For a long time Dr. Irving and I thought that in order to be “good parents”, we ought to be leading our kids in Scripture reading and devotions and prayer every day. We went through several painful attempts at forcing our unwilling teenagers and our fussy babies to sit around the table and listen as one of us would read some Scripture and a devotional page while the other wrangled wiggly toddlers or calmed kids down.
IT. WAS. MISERABLE.
Now, the disclaimer here is that if you have mastered family devotional time at your house, GO YOU!!! Keep up the good work. But if you sometimes struggle with training your kids up in the way they should go (in the spiritual department), I have some helpful stuff for you.
Here’s my three step process for successful family devotions:
- Lower your expectations.
- Lower.
- Lower.
You think I’m kidding, right? Think again. Now that you’ve set the bar really low for yourselves, you’re in a good place to start. Here’s the idea:
In Deuteronomy 6:4-8, God tells the people how to teach their children to love God. He tells them to be diligent. He tells them to teach the kids when they’re sitting down, when they’re walking, when they’re lying down, and when they’re getting up. (Anybody feeling like Sam-I-Am in Green Eggs and Ham?)
The concept of diligence means that you try. JUST TRY.
And when should you try? Pretty much all the time. The good news is that it doesn’t need to be a formal time where everyone is sitting up straight and tall around the table. Hallelujah.
And what should you try? To teach your kids to love God!
Here’s how it looks at our house right now. We eat dinner at the table together every night. We say the blessing and then dig in. Toward the end of the meal, one of the kids usually goes and grabs our Cornerstones book. (Although ironically, tonight we all forgot. That’s life!)
Cornerstones is a book of questions and answers about God for the whole family to memorize. Some of the questions we’ve done so far are “What does it mean that God is omnipotent?” and “Is it possible to know God fully?” We do one Q&A combo every night. We also review some Q&As from previous nights. Less than five minutes. Easy peasy.
About a month ago I put a color-in map on the wall in our dining room. Each night the kids take turns picking a country and we read a bit about that country from the book, Pray for the World. It’s got a lot of info on each country so we just pick a couple of facts out and then we pray for that country together. This has really opened all of our eyes to God’s heart for the nations. Then the kids color in the country on the map! Less than five minutes again. Easy peasy again.
A word about behavior. My kids usually stand on their heads and laugh and make all kinds of noises during this time. We keep going and don’t sweat the small stuff.
Beyond this focused time, here’s what else we do. We take our kids to church (kinda expected when you’re the pastor’s family!) but this is super important! God’s design for making disciples includes the church so regular church attendance is KEY.
The rest? We do it as we’re going. As we’re walking, sitting, standing, lying down, getting up. Just like Deuteronomy 6 says. We have lots of conversations about God and the Bible. It won’t happen by accident so we have to be diligent, but it feels very natural when we do it as we’re going.
You can’t teach what you don’t know. If you’re struggling with knowing what you believe, you’re in the right place. Check out the Resources page for helpful resources, including a parent-guide to walk you through the Cornerstones book. And don’t forget to SUBSCRIBE to my newsletter to find encouragement and ways to teach your kids about God as you’re going!
