JellyTelly & Bloom Devotionals

I'm sitting at a pizza booth all by my blissfully alone self for a few minutes while Dad has Monkey Joe's on lock. We left home past lunchtime and didn't have the fight in us to make them wait any longer for the Mecca that is bouncy castles and overpriced merry-go-rounds most likely carrying the latest round of influenza. (No, really, we all enjoy it.) So they'll eat and play and I'll enjoy my thoughts uninterrupted.

My lunch companion

So, instead of staring into space with my thoughts, I'm gonna bang out a quick rec for the JellyTelly website.

Basically, YES. You need to get this. It's $40 annually or $5 monthly. You can stream it via Roku and download the app to your mobile device and are not limited to the number of screens with which you can access the content.  It has What's in the Bible, Jesus Storybook Bible videos and old favorites like Bibleman. It has games that help with Scripture memory. Best of all, for me, is the family devotional called Bloom. It is posted each Sunday night and can be printed out. It takes 5 minutes to complete around the dinner table or at bedtime and it is on a young child's level. There is a weekly verse, and each night has a different focus. Monday is the anchor bible story, Tuesday is church history (a doxology or a catechism question), Wedneday and Thursday are days to reflect on prayer for ourselves and others and Friday is a look back at the week and a traditional prayer.

It's encouraging to me because it showed me I was on the right track already: "Oh, I say the Lord's Prayer with my kids already! Maybe I do have good instincts!" I know I'm not alone in my struggle to get faith "right" with my family. I remind myself a lot of of the simple things my parents did or said well that I carry with me. You teach and train and mess up and send them out one day. Then it's theirs to live or to reject. They'll learn some things only through heartbreak, as much as we'd like to rescue them from it. And guess what? The Lord is Sovereign and He is gonna work it out. You can take that to the bank.  I might need to start waving my non-existent hanky right now, because seriously, our God is faithful.

So here's one more tool to nurture your family's spiritual life. I highly recommend it! And make sure to read the site's history and mission. The proof is in the pudding.