Imagine a morning where you are rushing around to get your 4 and 2 yr old out the door. This would include giving them 2 more minutes of play time while you get snacks packed (because you were too tired the night before to pack everything!). Then when the 2 minutes are up and the bags are packed, you realize you managed to get everyone dressed except yourself who is still in pajama bottoms! So you add another 2 minutes (we have a sand timer) and rush upstairs hoping that in your brief absence the kids won't undress themselves and be stark naked when you return downstairs (cuz that has happened before!). Thankfully this time they are still dressed when you re-emerge wearing "going out" clothes. For me, this is usually jeans and a t-shirt. :-). Then you grab the kids' breakfast (smoothie or homemade gluten free granola bar) and say, "shoes on children. It's time to go to BSF!" and your children yell with excitement, "horray!" They get their shoes on while you load up the car and if there is any slacking in speed, you tell them,"no smoothie in the car if your shoes aren't on!". This usually gets them moving faster cuz they love their smoothies. Depending on the day there is probably some whining about socks not being straight or the seatbelt not able to buckle, but you keep your eyes focussed on the prize of going to worship God! Now, some mornings, you are short tempered and have to later apologize to the kiddos for your unnecessary snappiness. But this morning you took your B vitamins, had your veggie drink, and even had coffee so you are ok:-). (not great cuz you didn't get any quiet time with God that morning)
You are late...as always. But this time you aren't as late as usual which means your children won't miss free playtime in the beginning. So you are happy. Every minute the kids aren't there makes you sad because they do more than just keep them safe. They have a very organized schedule for the kids even or the kids in the "18mo/walking" room. They sing hymns, the teachers read a story (which is the same as you read for your study), they open up the Bible and each child gets to take turns pointing to the words and reciting the Bible Verse of the week, they have large muscle play where the teachers actually play with the kids instead of just stand back and supervise, and they do quiet time where everyone lays down and teaches their body to rest for 10mins.
Overall, they learn that the bible is true, that it's not just for sitting on the shelves, and that God loves them soo much. The teachers encourage good listening and are just plain amazing! The babies get loved on and sung to or rocked to sleep by a beautiful hymn. It's just great!
While the children are in their class, you go to the sanctuary where there are about 400 ladies! You sing hymns as well to get your heart prepared for the individual group Then you are dismissed to your smaller group of 10-12 ladies in all stages of life. This is where you share prayer requests and go over the lesson question by question. Here is where you make friendships with other women who can hold you accountable and encourage you in your struggles as a Christian woman. Then you return to the sanctuary for more hymn singing, prayer, and then about 35 minutes of lecture reviewing what you just talked about in your group. You be sure to grab the home lesson paper as well as the children's training sheet. These sheets are stock full of tips and helpful Godly insight for raising your children in the Word!
So after Thursday mornings you are refreshed, your kids are refreshed and then you are equipped with tools to continue this Biblical devotion all week long.
I pray you find a BSF near you to help encourage you as well!
I snapped a picture of Brooklyn reading books with a teacher when I arrived to pick her up (a bit early just to see how amazing they are!).
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