Our Experience with Family Devotions

Our Experience with Family Devotions

Okay, the very best thing I have ever done as a parent (other than love my kids unconditionally, ofcourse)  is implementing a family devotion time. About a year and a half ago it all started and it was not even planned. My girls got a children's bible as an end of the year school gift. At that point, we had many children's bibles around our house. We would pull them off the shelves every once in a while and read a story here and there, but nothing consistent. But when they got that Bible, it looked short enough and easy enough to read it all the way through. So, I asked them if they wanted to read a story each night with me and read from front to back until we finished. They were excited! And so it began. As summer began, so did our journey as a family to a place that was unexpected and unplanned. With about 4 minutes of reading each night, we started our daily bible reading. And it grew from there. Our nightly prayers turned from a 10 second shallow list of requests, to deeper, more in-depth prayers filled with thanks and praises and requests that were aligned with God's heart. As we began to read the stories in order, the girls' understanding of the Bible as a whole grew more and more. They were filled with great questions and started understanding how the stories in that book applied to their own lives. As they read about Abraham being able to give up his son for God, they were filled with wonder at his faith and started holding on to their own possessions less tighter. As they saw the beauty of Esther, they wanted her boldness. As they saw the bravery of David, they realized that they too could do anything with God on their side and they had nothing to fear. I was amazed at what God was teaching them as well as what he was teaching myself! 

As the end of summer drew, we finished the very last page of the book. It was so bittersweet. The girls were thrilled that we had read the whole Children's bible from front to back. But we were all going to miss our nightly Bible time! And that is when I realized. I should have been doing this all along! What was I thinking? I can not rely on Sunday school to teach my kids about God. The 2 minute conversations about God here and there, in the car, or just whenever they came up would also not be enough.  I started to realize that if I didn't intentionally teach them every day, what they will learn on TV and from their friends will be their biggest influence. I needed to step it up and continue this intentional, consistent time, learning from the word of God together, learning how to live life to please him, make good choices, and know him more. 

And so, I quickly jumped on-line and searched for another children's bible to start the process again. Since that time, we have gone through more than 6 Children's Bibles from front to back. I will tell you that I have found some great Children's Bible's! I have also found some not-so great ones. Lucky for you, I will let you in on the good ones I have found and save you the money and time to stay away from the not-so good ones. The Bible is God's perfect flawless word and nothing about his word is not good. But children's story bibles were written by men and it's possible to have some theological slip-ups in there. Some of them are too complex or too simple for the ages they are intended for. Some are dry and extremely factual, while others are not factual enough. But some of them, the "just right " ones, do a better job of presenting Jesus as he really is and sets up the stories for important biblical truths to be easily seen and understood. In looking for a good children's bible the most important thing is that the gospel is preached;Jesus is the center of the Bible, and the truths of the Bible are taught so children can know and love him and understand what it means to have a relationship with him.

 In addition to our nightly Bible reading, we also added a devotional reading to each night. This helped supplement our biblical knowledge with applicable lessons in our day to day life. The girls learned about Abraham from the stories in the Children's story bible while the devotionals we read helped them really apply the lesson of faith and following Jesus in their own lives. The devotionals helped them learn the importance of praying all throughout the day, abiding in Jesus, being led by the spirit and showing the fruits of the spirit in their lives. It helped them put together some of the truths we were seeing in the bible and helped them apply those truths to their own lives. So, now our family devotion times consist of about a 3-5 minute devotion reading. A short discussion after that. A 5 minute Bible reading time and a short discussion  time after that. We work on memorizing one bible verse a week, so we practice it after our reading and discussion time. And then we end it in prayer. Our time usually takes about 15 minutes. It started at 5 and has grown to 15 as they have grown deeper in their maturity and desire to know him. So, really all it takes is 5 minutes each night to get this started. And it does not matter how old they are. Family devotions is something that should be done with the whole family at every age. For 0-2 year olds a simple song can be sung, a picture book and a prayer. And as their understanding grows, you can introduce more developmentally appropriate books and Bibles. Once they hit the 10 year old mark (earlier if they are ready for it) I would recommend using the NIV or ESV version of the Bible for family devotions. I have recommendations for different age spans. I would divide up the age spans by baby/toddler, 4/5 year old to 10 year old and 10-18 year olds. I'm going to start my recommendations with the middle period of 4/5-10. Stay tuned in the next few days for the other two age spans. I will also be including another post that explains why it is so important for EVERY family to do daily devotions and what the scriptures say about this topic. So stayed tuned for these future posts!

Since Christmas is approaching, I thought it would be a great time to post my recommendations  because these Children's bibles and devotions can make great gifts for your children or other children in your life! That is exactly how we got started! A Children's bible as a gift from a relative. And the snowball effect that one gift had in our lives is huge and is still going! So, here's the list! We have read every book on here and rate them all highly. My very favorite bible is the Jesus Storybook bible. If you are getting a gift or just starting this journey, I would start with that book first. I hope you find this list helpful. The first 3 books are Children's story bibles and the last 3 books are children's devotionals. Again, this list is recommendations for ages 4/5-10. I pray that God will use these books to change your little ones lives and your life as well!