Family Devotions…Need Some Help?
Family devotions. Oh, that thought was so challenging to me as a young father. The only example I had of this was when my Catholic family would listen to Bishop Sheen on television on Sunday nights. However, my parents engaging us in spiritual conversations was not something I experienced.
How about you? Is it difficult for you to engage in spiritual conversations with your children, or with your spouse? I get it. It is not easy, but I want to share some thoughts with you that may help. I’ll start with age-appropriate ideas:
- A children’s Bible is a good idea for very young children. At first, they may look at the pictures and ask you to give a brief description of each one. That’s a good start.
- As your child(ren) mature, they are ready for more. However, I encourage you to use the vehicle of story. Recently, my wife and I purchased Bear Grylls’s book, The Greatest Story Ever Told. I love this book because it starts with the birth of Jesus in a story format, and the chapters are very short. You would find this book helpful in introducing the story of our Savior on a level your child(ren) could connect with, but they’d also need your help understanding it. The book is linked here.
- Teenagers and young adults—I worked with this age group for years and loved it! However, family devotions for them need to look different from those for younger children. I encourage you to engage them in conversation “on the way.” By “on the way,” I mean on the way to dropping them off for a school event or practice. Use thoseone-on-one times with your children to talk about deeper things. And, yes, with our children, we even paid them to read certain books.
- Spouse-to-spouse family devotions – Cindy and I have been having family devotions for decades now. Our time together starts in the morning. We choose to read a particular book, and I read a portion each morning while Cindy prepares breakfast. This has been so valuable to us. These times together create a spiritual vocabulary for our shared life.
I hope these thoughts are helpful. God’s Word calls us to share God’s story with our families. I know of some Bible verses that call us to this responsibility, but I’m wondering if you could expand my knowledge of them? Could you send me a passage calling us as parents and as spouses to teach one another God’s Word?
I would love to hear from you!