Family Devotions

Family devotions with 3 little boys is always an adventure. I’ve seen peaceful seconds of holy teaching about Jesus and His love erupt into an all out battle over who gets to help daddy turn the page in the Bible. One moment I’m exegeting on God’s slowness to anger and abounding love, the next I’m raising my voice as if to act out God on Mt. Sinai bringing wrath upon kids who can’t control their little wiggling bodies. Yeah, we have a long way to go in this house. Yet, by the grace of God, we continue on. At the short time we’ve been at this, here are some things I’ve seen God really bless for us that may be an encouragement for other families with young kids:

1. Start with realistic expectations. Long, deep devotionals, I’ve noticed, don’t generally work with energetic 2 and 3 year olds. Our most effective moments are usually those that are short, sweet and to the point. One truth, point of application for that day, a prayer for grace and we’re on our way. It helps, too, to point back to this throughout the day, reminding them of what we learned and highlighting ways God answered prayers prayed that morning.
2. Promise Kingdom lessons are our friends. Repetition and routine really impact our kids. I take Sunday’s children’s ministry lesson and work through it slowly with them Monday through Friday. God always gives some fresh application or something new pops out that we didn’t see the day before. On Saturday we begin discussing the lesson for the next week.
3. Don’t forget the memory verses. My kids love these. They like it when we all compete as a family to see who can say it “all by myself!” It’s a good way for all of us to be hiding the Word in our hearts. Taken from the Promise Kingdom plan, we work on one verse a month.
4. Switch it up. Doing different things to keep their attention has been effective. Sometimes we look at and talk about the pictures in the Big Picture Story Bible. Other times we take images from their other favorite books to explain a biblical concept. Most often we simply read and talk about the words in the passage that carry tangible images for the kids. And sometimes we just do our memory verse and pray. Changing things up a bit keeps all of our attention and makes it fun.
5. Lead by example. The best thing I can do to foster a love in our kids for God’s Word is to love it myself. Our family devotions are vibrant when I’ve been regularly in God’s word and excited about learning and growing in Him.

Of course, it always helps to remember the reason why we do all this and God’s promises to bless His Word. Our hope and our prayer is that the Lord will bless these times and that through the truths of His Word, our children will come to know and love Him as their God and Savior. Since He has “brought us forth by the word of truth,” we have hope that He will act on our children’s hearts that they may “receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save [their] souls” James 1:18, 21.