Adaptability

It's May 5th...we've been here for 3 weeks tomorrow!

A lot has happened in 3 weeks, and yet we still have so much to do.

We are so thankful for all of the prayers and support from friends, family, and churches.

a·dapt (v) make (something) suitable for a new use or purpose; modify.

We are all doing well...really! Especially considering what has just happened. I've been wanting to work on this update all week, and there was a reason God had me wait until today. Before we even moved, I joined several homeschool groups in Montana; one of those was a field trip group. We went on our first field trip today to ZooMontana and had a tour guide to show us around. At the very first stop she asked the kids about adaptations. She had the kids explain what they were, and then at every habitat she had the kids point out the adaptations the animals had. Justin's devotion he picked for the kids tonight started by asking the kids what the word adapt meant. He didn't even make the connection between what we had done today for the field trip, but it was so amazing. The kids remembered from the field trip what we had talked about, and then we read Genesis 12:1- 9. Here God tells Abram to go to a place where he will tell him. Here God has several "I will" statements. Even though God promised that He would bless Abram and his family in their new home, it was probably still hard for Abram and Sarai to trust God and leave all that was comfortable and secure. The devotion showed that when we are facing challenges or when the future seems scary, we can follow Abram's example and "call on the Lord" in prayer. It emphasized that God is always with us, and that is exactly what we have been stressing to our kids over the last few months.

I also loved that the devotion ended relating our life to a storybook...it told the kids to imagine our life as a storybook that God is writing. This can help us accept change! If we think of stories, sometimes in the middle of the story, things go badly for the main character. No worries...by the end of the story there is usually a "happily ever after." With God, we can always trust that He's planning for our life story to turn out well. Abram and Sarai faced many challenges in their life together, but their story turned out well in the end too!

I'm sure Justin had used devotions from this site before, but I have really enjoyed using them with the kids since then! Feel free to find them and use them yourself. It is kidsofinegrity.com and you can browse by topic.