Over the years we have been struggling to maintain a family devotional time . I would start and be dedicated to it for a few days and then Life happens and its long forgotten.
With my "One word" focus PURSUE, by God's grace we have been able to meet together as a family in the morning everyday since we got back from India. Except for Sundays.
We have been following the reading plan "walk with Jesus:21 days through Mathew, with accompanied 1:50 minutes videos by Phil Vischer. (creator of Veggie tales and What's in the Bible)
We watch the video, read the Bible passage corresponding to that event in Mathew and discuss about it, ending with Bobby or I praying. We also ask the kids to say one thing they are grateful for, or let them pray a few lines when they wish to. We also have walked through "The Lord's Prayer" with the kids. Explaining it through a book we have. Benjamin now knows this prayer by heart and Elijah knows a few random verses.
There are other reading plans that you can choose from, which might suit your family.
By having a family devotion time, we expect to instill important values in our children on the importance of prayer together as a family, and individually, modeling how to pray and leaning God's Word.
There are certain values we want to teach our kids, such as we go to church every Sunday irrespective of whether we "feel like it "or not. Of course if we are away or not well, then its different. We try not to "say yes" to birthday parties or foot ball games on a Sunday morning.
You might disagree with me, but these are some family rules we try to stick to. I do know it will become more difficult to stick to, as the kids grow up. But hopefully , this is ingrained in them, so they themselves know the importance and choose not to be somewhere else at this time. So, having a quiet time every day will be natural and normal. So, even if they lose their way , they will remember and come back.
All we can do as parents is model, pray, pray and pray.
With my "One word" focus PURSUE, by God's grace we have been able to meet together as a family in the morning everyday since we got back from India. Except for Sundays.
We have been following the reading plan "walk with Jesus:21 days through Mathew, with accompanied 1:50 minutes videos by Phil Vischer. (creator of Veggie tales and What's in the Bible)
We watch the video, read the Bible passage corresponding to that event in Mathew and discuss about it, ending with Bobby or I praying. We also ask the kids to say one thing they are grateful for, or let them pray a few lines when they wish to. We also have walked through "The Lord's Prayer" with the kids. Explaining it through a book we have. Benjamin now knows this prayer by heart and Elijah knows a few random verses.There are other reading plans that you can choose from, which might suit your family.
By having a family devotion time, we expect to instill important values in our children on the importance of prayer together as a family, and individually, modeling how to pray and leaning God's Word.
There are certain values we want to teach our kids, such as we go to church every Sunday irrespective of whether we "feel like it "or not. Of course if we are away or not well, then its different. We try not to "say yes" to birthday parties or foot ball games on a Sunday morning.
You might disagree with me, but these are some family rules we try to stick to. I do know it will become more difficult to stick to, as the kids grow up. But hopefully , this is ingrained in them, so they themselves know the importance and choose not to be somewhere else at this time. So, having a quiet time every day will be natural and normal. So, even if they lose their way , they will remember and come back.
All we can do as parents is model, pray, pray and pray.
Hi Manju! Nice to read about your family devotions. I have YouVersion too, but wondering whether you had to pay for that particular reading plan?
ReplyDelete:) Hugs from snowy Boston
Hi Lingwei, all reading plans are free...
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