Morning Devotional
Morning routines are going to widely vary in every family, but I can’t help but feel morning time is probably one of the most important parts of our days. It is about beginning your day with Him. Elder Bednar taught, “Morning prayer is an important element in the spiritual creation of each day—and precedes the temporal creation or the actual execution of the day.” Whether you have five minutes or an hour - a devoted morning time is an essential piece of inviting the Spirit into your home and into your daily life and routine. It is that moment where your family can come together, put on a piece of the Armor of God and step into the day a little more prepared than before. To read more about this, Morning and Evening Prayers is an excellent article by David A. Bednar about the importance of creating intentional days beginning and ending with prayer.
WHAT DOES A MORNING DEVOTIONAL LOOK LIKE AND HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE?
We all know daily prayer and scripture study is essential to our spiritual health and my testimony of this has grown so so so much of this over the last year. When we decided to homeschool I think we started a devotional probably before I even knew what I was doing for math and English. I think I had such a drive to do it because I had witnessed it in various private schools I had been involved in and knew it was something I felt like my kids had been missing while in public school. I had always said I was going to supplement and do my own devotionals with my kids before school - but I never did it. Not even once, so it was the first thing I was committed to changing when we pulled our kids from public school. And, after doing this for almost two years now I can very confidently say, even on the days we just have a quick prayer - I can feel the difference in our home. What Elder Bednar says is spot on.
So, take a piece from here and pull from there and make this time your own. What will serve your family best? Find what works for you and don’t be afraid to let it evolve - family dynamics are always changing. Remember when you had a newborn - and right about the time you’ve got it all figured out - she’s grown up and in a different stage? That’s exactly how I feel like home-centered learning is. You have to be flexible and adapt as you and your children are constantly going through growth spurts and different developmental milestones. We call it a devotional because I love to make it a designated time to include learning or working on spiritual songs, reciting the pledge, going over chores and family business, including a short spiritual message and then ending with prayer. But, maybe for you it is as simple as morning scripture study and prayer and that’s all you call it - find what works for you!
Right now, we do our devotional after everyone is fed and ready for the day. Once our children are older I would love to do it first thing and be able to include my husband before he goes to work, but with a young children we’ve found it works best to do it after we are up and everyone’s basic needs are met. Up to this point, I have planned all of our devotionals, but this year, I am planning to offer opportunities for my older children to help plan and lead. Most days our devotionals are between 10-15 minutes long. Occasionally we’ve had devotionals go down a rabbit hole and lasted longer, but that isn’t the norm. The text on this page is going to look like a lot more than it really takes, to be honest. I am just giving you a bunch of ideas so you can customize your days. If your children attend a school, I understand how rushed and chaotic mornings can be. And, if allowing time for a 15 minute devotional seems challenging - keep it simple and at the very minimum just take one minute to offer a prayer - even if it is once everyone is buckled and settled in the car. Offer your children that opportunity to find peace and connect with the Spirit before they step into the world each day.
The routine that works best for us: Hymn, Pledge of Allegiance, Family Business, Spiritual Thought(s), Prayer. I like to spend five minutes on Sunday evening and gather the items we need for the week in our devotional basket (a basket holding a collection of materials we will pull from frequently and what I rotate out during the week). Right now we permanently have the CFM manuals, a poetry book, busy book pages from Red Headed Hostess, Standout Saints and Girls Who Choose God in our basket, but I also keep it open enough that we invite the Spirit to guide the message. These are some of our base materials and then we like to rotate in and other materials in and out each week. I can’t tell you how many days I’ve followed a simple prompting for a book or simple video off YouTube and it ended up aligning perfectly with something else we’re studying. It’s truly a beautiful process.
HYMNS
Music is a powerful transition tool - for children and adults. That is why we usually begin with a hymn - it can immediately change the mood in a room and invite the Spirit. Hymns are a form of prayer and worship and as J. Reuban Clark taught, “We get nearer to the Lord through music then perhaps through any other thing except prayer.” Here are few suggestions on how to utilize music:
Choose a hymn or song that coordinates with what you’re studying or you know that your children are learning about in school. For example, during our study of the ocean we fell in love with the song Master of the Ocean - this particular version was our favorite because it showed images of Christ, but we also listened to other versions to mix it up. During our Around the World unit - we listened to I Am A Child of God in different languages. While we were learning about missionary work studying the Book of Mormon last year - we listened to a handful of different versions of We’ll Bring The World His Truth - all using different musical instruments. This is a great opportunity to integrate a little music education, diversity, and culture into your home. You could also tie in seasonal or holiday music. The Choir at Temple Square often has wonderful seasonal songs - from Christmas to Easter to the 4th of July.
Integrate the suggested monthly music from the Come, Follow Me schedule found in Appendix D in the back of the Come, Follow Me curriculum or linked here.
Utilize smart devices. We use our Alexa multiple times a day — When you say, “Alexa, play If You Could Hie To Kolob” you will be organically teaching which songs your children could ask Alexa to play. I do this not only at devotional time, but at random throughout our day. Hymns by Paul Cardall and songs by Children’s One Voice Choir are also some of our other favorite spiritual playlists. You could create a list of your favorites on your devices or on YouTube and have them ready to go.
For pre-readers, utilize pictures, flip charts, or videos with images to help them learn the lyrics. You can also choose songs with hand movements to help keep them engaged. Even children as young as two years old can begin copying hand gestures in songs. YouTube has a variety of songs that teach signs for primary songs. Between Alexa and YouTube — that is where we pull from for the majority of our songs.
If your ward hasn’t already told you which primary songs are being learned in primary this year - ask for a list and pull from that. Your primary chorister will love you! You an always pull out your hymn or children’s songbook and just read and sing together as a family. I prefer to use technology to help, because music is a weaker area of mine, but keeping it as simple as a songbook may work well for you.
Listen to and then do a short study on a hymn or children’s primary song. Who was the composer? What is their story? What is the story behind the song or hymn? Break the lyrics down and talk about their meaning (maybe this is your spiritual message for the day). This can often create a deeper sense of connection to the song.
PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
At first this was difficult for us to implement - it felt a bit awkward to do this at home - in my living room…just me and my little kids - I’ve always associated the pledge with something that happens at school. However, as I have gained a deeper appreciation as God as the author of our liberty - I realized how important this piece is to our day. In America’s Promise, an article by Marion G. Romney, he discusses President David. O McKay’s comments that by removing the once accepted prayer and bible readings from our schools - we began severing the ties between the school and our Creator - the ultimate source for divine intelligence. And, the pledge is actually one of those connections that is still available today so it is essential we help our children see this - for those at home and at a school. Declaration of Dependence: Teaching Patriotism in the Home - gives some great suggestions on how to do this, but the pledge is a promise that we will always be true to this promised land - and that as we come together as a republic no matter what we believe or how we worship - we recognize that we are stronger as one under God. This is so important for our children to understand. As you explain and reiterate this to your children on a regular basis - Pledging Allegiance is a great story from The Friend you can share. During the months of June and July is a great time to discuss these truths and listen to songs such as My Country Tis of Thee or The Star Spangled Banner as part of your devotionals, but it also becomes more than that. How is patriotism becoming a part of who we are every day instead of just during the celebratory months? The pledge is one way to integrate this into our daily lives while teaching respect for home and country. “The qualities that distinguish patriotism are all of the “homely” variety: respect, integrity, loyalty, self-sacrifice, consideration, fairness, appreciation, and devotion. No exhortation to respect his country’s flag can mean much to the youngster whose casual, permissive upbringing has left him with little respect for anything. And the child who equates freedom with indulgence may never understand the consideration for others that is fundamental to a workable democracy.” -Robert K. and Shirley Wilkes Thomas
FAMILY BUSINESS
This is when we review our family economy, chores, the children and youth goals, or any other family needs. I’ve seen others work on memorization during this time, study art, and/or recite a family mission statement. We’ve used morning menus to organize this in the past and a devotional basket might be a good place to keep them, but I actually moved them out of our devotional basket and into another basket on our side table so they are a bit easier for the kids to grab. Some days we have more to discuss than others and if we have a rushed morning - we typically skip the family business.
SPIRITUAL THOUGHT:
I like to place a spiritual thought right before the prayer. For younger children - I would recommend keeping this short and sweet. It could be anything from one simple scripture to reading a board book. This is a great time to, again, tie in something you’re already learning about in another area - like scriptures from the Come, Follow Me schedule, the Book of Mormon, or another gospel message that coordinates with a science or social studies unit you’re learning about. It could be a time to focus on other important topics like attributes of Christ, character development, morals, or maybe you know there is something your family is struggling with like grief, reverence, self-esteem and this can be a simple way to address and talk about it. Utilize picture books or a reverent hands-on activity like gospel busy book pages, felt stories, or quiet toys for younger children. We’ve also used art and poetry - messages that uplift, inspire and bring us closer to our Father in Heaven. I am going to list a whole bunch of ideas to help get your minds thinking - keep in mind we don’t do all of this at once. I just pull from a variety of materials….
Come, Follow Me for Individuals and Families and Primary. There are often short quotes, videos, and works of art that are simple to use. The Scripture Story collections are a really cheap and simple way to tell the stories of what we’re studying. You might study the weekly scripture sections together once a week in depth as a family and/or touch back on a scripture of gospel topic you want to spend a few more minutes on during a devotional. Remember, CFM is meant to be a guide to aid in your scripture study and not a prescribed lesson manual. Below, under picture books, I talk a little bit how I really simply integrate CFM in through books. But you can also just open up the manuals and look for some of the highlighted scriptures, songs, stories, and thoughts and share them with your children for a simple spiritual thought. Personally, it works best for our family to study D&C all week in little doses (including devotional time) because my kids range from 2-7 and have short attention spans - and the Red Headed Hostess CFM kits (see below) have really enhanced our study this year and helped break down our learning.
Latter-day Kids: They release weekly videos and lessons that coordinate with the CFM schedule. One day a week we almost always use one of their videos for our spiritual message.
Red Headed Hostess: We have her monthly subscription that include weekly scripture activities that coordinate with CFM. These can also be purchased by week in case there was a topic you were particularly interested in using her materials with. Up to this point we haven’t used any of her materials for devotionals - we do a separate scripture study time where we dive a little bit deeper and I use a lot of her materials for that. But, the materials that would work well for devotionals are the scripture stories, busy book pages, felt stories, art and quotes, the table posters, and some of the bonus activities which regularly include supplemental videos, or scripture memorization are perfect for short spiritual messages. There are also a lot of resources in her kits for older children and teens that can be used during this time. She has a lot of materials and once your wrap your head around what your family wants to use - it’s really simple to gather and prep it each week.
Picture Books: We have a mini library of religious books we pull from. I’ve used them at random, by collecting one or two books a week and sticking them into our basket. I’ve also been aware of the CFM topics (by looking at the headings in the primary manual) - and will often coordinate the gospel focus topic. For example, if the bolded heading is about the sacrament - I’ll find a picture book on the sacrament to read that week. Here is a list of some of our favorites, but it is a little limited. Deseret Book and Seagull have a great little children’s section, but you can also find used books on Amazon. This year, like I mentioned, I even added a favorite seasonal book that we’ve been enjoying to discuss about the beauty of the world our Father has created for us. Our Heavenly Family, Our Earthly Families was a favorite of ours last year because it had discussion questions. Board books with flaps or touch and feel Bible books are especially great for younger kids. Someone recently gifted us this book of Noah’s Ark and my two year old loves it! Lately I’ve kept it nearby so he has something to work through while we’re discussing other material for my older kids. Since we aren’t studying the Book of Mormon for CFM this year - reading from the Primary Scriptures or My First Book of Mormon Stories would also be a great option. Latter-day Baby also have a lot of books we love. We have a picture book full of art of Christ by Liz Lemon Swindle (I couldn’t find the link, sorry) that we kept in our basket last year - so even just keeping a simple book of art of Christ can give you something special to quickly reference once or twice a month.
The Friend or other church magazines: We usually read a few stories each month from The Friend. There are often stories that coordinate with the topics we’re studying in Come, Follow Me - but there are also wonderful stories about saints around the world and we love to read about the different primary children and cultures in unfamiliar places. This is also another great resource for teens.
YouTube Videos: We utilize this resource a lot. There are so many good short clips from the church or other creators that are so powerful. My favorite thing to do is to find a coordinating gospel video with what we’re studying in our homeschool. For example, when we were studying space - We Lived With God was the perfect video to watch. A lot of times I just thumb through the videos real quick the week or or night before and get an idea of what I might want to show. I’d love to work our way through the #HearHim videos.
The Gospel Art Book: I used to wonder who would have this on hand, but after I bought one … I used it so much I went and bought another one. I love to have it hanging on our wall so I can flip the pictures to coordinate with what we’re learning about in school. The other one pops back and forth between our scripture caddy and our devotional basket. CFM references using this on a regular basis so I keep it nearby and I love to use the art to study or tell stories.
Teaching Character Through Literature: New for the 2021-2022 school year we’re going to be using this as part of our devotionals. The guide has pre-selected picture books that teach good character building skills and the guide includes coordinating scriptures and activities with it. We probably won’t do the activities this year, but we are planning to read 1-2 books a month listed in the guide and discuss the coordinating bible scriptures.
Gospel Kids App and Gospel Library App: I haven’t used this as much as I’d like but this has scripture stories (even ones for young pre-schoolers), coloring pages, songs (you can even put pictures of your own kids in these songs so they can see their faces while the music plays), and so many other links to resources available for kids. This might be an excellent way to encourage your kids to choose which content they would want to use for a spiritual thought one day.
PRAYER
If you don’t do ANY of these other things, please at least let your children see you pray - include them. Show them and invite them to be apart of this special part of the day. Not only is this about beginning your day with the Spirit, but it is about creating habits and making the time to model prayer. Think of it this way - if you were taught to brush your teeth every morning when you woke up and every night before bed - when you grew up and left home did you all of the sudden stop brushing your teeth? Probably not. And this is the same idea. You are helping to create a powerful habit that will nourish and better prepare your children for the day when they are no longer under your roof. Each day list your blessings and express your gratitude and let your children hear this. If you do this regularly - when it is their turn to pray - they will begin copying many of the things you say and pray for. Ask for peace in your home, pray by name for your children and those who you can serve. Invite the Spirit to be with you in all that you do that day.
ONE LAST NOTE
This time of the day is meant to bring a bit of peace and invite the Spirit into your home and to be apart of your day. If it isn’t serving you to do this - what do you need to change? Is it the message, the length, the approach? It is going to vary so much on family and individual children. If you plan a 20 minute devotional for your pre-school aged kids - who can only be expected to sit about a minute per each year old they are - you’re all going to be frustrated. Make sure it is age and developmentally appropriate. Maybe for your three year old you let them choose a simple song from the Gospel Library App and then you read a board book together on Nephi or watch a short clip from the scripture stories in the gospel library app. Say a quick prayer together and you’re done in less than 3-4 minutes. If you have never done this before - maybe just start with prayer and eventually work up to adding in the other things. It’s easier to pair a new habit you want to form with an old one so look for habits that already exist in your morning routine to attach prayer to. For older children who may be resistant to something like this - invite them to take charge and choose what they want to learn and watch or let them lead and teach your younger children. Talk with them and find out what you can do to reach their hearts before ever pushing or making them feel like they “have” to be there. When I was a teenager - me and my mom and dad prayed every single morning together and in hindsight, I’m not sure I thought it was anything great at the time nor did I have any big powerful experiences - but now as an adult I reflect back on that and see what they were teaching and exemplifying and I cherish those times. And, maybe, for your family, it isn’t so much about doing all of these things together anymore as it is about bringing awareness to your children how powerful stillness and quiet time in the morning can spiritually enhance their day. What does their relationship with their Father look like? Is it developing? Are they learning how to seek and hear Him on their own? Perhaps its as simple as carving out five extra minutes in the morning so they can pray independently and find that sense of peace before they walk into the world. You know your children best. How can you help them come to better know and build their relationship with the Savior each day?