One subject that creates a lot of angst and anxiety among parents is morning devotions. Early in our marriage we struggled matching our desire to do morning devotions with the resolve and commitment to make it happen. Some of you know we eventually settled on reading five Psalms and one Proverb each morning. For the past twenty years, with very few exceptions, we’ve done that in our home. We will tell you more in a future blog. Tonight I want to share one of those “exceptions”.

As I said, virtually every school morning at 6:30 you will find our family sitting around the living room reading God’s word. But, every once in a while we’ve taken a break from Psalms and Proverbs – never for very long and usually for a specific purpose. For instance, if our church is doing a special study we might substitute that for our traditional reading. The other reason we’ve strayed is deeply religious– an upcoming Hollywood movie! Ok, maybe not deeply religious, but not completely void of spiritual meaning. For the past week or so, in anticipation of the release of “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader” (which opens tomorrow night at midnight), we have been reading C.S. Lewis’ book by the same name.  While it isn’t the poetry of David or the Wisdom of Solomon – it is filled with lessons if you are diligent to look for them. For instance this morning we read about Queen Lucy (if you aren’t familiar with the Chronicles of Narnia, I’m not going to attempt to catch you up in this writing – sorry) making a bad decision to eavesdrop on a close friend. Saddened by what she heard and unable to shake the pain of the hurtful words her friend said, Lucy is confronted by the great lion Aslan. Remorseful for possibly ruining the future with her friend, Lucy asks Aslan if it would have been different had she not eavesdropped. Aslan’s response is a great reminder for us as we make choices in life – “Child” said Aslan, “did I not explain to you once before that no one is ever told what would have happened?” How often do we pray and then make a decision we know we shouldn’t only to be left wondering what might have been. Today’s chapter is hopefully an encouragement to make wise decisions whenever possible.

The kids know why we read Psalms and Proverbs – but they also enjoy our occasional departures from God’s word. It’s been fun visiting Narnia again – and of course the bonus is we get to watch the movie! If you don’t know what a Reepicheep is, might I suggest reading the entire series by C.S. Lewis or you can go to the movies – Thursday at midnight if you are brave!