We’ve been having a little trouble with obedience here at the Picker house, so I was inspired by Andrea and Elijah to have a special family day to learn more about obedience. I felt a little overwhelmed by the idea at first, but once I started it was really easy to plan activities that emphasized obedience. I only spent about twenty minutes brain storming the night before.

Caleb and Daddy started the day by reading a book about cars and trucks and traffic rules. They talked about how even Mommy and Daddy have to obey rules when they drive the car. They talked about how there were rules about how fast to go and when to stop and that obeying the rules is what keeps us safe when we drive.

Then after breakfast we played a game called “Mommy Says,” which is a lot like “Simon Says” only Mommy says it and there is no tricking. With a little help from Daddy, Caleb thought this was pretty fun. We then went on a drive to look for stop signs. We talked about how good Daddy was at obeying the rules when he drives and how it makes God happy when we obey.

After Caleb’s nap, we tried a little obedience practice during snack time. I put three cookies on the table in front of him and said, “Caleb, Mommy wants you to eat this cookie first,” and I pointed to a cookie. Well, Caleb didn’t appreciate being told which cookie to eat, so after thinking about it for a minute he reached for that cookie and threw it on the ground! This exercise made it pretty clear that Caleb is strong-willed; he would rather not eat a cookie than eat the one that Mommy said to eat. This is something I will be praying for wisdom about.

After the cookie incident, we moved out to the driveway. We drew with the sidewalk chalk, and Mommy and Daddy drew roads and stop signs to let Caleb practice driving his car and obeying the signs. Caleb thought this was pretty fun, but it bothered him that the stop signs were pink instead of red (we didn’t have any red chalk; do they even make that?). After driving the car for a while, we went to the back yard and played Red Light/Green Light. This was probably Caleb’s favorite game; he got all sweaty running back and forth.

Later we read the story of the Battle of Jericho in Caleb’s Jesus Storybook Bible. We talked about how the Israelites had to obey God’s instructions exactly and how God protected them because they obeyed. We pretended to march around Jericho (the coffee table) and made as much noise as possible.

For supper, Caleb helped Mommy make pancakes. We talked about how we had to obey the instructions in the recipe or the pancakes wouldn’t taste good. After supper, we finished our family day by watching the Veggie Tales Jonah movie. Caleb loved this so much that he cried when it was over. Veggie Tales are his new favorite, though he still loves Curious George. We talked about how sad it was that Jonah decided to disobey God and how he got in trouble for not obeying. I think Caleb understood this pretty well; this morning when I asked him about Jonah he said, “Jonah not obey.”

We really had a fun family day. I hope we can try to do this again soon, maybe monthly. I know that Caleb really enjoyed all the special attention and games, and we felt good that we were all having fun while teaching something very important. I don’t know if this will help with Caleb’s obedience or not, but it has certainly given us more opportunities to talk about obeying.

See more pictures from our family day.