Family Devotionals

We have finally found a way to do a little family devotional together. Since Jon and I have been married we haven't been consistent in having prayer time or devotional time together. Then we had kids and it got even harder. As Christians, we want to teach our children the Scriptures and to help them value time together with God.

We got this book from my mom and the kids enjoy going through it together. It is a Veggie Tales family devotional. The kids love Veggie Tales so that makes it attractive to them to read together. We have discovered that the best time to have our devotional time is at dinner after the kids are done eating. The devotional starts off with a little Veggie Tales story to get the kids interested. Then it has a short passage of scripture we read and then some very practical and applicable questions. After we read and talk about it we each take a turn praying. It has really opened up some interesting conversations about God and it of course is super cute to hear the boys pray.

The other night the passage was from Galatians 5:16-26 which talks about the fruit of the Spirit. As we went through each one we asked the boys, "What does love mean? Joy? Peace? Patience? etc... Ewan is usually pretty quick to answer and to our surprise he defined all of the words except for faithfulness and self-control (which ironically is probably what he struggles with most as a 4 year old). Every time he explained what a "fruit" was and we told him that was right he was so proud of himself and said, "I got a point for that one." He counted all the points he had for knowing what all the fruits meant. Then we each picked a fruit that we wanted God to help us with.

It is hard not to smile and laugh during our devotionals. Isaac usually has something to say about movies....For example, last night we were talking about how God helps us with our biggest problems. Isaac said his biggest problem was not getting to see a movie. Oh, to be 3! Actually his biggest problem might be loving TV too much. Of course he doesn't see it that way.

This has been a great way to teach our kids about prayer and talking to God. At bedtime, Ewan is typically reluctant to pray for others. When I put him to bed he prefers to pray for Charlie, the cat. His prayers are very sincere for Charlie and good too. I'm not sure who he prays for when Jon puts him to bed. Ewan is much more open to praying at dinnertime and the devotionals have been good for us to learn more about each other too. It makes our time together as a family feel a little deeper.

We don't do it every night but Isaac, being faithful to his love for books, asks almost every night if we are going to read our special book. I LOVE how it is becoming a tradition in our house.

I don't know what we will do after we are done with his book but I have a few ideas. If anyone has found any kid friendly devotionals I would love to hear your suggestions!