Family Devotions: they’re easier than you think!
One of my goals this year was to get back to doing weekly family devotions. It’s something we have done on and off for years, but I have failed to be extremely consistent. Yes, we pray with our children and go to church as a family every Sunday, but there is something special about a time set aside each week to talk and pray together as a family.
The biggest issue I had is finding something to work for us. My children are almost 10 years apart in age. I currently have an (almost) 14 year old son and a 4 year old daughter. Our conversations are extremely different. I was in a meeting with a very well respected woman of God and she was talking about her family devotions they had when her children were younger. She said sometimes they were 5 minutes and sometimes they were longer. Hearing her talk about it really helped to take some pressure off of me! I can definetely let the desire for perfection stand in the way of progress.
A few weeks ago I shared that we do these each week and I had many of you ask what we do. Let me start by saying we are far from perfect at this.
Here are some tips that have helped me:
Let yourself off the hook. This will NOT be perfect. Your kids will not always (or ever) sit still. The teen will sometimes be grumpy. The toddler will climb over you while you’re praying and dump all the missionary prayer cards all over the floor. Life is messy and this will be too.
Plan. You have to set aside a night on the calendar each week. Ours is not always the same night. It’s usually Tuesday or Wednesday. And some weeks life will just be crazy and on the night you planned something will come up. Improvise. And if you miss a week, pick it back up next week. But you have to plan. As I plan my week I pick a day that has a free evening and I put it on my calendar. On the day I put a task on my list to prepare for it. If we don’t plan, it won’t happen.
Make it fun. The kids know that on devotion night we will play a game or watch a movie together right after. This makes this look forward to it and they also remind me if my mind is elsewhere when I’m cleaning up from dinner.
This is what our devotion time looks like:
SIT TOGETHER: We all sit in the living room together and divide up who will do what. If you have a larger family, you might want to create a schedule to rotate these. Here are the jobs we have: Read the story, pick the card and pray for the missionary, prayer time: praise, repentance, needs.
STORY: First, my husband and I will read or tell the devotion. We are currently using the Jesus Storybook Bible. (Purchase your copy HERE.) This seems to work for both of the kids’ ages. Disclaimer: it’s hard to find something to span a large age gap. Just remind the older ones that they are an example and find ways to connect to all the age groups in the conversation. This book has a few things in it that differ from what I believe the Bible says and so I just “edit” those parts as I am reading. But I think this book helps look at Bible stories in a fresh light and brings up good conversation.
DISCUSSION: We ask each person what stood out to them about this story. Sometimes it’s great, deep conversation and sometimes the rabbit trails abound and we move on. Remember, none of us live in a Hallmark movie. This is real life.
MISSIONARY: Usually my son is the one who reads the missionary card. We bought a set HERE. He reads about the missionary and then prays for them and the work they are doing. This is a super special time for me. I have really watched him grow and be very intuitive as he gets older and realizes the hardships that lie outside of the USA.
PRAYER: This is a simple prayer time. We each thank God for something and each share a prayer request. We pray out-loud together. 1st thanking and praising God for what he has done, next repenting, and finally asking for requests. My husband and I both pray out loud. Do not forget, that this is a teaching time for your kids to hear you pray.
FAMILY TIME: We like to play a family game after our devotion time. I never regret taking this extra time from my schedule! (One of our current favorites is Settlers of Catan! Our 13 year old and my husband really love this one. You can buy it HERE.)
Our devotions are usually only about 15 minutes long. There is no deep intercessory prayer, but be sure that very important things are happening during this 15 minutes.
This little schedule will change from time to time, but this is what is working for us now. I would love to hear what works for you!
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