16 Feb My Journey with Orange: Part 4 – Moses & Family Times-Virtue Packs
If you’ve been tracking along with this series (see Part 1, Part 2, and/or Part 3), you’ve already read about how my experience with the Orange strategy affected my parenting just as much, if not more than my leadership. I have two adult daughters now but as a young mom, I was desperate to help my children grow up to know, love, and serve Jesus. Being new to faith myself, I had no idea where to begin. Thankfully, the church I was a part of implemented the Orange strategy and gave this young mom just what she needed… a plan!
Creating a Rhythm
In Part 2 of this series, I talk about the book Parenting Beyond Your Capacity. This was very much a handbook for me as I raised my children. I love the practical insights it gives about how to best engage our children in God’s story. While all five of the values in this book influenced my parenting (part 2 of this series tells specifically about my experience with Value #1-Widen the Circle), Value #4-Create a Rhythm, was incredibly helpful!
Like anything else in life, you can have the best intentions in the world, but if you don’t have a plan – you probably won’t reach your goals. Take exercise or nutrition for example. We can haphazardly go to the gym and eat salad for lunch from time to time, but lasting results come from creating a plan. Part of that plan involves establishing a rhythm, or being consistent and intentional about what you are implementing. Personally, I’m okay with implementing routines when it comes to exercise, nutrition, or my own personal faith disciplines, but helping my kids know Jesus was a different story. It seemed to be such a large task with so many options:
- Take your kids to church. Check! That happens each Sunday at the same time. It’s easy to make that happen. It’s part of our schedule.
- Pray with your children. Check!?? Well, at least at night when we had dinner together and would pray over our food. And when my kids were small, I prayed with them before bed. As they got older and did not get “tucked in” anymore – that routine took a hit.
- Read the Bible with your children. Check??? Well, sometimes. I tried various things to ensure we would have devotion time together. Again, I had the best intentions, but not much of a plan. So… oversleeping, crazy schedules, and life in general often won out.
Deuteronomy 6 made simple!
I will never forget the first time I heard Reggie Joiner speak about the charge that Moses gave to the Israelites in Deuteronomy 6. While this passage carries a heavy challenge that could be somewhat overwhelming for parents, Reggie’s teaching inspired me and helped me implement this challenge. In this passage, Moses tells the people to ensure that the commandments he gives them are impressed upon their children. Then he lays out a plan (schedule) for how to do this:
- Talk about them when you sit at home.
- Talk about them when you walk along the road.
- Speak about them when you lie down.
- And speak about them when you get up.
While the routine that Moses suggests is wonderful, I still found myself wondering how to actually speak about God and his commandments with my children. What did this look like and where should I begin? Enter… Family Times Kits!
The Original Cue Box
When I heard Reggie’s message on Deuteronomy 6 the first time, Orange had a a wonderful resource called the Family Times Kit. It is now called the Cue Box, but it has essentially the same components. Each month, we would receive a box in the mail that contained our Family Times Kit. It went along with the Life App (then called virtue) my girls were learning about at church, and it was chock full of things to help me as a parent talk about faith within the rhythm that Moses provides for us in Deuteronomy 6. It also helped me see the different role I got to play as a parent at each of these four segments of the day.
MORNING TIME (WHEN YOU GET UP)
In the morning, I was the COACH and my job was to set my kids up for success that day. The Family Times Kit provided adorable blank cards for me to write notes to my kids. I would write out notes as often as possible, letting my girls know I was praying for them or sharing a verse with them. I would place them in their backpacks or lunch boxes. As I considered what to write each morning, it helped me think about something concrete I could talk with them about (the verse I had included, how I could be praying for them, etc.) while driving them to school or while they were getting ready.
DRIVE TIME (WHEN YOU WALK ALONG THE ROAD)
As we drove throughout the day (and we did a lot of that), I was able to act as a FRIEND. Our Family Times Kit provided a CD that featured a drama built around the Life App for the month. These were some of our favorite things to listen to when we drove along in the car. We found ourselves quoting the characters and to this day – still say some of the things that stuck with us from those CD’s. Again, the drama on the CD gave me a base for conversation when we were “walking along the road!”
MEAL TIME (WHEN YOU SIT AT HOME)
This is the time of day when my role as a parent could take the form of TEACHER. The Family Times Kit came with conversation starters that were centered around the monthly Life App. Moses said to talk about God when you are at home and Orange provided a way for me to do that at a very critical time of day – dinner hour. It would be easy to sit at the table with the TV on in the background, or as my children got older, to have smart phones take over our dinner conversation. The conversation starters gave us a jumping off point for some great discussions. This helped us be intentional about spending time with our children around the table and hearing from them.
BED TIME (WHEN YOU LIE DOWN)
This is the time of day when I got to act as a COUNSELOR for my kids. The Family Times Kit provided a bedtime card that included a verse from the Bible and some questions or activities to do after reading the verse. These always launched conversation about the day and how things went. I was able to hear what my kids where struggling with or what they were celebrating and then pray with them about it before they drifted off to sleep.
I loved the Family Times-Virtue Pack Kits. They gave me a road map/plan for how to discuss things of faith with my kids and they fit right into the rhythm that Moses suggested. As a new mom and one that didn’t have a clue about how to help my kids grown in faith, this resource was incredibly valuable.
Landing in the Millennium
Times have certainly changed since my kids were young. Now, these Family Times-Virtue Packs are available through the Orange Store as Cue Boxes. In addition, if you aren’t the paper/pencil type – the entire thing has gone digital! There is a super cool website called Studio 252. It has all of the resources I mentioned above at your fingertips (literally). Kids can access fun stuff to watch, to do, and to read. Parents can access cues for each stage of the day: Morning Time, Drive Time, Meal Time, Bed Time and the newest addition – Hang Time! There’s also a blog with information, resources and articles about parenting. And remember the note cards I mentioned earlier? Now, parents can write their children notes on the site itself. It’s an amazing interactive site that can bring kids and parents together as they journey through faith and learn about the Life App for the month.
I’m always impressed as I watch Orange move with the times. But what I find interesting is that while the format of these resources may be different then when I used them, the concepts are the same. I guess that’s because regardless of what direction culture takes us – parents still need a plan, a road map, a rhythm – to help them keep the commands of God before their kids. Moses gave us the framework and Orange helps us apply it. I am so thankful!
Have you had any experience with the Cue Box or Studio 252? Be sure to share in the comments below!
