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God moments for families


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:

Helping your kids grow with the Lord

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.

Joshua 4:6 (NLT)
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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