One of
the pieces of my Father’s Day sermon was about the spiritual times that have
impacted our family. Family devotion
time is the most important thing that we put into place in our family.
We’ve
had great devotions, and we have had some bad ones. I received a newsletter today that gives some
great insight into family devotions:
Having
trouble getting your kids interested in family devotions? Here are some tips
for making the time memorable.
1.
Keep devotions brief and age-appropriate.
2.
Talk about issues your child is dealing with. Take broad
spiritual concepts and make them applicable to your child's unique situation.
3.
Plan an occasional "family night" that involves
playing games or watching/discussing a movie. With some planning, these fun
evenings can teach the same spiritual lessons of a traditional devotional.
4.
Engage in regular prayer time. As your children grow, pray
with them about their personal struggles. When God answers a prayer, call it to
your child's attention and thank the Lord for what He's done.
5.
Don't let devotional time be the only occasion for teaching
spiritual truth. Keep an eye out for those teachable moments that pop up during
the course of everyday life—opportunities to draw spiritual lessons out of
practical circumstances.
6.
Get excited about family devotions yourself! If you view
this time as a chore or an obligation, your kids will likely feel the same way.
Kids need to see active faith demonstrated in their parents' lives.
For
more ideas, check out the Spiritual Growth for Kids section at FocusOnTheFamily.com.
(NOTE: the original article can be seen at this link)
Family
devotion time is a time when we can pour into our kids, but there are other
moments that need to be taken advantage of as well. As the article said, take those opportunities
to share the greatness of God.
There
are several places in the Bible where God set something up to remind future
generations of what God had done.
Why? It is because what God did
in the past, He will do it again and again.
We must expect God to work. We
must teach our kids to be ready for what God is going to do next.
We will use these stones to build a
memorial. In the future your children
will ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’
Then you can tell them, ‘They remind us that the Jordan River stopped
flowing when the Ark of the LORD’s Covenant went across.’ These stones will
stand as a memorial among the people of Israel forever.”
Watch
for those moments when you can say to others ‘look what God just did’, and say
with excitement ‘our God is so good’.
That you God for the moments you supply us with!
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