All About Family Devotions

Maranda:

Hello, and welcome to the Family Ministry podcast, where we equip you to raise your kids God's way. Today we're going to be talking about family devotions. Now, I know I've mentioned family devotions in the past and it's just kind of been, "Well, when you're doing your family devotions, you should do this," or "You can explain this during your family devotions," but I haven't actually explained what family devotions are or how to do them. So that's what we're going to do here today. 

So first, what is it? What are family devotions? Well, family devotions are a parent led Bible and prayer time for the whole family together. Individual devotions are still encouraged. Each of your kids above a certain age should be doing their own individual Bible and prayer times, but we should also come together and do that as a family. So that's what we're going to talk about. 

Now, if you're already doing your family devotions, just use this episode as fuel for your fire. Gain inspiration from it. Pick up hints here and there that you can add or use to improve your family devotions. But if you've never done family devotions before, or you aren't doing them currently, perhaps you've tried in the past, but you're not doing them right now, this episode is going to give you the nuts and bolts that will get you started or get you back in the game. 

There is nothing earth shattering here. I've recorded an example from our own family devotions and you're going to go, "That's it?" Yes, that's it. It is so simple. This is not rocket science. It is not difficult. And also remember as you listen to this example that we're going to hear in just a minute, this is just one way. There are so many possibilities. This is not THE way to do family devotions. This is the way we do family devotions. It's just one of many possibilities. It's just meant to serve as an example. You do what's right for your family. All right? So first we'll just go ahead and listen and then we'll dive in to break it down to nuts and bolts. So let's listen.  

Ed:

All right, let's read Psalm 27. "The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom will I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life. Of whom will I be afraid? When the wicked advance against me to devour me, it is my enemies and my foes who will stumble and fall. Though an army besiege me, my heart will not fear. Though war break out against me, even then I will be confident. One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple. For in the day of trouble, he will keep me safe in His dwelling; he will hide me in the shelter of his sacred tent and set me high upon a rock. Then my head will be exalted above the enemies that surround me; at his sacred tent I will sacrifice with shouts of joy; I will sing and make music to the Lord. Hear my voice when I call, lord, be merciful to me and answer me. My heart says to you, seek his face, your face, Lord, I will seek. Do not hide your face from me. Do not turn your servant away in anger. You have been my helper. Do not reject me or forsake me, God, my Savior. Though my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will receive me. Teach me your way, Lord. Lead me in the straight path because of my oppressors. Do not turn me over to desires of my foes for false witnesses rise up against me, spouting malicious accusations. I remain confident of this. I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord. Be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord."

Silas: 

Dad? What is he saying? 

Ed: 

You don't get it? Well, what's one thing you think you get that he says? 

[Inaubible] 

Ed:

Okay, so that's a good question. So the psalm, this is David, he started saying that he was surrounded by an army, so he might have been in a battle. But then he says, there's only one thing I want. Even though I'm afraid, what I really want in life, is to get to know God. And he says, because when I'm in the presence of God, I can sing and make music with my heart. And he says, even if my mom and my dad leave me, God will still take care of me. 

Silas:

So he's saying even if you have to go to an orphanage? 

Ed:

Even if somebody puts you in an orphanage when your father and mother leave you, he's still with you. That's the whole point. David was in a battle, and he's saying, even if everybody leaves me behind and there's an army around me trying to attack me, God will still be with me. Does that make sense? He's saying, don't turn me over to the desire of my enemies because he was going to battle. And he's saying, don't let them beat me, beat my army. That's what he's praying for. 

Ruby:

What does malicious mean? 

Ed:

Malicious? Evil. 

Ruby:

Oh. 

Ed:

Yeah. Spouting malicious accusations, saying things against you, accusing you that you did something, but they're doing it because their heart is evil. Any other questions? 

Silas:

I'm good. 

Ed:

All right, well, let's pay for Silas. You want to sit in my lap or... 

Maranda:

It's Monday. It's Ruby's day. 

Ed:

Oh, it's Monday? It's Ruby's day. I forgot. I thought it was Tuesday. Let's pray for Ruby. Father, thank you for this day. Lord, thank for Ruby's life. Lord, we pray and ask that you fill her with your Spirit. Lord, I declare that Ruby is going to grow up to be a woman of love, a woman of truth, of humility, of righteousness. I ask, Lord, that you would keep her safe and that you always would be with her, Lord, no matter where she is. In Jesus name. Amen. 

Maranda:

Yes, Father, I thank you for Ruby. Lord, I pray that you would be with her tomorrow when she's at school. I know you're always with her, but, Lord, I pray that you would make Your presence known to her. Lord, I pray that you would protect her at school, Lord, that you would help her to learn. Lord, I pray that you'd speak to her heart and draw it close to you in Jesus name. 

Silas:

Father, thank you for Ruby. I'm glad that we adopted her, I am very glad that she's in our family. In Jesus' name, amen. 

Daniela:

Father, I pray for Ruby, that you would blesser her, and that she would find good and godly friends at school. In Jesus' name, amen. 

Maranda: 

Joseph, pray for Ruby. 

Ed:

Pray for Ruby, joseph. 

He did it. 

Maranda:

All right, so let's talk about what we heard. We heard my husband Ed reading Psalm 27 from the NIV translation to our whole family. Now, we have a family of six. We have four kids raging in age from eight to 19. We have special needs, ADHD and learning disabilities in that mix. So we have a whole lot of different learning levels and different needs. You heard us praying for one of our children in our family. The way we do family prayer is each child is assigned a night of the week, and then the whole family prays for that child on that night of the week. So this was recorded on a Monday, and you heard us praying for Ruby, because Monday is Ruby's day. On Mondays, Ruby prays over our meal at dinner time, and then we pray for Ruby during our family devotions. That has worked well for us because it not only gets consistent prayer for each child, but it teaches the other children how to pray, and how to pray for each other. It promotes this closeness in the family that we pray for each other, we connect with each other, we support each other. 

So that has worked really well for us. We got that idea from another family when Ed and I were newly married with a baby, and we ran with it. Okay, and what you heard, I'm sure you picked up on--there's nothing magical there. There's nothing mystical about it, but it's most definitely supernatural. It doesn't seem that way, but it is. And it doesn't seem that way because there is fidgeting and squirming. And my kids were a lot quieter because that microphone was in the room and they knew they were being recorded. But usually you'll hear a lot more commotion. At the end of the devotion, you heard us yelling for Joseph to pray for Ruby, and that's because Joseph wanders away, but he's still listening, and we allow him to wander, and he knows that he's expected to pray. He's usually the last one because he's wandered away. So we yell across the house and he prays for whoever is supposed to be prayed for that day. So there's nothing magical, but it is supernatural because God's word is alive. Now, like I said, that's just one example. There are infinite variations that you could do. 

But there are three key components, I think, and the first key component is the Bible. We want to gather together around God's word. Now, say you only have young children or you only have a baby. You can use a picture Bible. We did that when we only had little kids. We used picture Bibles--several different ones over the years. You could go full on 1980's Sunday school and get out your flannel board. You could use books that are written for family devotionals--whatever works for you--that's the key. 

And then the other two key components are one, well, I guess this would be number two, that the whole family is present whenever possible. I do understand when your kids get older, sometimes they're in different activities, not everybody's home at the same time. And that you involve prayer. I think that's the last key component. So Bible, family, prayer. And I think on that notion of getting the whole family together, I want to say that we do this four nights a week, okay? So we need to just kill the spirit of perfectionism, the all or nothing spirit. I'm an all or nothing person, so I understand that I dive into things head first, but that kind of attitude, that all or nothing attitude, really is the enemy of consistency. 

I would think, "I got to do this seven nights a week because I want my kids to know that the Word of God is our foundation and that prayer is key and that you should be doing it every day." But that doesn't work for our real life. The way that our life is situated right now is that we are able to do this consistently on Monday, Tuesday, Friday, and Sunday evenings. That's what works for us in our schedule right now. And we have been doing some variation of this for 13 years, since our first child was a baby. We've been doing some variation of this, and we definitely see the fruit. So kill the all or nothing spirit. Do what you can, and try to be consistent. 

And it is absolutely okay to keep this simple. We have been doing this for 13 years, and it has never been more complicated than that. Occasionally we've used devotional material and study guides here and there, but mostly it has just been reading the Bible, letting the kids ask questions and praying together. And that's all it's been. That clip that you listened to was our whole family devotion for that day. And it took all of six minutes. That's all it took. It took six minutes. And it's enough. We see the fruit of it in our children over the years, because over the days, weeks, months and years, that habit, that scripture that is spoken, those seeds planted in their spirits, it grows and it bears fruit. 

We have to remember that God's Word is alive. Now, I have several examples from Scripture for this Hebrews 4:12 "For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart." God's Word is living and active. When we read God's Word to our kids, it's alive, it gets in them and it does things, it changes things. 

2 Timothy 3:16, "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness." It is enough to just read straight scripture to your kids, because all scripture is breathed out by God. These are God's very words and they are alive. 

And last but not least, I want to mention John 6:63. Jesus says, "The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life." We have to realize that in the New Testament Church, children were present for the reading of Scripture. It wasn't a children's version of the Bible, which that's not bad, that's fine, there's nothing wrong with that. But it wasn't a picture story. It wasn't a Sunday school lesson. In Ephesians 6:1, Paul has written this letter to the Ephesian Church and it's a long letter with lots of stuff in it. And here toward the end in Ephesians 6:1, he says, "Children, obey your parents as believers in the Lord. Obey them because it's the right thing to do." The children were there and they were listening to that whole letter because Paul doesn't even mention them until Ephesians 6. And he doesn't say, "Go get your kids so they can hear this part." He just starts talking to the kids because he knew they'd be there. "Children, obey your parents" because he knew they were going to be there and they were going to be listening to the reading of those words. 

Another thing to note here is that you can absolutely do all ages together. You can do babies through teenagers all together because, like I said, the kids were in there with the adults and they were hearing the Scriptures be read. All of your kids will be learning at the same time, but they'll all be learning different things. If you read a passage of scripture like Ed did in our example to your kids, your teens may be learning the nuances of that scripture and how they can implement that into their lives. Your elementary kids are simply just learning the content. They're learning what the scriptures say, what is in there, what the word of God says. And then your toddlers and preschoolers are perhaps learning the most of all. Now, you would think, "Oh, my toddler and my preschooler aren't learning. They're just sitting there playing with their blocks, but they're not really learning anything. Yes, they are. When you get done reading that scripture, they may not be able to summarize what was read or give you the point of the scripture that you read, but they're learning all sorts of things. 

They're learning that families gather to hear God's word. They're learning that God's word is important, that they are welcome in God's family. They're learning that God likes kids, that God likes them, that when they learn to read, they'll read the Bible, that God hears prayer. And there's so much more. I could keep going here, but we don't have all day. But they are learning a lot. And it is okay to let them sit there and quietly play with toys or draw or color when it doesn't look like they're paying attention, because they are learning. They're learning things that are appropriate for them at their developmental level. 

And then your babies should be there too, because they're getting bathed in the love that's present in God's Word and the love of the family gathering together around God's Word. So you can do babies through teens all together. The point is just to gather the family together around God's Word and in communion with Him, to fellowship with Him, to spend time with Him. 

And when you keep it simple, like just reading a short passage and then praying together, you're more likely to be consistent. Rather than if you have this big complicated thing that you want to do, so the point will really get home and they'll really remember. That's a lot of prep. That's a lot of things that goes into it, so you're not going to do it as often. 

What we want to do is just share the Scriptures together on a consistent basis so that over the months and years of the child's life, they've got this whole library of scripture that's been stored into their hearts. And not only that, it's just the attitude that this is a thing that I do on a regular basis, that I read the Scriptures, that I fellowship with the Lord, that this is our values, this is our lifestyle. 

So we want consistency over perfection, because, just like the loaves and the fishes, God will take your little and he'll make it enough. You can do this. I promise you can. Anybody can do what we did in that clip. It took six minutes, guys. That's all it takes. So let me know what questions you have. Email them to me, hit me up, let me know what questions you have and how we can help. 

And I encourage you to just start tonight. Pull out the Bible. Any translation will work. We use the NIV because we think it's accessible to a wide range of ages, but any translation will work. Try it tonight. Pull out the Bible, read for a couple of minutes, say a prayer. That's all it takes. Thanks for listening. We'll catch you next time.