The 8 year rite of passage

As I said before, the eight year rite of passage focuses on the child's relationship with God.  We try to talk to them leading up to it about their relationship with God.  We also try to model what personal time with God is.  When I was a young Christian the man who discipled me taught me about "God-time" and he gave me my first prayer journal.  Ever since journaling my prayers and spending daily time with God has been the most important part of each day.  This is something that we want to pass on to our children.  I have found one way to do this is by having my time with God with them, doing the things that I do in my time with God with them.  Sometimes we walk and pray, sometimes we read the Bible, sometimes we have communion, and sometimes we journal.  A big part of each rite of passage is the gifts that each child gets.  We make a box which is half the dimensions of the arc of the covenant in Exodus together.  This is the child's box, and it symbolizes that we are the new arc of the covenant, the place where God's presence dwells.  It also is meant to be a place for the child's special things that are theirs.  I have a shoebox that I have had since high school with all of my special things and this spurred on the idea of a special box for them.  I have also run a marathon for each of my children, and as every marathoner knows, the shirt is special.  I give the shirt to them on this day to symbolize that I would literally do anything for them, no matter how hard or crazy.  My wife gives them something special as well, something from her childhood that she passes on to them.  Two of our four kids have went through this rite of passage, and it has been a very meaningful time for all of us.