. He is perfectly good. He is ALL good. There is nothing bad in Him. All good things come from God.

In this episode we spend a minute thinking about how good God is and thanking Him for the good things He has done for us.

Verses:

Psalm 34:8 NIV

Taste and see that the Lord is good;

    blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.

Reflection Questions:

How have you experienced God’s goodness in the past?

What is one good thing in your life right now?

Thank God for the good things He has done in your life, because all good things come from God.

Resources:

Visit my website for lots more prayer resources for your family. 

We are sheep with a purpose! Engage your kids with God's word and His special plan in creating them in His image.

 God made us. We are His! We are His people. The sheep of His pasture.

God made humans special. Out of all the things that He created, we are the only things made in the image of God. We have a special job: to be in charge of the other things God created. We get to work for God and create things - like families, and we get to know God is a very special way through His son, Jesus.

Verses:

Psalm 100:3 NIV

Know that the Lord is God.

    It is he who made us, and we are his;

    we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

Genesis 1:27 NIV

So God created mankind in his own image,

    in the image of God he created them;

    male and female he created them.

Reflection Questions:

What are some special jobs that you have? 

How do you help your parents with chores at your house?

Each thing that you do to help your family is a special way to work with God.

 Resources:

Visit my website for lots more prayer resources for your family. 

To read more about how we are made in God’s image, check out these links:

Focus on the Family

Desiring God

The Bible Project

Help your kids see how big, valuable, and beautiful God is each time they look at the sky. 

God created the heavens! He put the sun, moon, and stars in the sky. Have you ever looked outside at night and seen more stars than you could count? God created each one. Have you ever seen a beautiful sunset, full of amazing colors? God created that sunset, and it reminds us that God is really amazing.

Verses:
Psalm 19:1 NIV

The heavens declare the glory of God;

    the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

Genesis 1:14-19 NIV

And God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years, and let them be lights in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth.” And it was so. God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. God set them in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth, to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the fourth day.

Reflection Questions:
When have you seen something amazing in the sky that reminded you that God is Creator? Thank God for that!

 Resources:
Visit my website for lots more prayer resources for your family. 

To read more about how to explain God’s glory to your kids, check out this article from John Piper.

Connect with your kids during a short guided prayer and Biblical meditation on how God created our inmost beings.

God knit us together in our mothers’ wombs. He connected all our pieces together, and He wove us together to make something very beautiful. He knows every single thing about us, and He loves us so much. Before anybody else knew anything about us, God was right there creating us and loving us. Join me with my special guest, my son Mack, for this special time thinking about how God created each one of us in our mothers’ wombs.

Verses:
Psalm 139:13-16 NIV

For you created my inmost being;

    you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;

    your works are wonderful,

    I know that full well.

My frame was not hidden from you

    when I was made in the secret place,

    when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.

Your eyes saw my unformed body;

    all the days ordained for me were written in your book

    before one of them came to be.

Reflection Questions:
Imagine God knitting you together in your mom’s tummy.

Thank God for creating you the way that He did.

Thank God for the special things about you that make you, you.

As a family, talk about what it was like when your babies were growing inside their moms’ tummies.

*If your kids don’t know their mom, this is a great opportunity to remind them that God was right there taking care of them and personally creating them.

 Resources:
Visit my website for lots more prayer resources for your family.

Help your kids take a break from the busyness of their lives and reflect on how God created the whole world.

God is Creator, and He spoke and the world came to be. God’s Spirit is like God’s breath, and God used the Holy Spirit to breathe life into the Heavens and the Earth and into all creation. 

Verses:
Psalm 33:6-9 NIV

By the word of the Lord the heavens were made,

    their starry host by the breath of his mouth.

 He gathers the waters of the sea into jars;

    he puts the deep into storehouses.

Let all the earth fear the Lord;

    let all the people of the world revere him.

For he spoke, and it came to be;

    he commanded, and it stood firm.

Genesis 1:1-5 NIV

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.

Reflection Questions:
Imagine God breathing life into the world during creation.

Think about all the things on the earth that God created.

What are a few ways you can see God in creation?

Resources:
Visit my website for lots more prayer resources for your family.