From the start of your day, life is crazy. Getting the kids ready for daycare or school, getting yourself ready for work, eating breakfast, and making sure everyone is wearing two matching shoes is enough to make you tired before you leave the house. Add on extra hours at work, after school activities, homework, and so many other responsibilities, it feels like you need more hours in a day. How can you fit in a family devotion time? And if you had the time, what would you do?
Here are a few tips and ideas to help you make family devotion time work in your busy schedule.
Where do we start?
It can be overwhelming knowing where to begin when you want to start making family devotion time part of your daily schedule. There are a lot of resources out there to help guide your conversations with your family, activities to help your family get in the Bible more, and tips on family prayer time, but before using any of that, you need to set a specific time each day that your family stops what they are doing and you prioritize family devotion time. This doesn’t have to be anything crazy. You could start simply by setting aside 10 minutes before your kids’ bedtime to read a bible story together and pray with them. Another idea is to make eating dinner together a priority and incorporate your family devotion into the dinner conversation. As your family adjusts and grows, so can your devotion time. So, when beginning to make family devotion time part of your daily schedule, start simple by prioritizing a certain amount time, at a specific time of day.
What do we talk about?
So now that you have prioritized a certain time of your day to have family devotion time, what do you talk about? Here is the good news! There is so much you and your family can talk about during devotion time and there are also resources out there to help you get started. It takes a simple google search to find books for family devotions, questions to ask your kids, and even tips on how to pray together. But to make things simple try to always include these key elements:
- Start and end your devotion time in prayer. Encourage every family member to take turns praying. If you don’t pray together as a family often, this can be a bit uncomfortable. But the more you do it, the easier it gets. Just remind your family that talking to God doesn’t have to be formal. It can be simple, just like you are talking to another person. Having a strong prayer life in your home can completely change the atmosphere! Give it a try!
- Read scripture straight from the Bible. It’s important for kids to see you use the Bible and to become familiar with it themselves. Find a bible translation that your family can easily understand. If you have children that can read themselves, have them read scripture out loud to the entire family. You could choose scripture that was touched on during church as a starting point. Use the resources in the back of your bible to find topics that relate to your family. You could also read through a book of the Bible together (not all in one sitting of course). Just get into the Bible and see what God has for your family.
- After reading some scripture straight from the Bible encourage your entire family to ask questions and share what they think about what you have read. Sometimes just chatting about what you have read can help your family feel comfortable about getting into God’s words and you can learn a lot from one another.
What if my family is bored?
Family devotion time shouldn’t be boring. It doesn’t need to be stiff and formal. Laugh and have fun with your family. This should be a time that connects your family to each other and to God. Start with a fun question or a story for your kids to get them engaged. Allow your family to be open and honest about what you are reading and learning. Make connections to school, extra-curricular activities, and church so that your family can see that when they spend time with God, it will overflow into every area of their life.
Give it a try!
So, if you want to start making family devotion time part of your day, start simple. Prioritize a time when your family comes together. Pray, read scripture, and talk together. Have fun and enjoy the time you spend together. When you start prioritizing family devotion time, you and your family will grow closer to one another and to God. Who knows what God’s plan is for your family if you give Him that time.
And one more thing…if you miss a day of family devotion time, it’s okay! You don’t have to be perfect, just be willing to prioritize a snippet of your day to spending time with God as a family and before you know it, family devotion time will become part of your daily routine. That 10 minutes might turn into 20 or 60 minutes!
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