It’s been about 2 years since the Plank family began regularly reading the Bible together for “Bible time”. This habit came about when God pressed on my heart to walk more faithfully in my given role as spiritual leader of the home – to pastor my little flock.
Starting this habit was the most difficult part, with many questions to tackle, like: ”Where do I begin?”, “What shall I say?”, and “How can I do this when Chloe keeps throwing spaghetti on the floor?” For all young dads, or men who are starting to see the need to lead their families in family devotions, hang in there. It requires patience and much persistence – and believe me – many times when you may spend more time addressing your kids’ behaviors or lack of attentiveness than you are actually reading from the Bible.
Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither are our children. They will require persistent pointers from moms & dads over the long haul. The most important truths in the whole universe will take parents decades to instill into their children. The first step is to faithfully lead them to the Bible – and this is where family devotions comes in.
Dads – just get started if you haven’t already. Pick a chapter from the Bible, read it after dinner, even just a single verse from Proverbs. Have the kids share what they learned about God from the reading and then share your own thoughts. Then pray together! It really doesn’t need to be complicated… just centered on the reality that Christ is the most important part of every family.
What does your family do during devotions?
July 7, 2009 at 7:31 am
Doug, this is excellent encouragement to Dad’s. This is exactly how the responsibility unfolds. Faith, patience, persistence and humility are necessary ingredients. For older children I recently heard a message by CJ that gave some very practical advice on how to lead teens. http://media.sovgracefairfax.org/mp3/06-21-09.mp3
July 7, 2009 at 8:27 am
May I praise my husband for a moment? He has faithfully led my children in devotions every evening before bedtime for years. He reads from the Bible, plus one other book, every night, rarely skipping an evening. That time of day seems to work best for us, given the ages of our kids and the fact they all have the same bedtime. Thank you Vernon, for your faithfullness, and thank you Doug for your post.
July 14, 2009 at 6:09 am
[...] family, hymns, Worship | Leave a Comment As an unintentional “part II” to my post from last Tuesday (about family devotions), I wanted to pass on a little book that the Planks have enjoyed singing [...]