Using the daily reading prompts from George H. Guthrie’s Read the Bible for Life, here’s how to use this devotional:
- Bring your Bible! Your kids need to see that everything you are reading to them or learning about comes from an actual Bible!
- Each day starts with a reading prompt. Read the selection as a family. If your kids are readers, encourage them to read along with you.
- After you’ve read the passage, read the short devotional thought that goes along with each passage.
- Prayer and application are important any time we read God’s word! After each devotional, there is a challenge to help apply what your family has read that day.
- There is a reading for six days of the week. The last reading of the week is a Gospel Conversation Prompt to help you connect the reading from the week with God’s plan for salvation.
Today’s Reading:
Read Genesis 27:1–29; Genesis 29
Do you have any brothers or sisters? Are you a twin or do you know any twins? Isaac and Rebekah had
twin baby boys! Their names were Jacob and Esau. They were very different from each other even
though they were brothers and were in the same family.
Esau was the oldest. Because he was the oldest, he was the one who would inherit the most because he
was born first. But, one day Esau made a choice that was not a good one. He had been out hunting and
he came in very hungry. He told Jacob that he would give him his “birthright” – the things he would get
because he was the oldest– if Jacob would give him food. That was not Esau’s best choice. He should
not have traded all of that for food.
Jacob not only took the birthright– he tricked Isaac, his dad, into believing he was Esau and as his dad
was dying, Jacob took his dad’s blessing as well. Isaac’s blessing was meant for Esau– not Jacob. That’s
a lot of bad choices, isn’t it?
All of these choices led to consequences– which we will learn about as we read more of the Bible! But–
isn’t it good news to know that if we make bad choices, we can ask God to forgive us and He will?
APPLICATION/PRAYER:
Ask God to help you make good choices that will honor Him and thank Him for always forgiving us when
we don’t do that!
Other Resources:
january memory verse coloring sheet