Family Devotions With Young Kids

Episode 28: Family Devotions With Young Kids

The When, How, and Why of Family Devotions? That is what we will talk about in today's episode.

Is it impossible to find time or get the kids to sit still during family devotions? Then, you are not alone. 

What is a father's role, and how can you be a role model for your family?

What are some of your experiences with family devotions, what are some of your successes, and what have you learned through this process?

I would love to connect with you on Facebook, and feel free to join our group, Thriving Fatherhood, where I offer more on how to thrive in fatherhood.

Transcript

Welcome to the Thriving Fatherhood Podcast, where we are living and working in the trenches to go from surviving to thriving in this mission field called fatherhood. 

My name is Brian Knight. I am a father of three, a husband, a son, a coach, and a believer in Jesus Christ.

Today, I am going to be talking about family devotions with young kids. What I mean by this is sharing the gospel, reading the Bible, and asking questions at the dinner table. Family devotions can be done anywhere or at any time. It can be done on the way to school in the car if need be. Just get something in to start. 

This is really important and should not be taken lightly or put on the someday list. Kids grow up fast and before you know it, they will be well into their teenage years, but it is always better late than never. 

We have had a lot of failure/learning with starting family devotions in our house. We are learning what works and does not work. My oldest is getting older now and is able to stay seated better while we are doing devotions.  My six-year-old and four-year-old seemed like they had ants in their pants while we were trying to do our family devotions.

Why: It is a core value of ours as a family. We believe it is our responsibility as parents to disciple our children. This is not something I came up with one day, I have heard about the importance of family devotions from mentors of mine both in person and virtually. These are men I respect and want to emulate. I will likely not listen to the first person that says something, but if it becomes a pattern and I hear it over and over from other men who I respect I try to start challenging my reasons for not doing something. In this case, prioritizing family devotions. 

I get it, when you come home from a long day at work the last thing you want to do is continue working. What I mean is doing family devotions with three little ones is not exactly easy. What we have tried and are trying to do is get in about five to ten minutes in the evening around the dinner table, and sometimes we will do a longer session on Saturdays with singing. The reason I do five or ten minutes is the kids have a difficult time sitting still for that long. We have tried to make devotions something that is fun for the kids and not something they dread doing. More on the curriculum we use later.

Many kids grow up going to church, but if they never hear the Word at home, it is a no wonder they fall away from the faith. They are only hearing about Jesus one day a week and the ways of the World the other six days of the week. Your kids are bombarded with what the world wants them to value, we need to spend time with them everyday teaching them the Word. This does not have to be long when they are little, but something. I truly believe one of the reasons a common thread on why children raised in the church turn away from the faith is there was not much family devotions done at home. If you leave the spirituality of your children to your local church, it will not be enough in my opinion to guard their vulnerable minds and hearts from the temptations of this world. They simply are not at church enough for it to make enough of an impact. The church is meant to support your efforts for discipling at home, not to be the one carrying the full responsibility. 

As I have gotten older, raising my children to love the Lord and desire to follow him is one of the few top priorities in my life. It is that important.

Let’s talk a little about the what. We did use the Truth and Grace memory books and I plan to come back to those at some point. There are three books that go with that curriculum.  I believe this is a very good curriculum, but it seems to be better for kids that are five and older, but when you have a bunch of kids six and under it is not the best program for engaging young kids. 

My wife found a program called The Biggest Story Storybook and this is what we are currently using and it does a much better job of keeping the kids engaged during our devotion time. What I like about this curriculum is it covers the Bible in depth with many of the stories that are deep into the Bible and brings them to life so your children can understand them and gain wisdom from them. They have videos, questions, and it seems to be very Biblically based. 

Family devotions is like a muscle or habit, the more you do it and your kids do it the easier it gets. It is difficult to get going at first, but you have to put in the effort and dads, you have to be the leader. You can not depend on your wives to lead this. It will be helpful if they are fully onboard and are maybe even able to do it if you are away. 

How: In the evenings at the dinner table while the kids are eating is what works best for us. You will have to be intentional and get the kids in the habit and have this be a part of their routine. It may seem like ‘what is the use’ the first week or so, but keep after it. The motivation is your kids and the way you want to lead your family, and possibly your kid’s salvation. This is also a great example of leadership for your wife and kids by being consistent and making this a priority. 

One final thing I want to add, and I will be honest I was not completely aware of this. I was putting all the weight and results of this on my own shoulders to bear. But, the salvation of your kids belongs to the Lord, not you? Let that sink in for a minute. The salvation of your kids belongs to the Lord, not you. What I will add to that is, let the Lord use you to instruct your kids. Stay in the Word so that your kids and wife can find you studying the Word and be that role model for them. Also, learning Gods attributes will help you to weather the storms of family life when they come, and maybe avoid some. 

So, hang in there, you got this! I am here if you need support or have questions. 

So, that is what I have for you today; if you feel this show has been valuable for you, I encourage you to share it with one other father who could gain some insight from it and wants more thriving in their lives. 

Also, I would love to hear about your experiences with family devotions.  What were the challenges for you, what came up for you that was unexpected, what did you learn? Please share that with me in the comments below.