I love the fresh start of each January! The New Year is a time to reorient on the things that matter, a time to begin incorporating new rhythms and traditions to point your family in the direction you desire to go. This couldn’t be truer in my own home right now. With the arrival of our first little bundle of joy over the holidays, my husband and I are in the midst of establishing a new normal. Along with our new rhythms of momentary survival (feed, diaper, swaddle, repeat), we have the immense privilege of creating environments in which our baby girl might come to know God and love Him all her days. One tradition we’d like to start this year is to speak truth over our daughter about her identity in Christ.

As much as we want our little girl to be fed, clean, and well-rested, we don’t want our parenting to stop there. It’s much more important to us that she knows she is created and loved by the one true God and that He desires to have a relationship with her! It’s easy to fall into the parenting trap of merely trying to get by day by day, so with the start of this new year, we’re choosing to lift our heads out of our sleep-deprived fog and begin a tradition to refocus on what matters most. My hope is that as we speak the things God says are true over our little one, my husband and I will be reminded that these things are true of our identity as well.

Maybe you’re already in the habit of intentionally speaking truth to your children about their identity in Christ. If not, I invite you to embrace the new beginning this year has to offer and start this tradition with us!

Here’s our plan. First, we’re going to fill a jar with references to 31 verses that talk about who God says we are. Then, from January 1 through 31, we’re going to set a timer for 7:00 a.m. each morning. (I like the idea of doing this in the morning so we are starting off our day with truth, but you can choose whatever time works best for your family.) Each day when the alarm goes off, we’ll pause what we’re doing, pull out one of the references, open our Bible to that verse or passage, and read it together.

What You’ll Need:

• 31 verse references downloaded and printed from: http://bit.ly/JanPrayerVerses
• mason jar
• tape
• pen
• ribbon (optional)
• Bible

What You’ll Do:

1. Cut out the 31 verse references and jar label.
2. Fold the verse references and put them in the jar.
3. Tape the label to the front of the jar.
4. Tie a ribbon around the jar (optional).
5. Choose a time to read a verse each day and draw hands on the label’s clock to
correspond to that time.
6. Set an alarm for the time you chose, and each day in January, when the alarm goes off, pause, choose a reference from the jar, find that verse in your Bible, and read it over your children.