When we were planning this family reunion, Grandma told me that she wanted the great
grandkids to learn the words to Children of the Heavenly Father.
So every morning the family gathered for morning devotions. Each day we memorized one of the four verses of this
swedish hymn learning a bit about what the lyrics meant, tied it into a Bible story that some mornings the
grandkids acted out and then played a memory game to help the family learn the words. In this memory game, we sang the song through a few times, and then I had volunteers come forward to take down one or two of the words from the clothesline and then we'd see if we could sing it through without having all of the words in front of us. We did this until there were no words left.
My dad pulled me aside that night and commented, "maybe we wouldn't have to sing that song quite so many times." Ha! Hysterical.
It was a sweet way to begin our days together. We sang other favorite hymns, and throughout the course of the four days heard the entire gospel. In fact, Christmas morning I focused on the fall story and why Jesus had to come in the first place. That night we celebrated Jesus' birth by acting out the nativity. And then the next day was Easter so we learned why Jesus had to die and were able to connect the sin that had been brought into the world during The Fall and how Jesus' love for us was poured out on the cross, dying for our sins so that we can celebrate new life with our Heavenly Father. Thursday was Thanksgiving and we talked about how the only thing left for us to do is to praise our God and thank him for the life and joy and hope we have because of his great love for us. Seriously, it was a lot of ground to cover in four days!
Here are the words to
Children of the Heavenly Father Children of the Heavenly Father
Safely in his bosom gather
Nestling bird nor star in heaven
Such a refuge e'er was given
God his own doth tend and nourish
In his holy courts they flourish
From all evil things he spares them
In his mighty arms he bears them
Neither life nor death shall ever
From the Lord his children sever
Unto them his grace he
showethAnd their sorrows all he
knowethThough he
giveth or he
takethGod his children ne'er
forsakethHis the loving purpose solely
To preserve them pure and holy
We have had so much fun with our garden. The strategy for this year was to plant a little of everything, learning what we like to eat, what we wish we had more of, and what just didn't turn out. If that was the goal, then we have completely succeeded. The only serious issue we have had was with the zuccini and squash that were both enjoyed by some sort of gross worm. Unfortunately, the days they started to wilt were those horribly hot days last week and we just assumed it was the heat that was making them look so sickly. But it was the worms. Bummer.
