Nourishing Your Children With Family Devotions

Family Devotions are not the magic bullets that guarantees successful family discipleship.

There are kids who grow up in families all the time who don’t participate in family devotions, or who aren’t even Christian, who come to know Christ.

There are also families around the world whom participate in family devotions, with their children having never came to have a relationship with Jesus.

There is no magic bullet.

Proverbs 22:6 ESV

6 Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.

Piper list’s a few points in regards to this Proverb…

1. Bad sons follow good kings and vice versa.

2. The only perfect Father had a rebellious son. (Israel)

Hosea 11:1–2 ESV

1 When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. 2 The more they were called, the more they went away; they kept sacrificing to the Baals and burning offerings to idols.

3. A proverb is rarely an absolute statement.

“Proverbs by their nature, are generalizations about the way life usually is rather than promises about the way it will have to be all the time.

Proverbs 22:29 ESV

29 Do you see a man skillful in his work? He will stand before kings; he will not stand before obscure men.

Now, what this proverb does mean is that in general, yes! Bringing up children God’s way will lead them to eternal life!

So… MY POINT IN ALL THIS… is that FAMILY DEVOTIONS, are not the magic bullet…

BUT, we are still commanded to nourish our children at the home.

While understanding that there are going to be all sorts of methods. There is no clear method that we are given.

Disciple-making parents open the Word of God for their children.

The Commendations of the Past

Many great Pastor’s and theologians have commented on family worship in the past, Bettis mentions a couple in Charles Spurgeon, J.I. Packer

Masters of the family , who preside over the other affairs of the house, must go before their household in the things of God. They must as prophets, priest, and Kings in their own families; and as such they must keep up family doctrine, family-worship, and family-discipline: then there is a church in the house, and this is the family religion I am persuading you to.

-Matthew Henry

“The discipline of family devotions seems to wrap up all in the one several spiritual dynamics in one package.”

A man is reminded of his appointment as pastor of his family.

The children are reminded of the authority of dad and mom.

Everyone is reminded of the centrality, authority, and necessity of God’s Word.

2 Peter 1:3 ESV

His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence,

2 Timothy 3:16–17 ESV

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

A 2018 study showed that one in 10 families, who consider themselves to be born again Christians, read the bible together in a typical week.

1 in 10!

WHat’s crazy about that, is that another study showed that 9 out of 10 parents of children under the age of 13 believed to carry the main responsibility for teaching their children about religious beliefs. That’s 85%.

SO, parents know that they have the responsibility. They’re just not doing it.

Today, is to try and help that. Maybe you have began to implement family devotionals into your home already, and Glory be to God for this reality. Or maybe you still have gotten the ball rolling yet. Either way. We’re going to talk today about some Principles to help guide these. Very simple Principles.

We’ll also talk about some suggestions on what to do from the book as well as practical tips….

Principles to Guide Family Devotions

Simple and consistent beats the elaborate.

Think of this as laying one brick at a time.

Coach Roark used to say, just three yards each play!

Open the Word of God, and discuss spiritual things.

Be consistent in the place and time of day that you meet.

Simple and consistent will get you deep.

Eventually, those three yard plays breaks out for a much larger play!

Expect failure and a need to start again.

Always begin something new with the understanding that you as well as everybody are not perfect. YOU WILL FAIL.

If you miss a day, if you miss a week, if you miss a month… Start over again. (Running)

The key is the father opening the Word.

One of the most important factors in this is for the Father to be leading these devotions.

Children should be seeing the Father as the Pastor of the household.

Ephesians 6:4 ESV

4 Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

Ephesians 5:23–24 ESV

23 For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.

Also, something to mothers without spiritual leadership from Husbands or single mothers…

Remember Eunice and Lois! Timothy’s father never lead spiritually in His life.

The goal is still the same mothers. It doesn’t have to be a picture perfect household. Leader your children in the faith.

Let your faith outshine the unbelief of the father.

There is something supernatural about the oral reading of the Word of God.

1 Timothy 4:13 ESV

13 Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching.

There are times when we process something differently because of HEARING it read instead of reading it.

Family devotions must be tied to a daily prompt.

Deuteronomy 6:7 ESV

7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.

Variety is the spice of life.

There is no right way of doing family devotionals

“The right way of doing it is in such a way that is no exasperating to the ages and minds of your children, but makes the Word of God seem “good.””

Ten Suggestions on What To Do

Much of this depends on the ages of the children you have in your household.

This will change over the years….

Read a book of the bible

After reading through a chapter, ask…

What can we learn about God (Jesus, Holy Spirit)

What can we learn about ourselves.

Memorize a verse or a longer passage of Scripture

Bettis even suggest memorizing a catechism. (The Western Shorter Catechism is one of the most famous evangelical works of it’s time.

Discuss personal devotions

Great time for children to ask questions.

Or to hear your thoughts on your devotions.

Read the Proverbs chapter of the day

What day is it? Read that Proverb.

What can we learn about wise living from this.

Read a book together

Pilgrim’s Progress

Chronicles of Narnia

Discuss the issue of the day

Great prompt for this is the podcast “The Briefing” with Albert Mohler.

Listen to a Christian’s testimony

Voice of Martyrs Radio

Conduct a sword drill

Discuss family Sunday School

One of the great things we love about our Truth 78 Curriculum is the Parent Pages that come with each Sunday School Lesson.

Apply the message together

Ask good questions about the message.

How did God speak to you?

What questions did you have?

What was a word you didn’t understand?

A few Practical Tips

Start while the family is eating

Little people stay occupied.

They’re not talking as much.

Let little hands do something to keep them busy

Allow the children to color

Or just have something in their hands

Ask questions though to make sure they’re listening.

Decide where you are going to do family devotions

Keep this simple

Solve the Bible dilemma

Dad grabs bible and reads from it.

Family can bring their own bibles to follow along…

Reward little bodies for sitting still

Candy

Cookies

Glow in the dark sticks

How a Wife can help her Husband

Many wives long for their husbands to lead in this way… here are a few suggestions…

Approach him at an opportune moment

Spend time praying that he might take spiritual leadership in this area, Ask God to work in His heart so that it might be a desire for him. After praying for him, approach him at a time when he may be receptive to what you’re going to ask him.

Ask what He would like to do

See what he would like to do in this area.

Feel free to make a few gentle suggestions.

Encourage him

Most men feel inadequate when it comes to doing this.

Encourage him by telling him that God has called and equipped him to do this. And that He will give him grace in this pursuit.

Reinforce devotions with your children

Reinforce to your children how important it is to fall under daddy’s leadership in this.

Tell them that they worship God in the way in which they listen to God’s Word and are respectful during times of prayer.

Work on them to sit during devotions.

Give him a little reminder

Put the Bible in front of him during dinner.

Remind him, there are times when they may be really tired during the day and really just aren’t thinking about it at the time.

Help him in asking questions

Adrian is a way better questioner than I am.

Maybe give your husband some questions to ask.

Head Heart Hands questions.

Encourage him to talk with other men

Encourage him to be in other men’s church events to talk with other men in the same mind.

Lower your expectations

Don’t have a idealized view of this time.

Encourage him and know that this is not going to be perfect.

We all say things that aren’t correct,

We all at times don’t do well in our teaching or maybe we talked too much or too little.

There are times when it’s just chaos.

Children will not always sit like angels.

When NOT to have family devotions

Consider reading this part aloud and giving my thoughts on it.

Because of times during the week when there is already going to be a pause from one devotional to another, I like to think that consistency is still best. Even in the midst of imperfection within the devotion itself.

For husbands, if you are seeming dry within your presentation of the devotional, I think it’s ok to allow our wives to help for a time or two,

or for the mother, if the husband is not the one leading, to allow maybe an older child to help lead one afternoon.

We want to make sure that neither of these are the normal.

I think it’s ok to take a time to regroup… AS LONG AS that doesn’t become a every week type of thing.

Discipline in consistency is what is better.

The Blessing

Be encouraged brothers and sisters because through this your children are indeed learning.

Let these be little deposits we are making into the banks of their souls for the eventual turning of their hearts and minds to the Lord Jesus as their King.

This isn’t a magic bullet, but the Lord will Bless you in this endeavor.

Disciple-Making Parents open the Word of God for their children.

For Thought, Discussion, and Action

Which of the principles to guide family devotions struck you? Why?

Which of the ten suggestions on what to do struck you?

Which of the practical tips struck you?