26 Jan 7 Tips to Help You Persevere in Family Devotions

As a teenager, I remember when my father would read a short devotional to me and my brother in the morning before we left for school. He wisely sought to lead our family spiritually and fill our minds and hearts with God’s Word before we entered school each day.

Unfortunately, we were more eager to wolf down our breakfast and get out the door as quickly as possible. At that stage in our own spiritual journeys, we did not place the same value on the practice of family devotions. In spite of our “push-back,” he remained consistent during that season, which speaks loudly to me now that I am an adult of his diligence and desire to instill truth into our hearts.

As parents, my husband and I have also pursued this practice because we want to teach our children God’s Word and help them foster their own relationships with God. However, our commitment to this practice has not come without (regularly) being tested by a myriad of challenges, which I will describe in detail below.

My first goal in writing this post is to encourage you that if you too want to train up your children to know God’s Word and have often thrown up your hands in exasperation, you are not alone. My second (and more important) goal in writing this post is also to encourage you that pursuing the regular practice of family devotions is well worth the effort regardless of the challenges you may face.

Our Normal, Everyday Experience

Let me be very clear: We are committed to doing family devotions, but that doesn’t mean that our kids sit down at a clean kitchen table with a candle lit, their hair nicely combed and hands neatly folded in their laps, eyes set upon their parents with rapt and undivided attention, waiting with eagerness to hear God’s Word.

No. That is not my experience. My normal, everyday experience of family devotions is more like this: When my husband or I open up our family devotion book to begin reading, one child is crawling under the table eating food off the floor while another child is making very loud noises while pushing a train set around the table. My older two are pretty good about sitting still at this point just because they have heard me say one million times that “this is the most important part of our day.“

My husband or I often have to re-read the Scripture passage within our devotional more than once just because of the amount of random interruptions and noises that occur during this 3 minute window (I’m not joking). Our prayer time is usually interrupted every single day by my toddler getting into some sort of trouble. And that’s how we roll. We persevere through the chaos.

7 Tips to Help You Persevere in Family Devotionals

I’ve got seven honest, from-real-life-experience-in-the-trenches tips for keeping you sane as you pursue to train your children in God’s Word:

Choose to Commit – with your spouse, choose the best time of day and place for your family and then commit to being consistent. What does “consistent” look like? That’s something every family has to work out on their own. We usually aim for 5 out of 7 days in the week, allowing for a few days when our schedule isn’t going as planned for whatever reason.

Use Full Mouths for Your Advantage – Now, this may just be a tip for families with small children. I don’t know what it’s like with teens, but with my little kids, it really helps them sit still and listen if they are focused on chewing food. So, that’s why we often do our devotions while they eat breakfast.

Don’t Wait for Perfect Circumstances – They will rarely come (at least in my experience). There is always some fire to put out when little kids are afoot. Just keep on keeping on regardless of the challenges. Sometimes various family members are sick, away, or unable to participate. Life happens.

Allow for More than Enough Time – This is tricky, I know. Especially when time is a precious commodity. But family devotions don’t need to be long (more on that shortly), so allotting 20 minutes of time for a 10 minute time of family devotion can be really helpful for a few reasons: a) You won’t feel the need to rush through it without allowing time for discussion and b) you won’t be tempted to explode in anger when a kid dumps their oatmeal on the floor while you are trying to read them the Beattitudes (It’s shockingly ironic, I know).

Keep it Short and Straightforward – Ya’ll. There are people who love God and know His Word well who have spent years brainstorming and creating Christ-centered, Gospel-saturated devotional content for families. Utilize these wonderful resources and don’t feel the need to re-invent the wheel if unless you feel seriously Spirit-inspired 🙂

Let Them Ask Questions – This is a big one for us. We don’t just want to talk at our kids, we want to hear from them. What are they curious about? Is there anything they don’t understand? Maybe its totally unrelated to the content of that day’s reading, but that’s fine. We want to connect with our kids about spiritual matters so let the questions roll.

Be Encouraged – Remind yourself that God’s Word does not return void. Remind yourself that God will bless your feeble and often-interrupted attempts to train your children in His Word and in prayer. Remind yourself that this is a worthwhile use of your time. Trust the Lord that your little seeds consistently sown over many years will bear fruit.

I would love to hear about your personal experience with family devotions. If you have any personal ideas, tips, or reading suggestions, please feel free to leave them in the comments below!