Establish a family altar. Build it out
of unmovable rocks of resolution. Your time of family
devotions should (almost) be non-negotiable. It should
be priority for your whole family. Don’t be legalistic
about it, but as much as you possibly can, put all other
things aside before you postpone or cancel family devotions.
It will be an altar of sacrifice. You will sacrifice
your time, sometimes your dignity, and your energy.
For years, our kids heard, “Six o’clock…reading
time.” That meant that Sue and I dropped anything
we were doing, the kids did the same, and we gathered
together as a family. You will find that there are many
excuses for not having devotions. You may feel pressed
for time, tired, or you will want to catch up on the
news of the world, or perhaps you will think that you
don’t have the ability to teach the Bible. There
is, however, one very powerful reason why you should
have daily devotions…the eternal salvation of
your children.
Here now are some practical points to consider for
establishing your altar:
1. Open in prayer. If you are a male, take the lead.
If you are a single parent, step into the role of
a confident leader. If you are not used to praying
out loud, have everyone close their eyes while you
pray so that they won’t see you. Begin by thanking
God for your family and then simply ask Him to open
His Word to each of you. As time goes by, ask one
of the children to open in prayer, to build up their
confidence when it comes to public prayer. It is wise
to keep public prayer reasonably short.
2. Open the Bible. Don’t worry about your lack
of “teaching” ability. Simply read five
verses from one of the Gospels. Then have each of
the family members read five verses, stopping now
and then and asking what they think a particular verse
means. Go through the verses beforehand and prepare
some questions. Be ready for (and don’t be discouraged
by) a regular “I dunno.” Tell them what
you think the verse means, and carry on with the reading.
Follow any cross-references.
3. Open the hearts of your children. Deliberately
draw your kids out of themselves. Talk around the
world. It doesn’t matter if the subject doesn’t
relate directly to the reading. Let the conversation
swing to what they have done that day. Let them express
their desires and thoughts. Communicate with them.
Show interest in their interests. This can be a time
for building relationships. If you want to make life
long friends of your children, start while they are
young. Don’t wait until they are teenagers to
do this. It may be too late.
4. Forget your inhibitions. Don’t worry about
your dignity. Play act with your kids when they are
small. Be Goliath, and let each of them have a turn
at being David. Have them throw a cushion or something
at you, and fall down when you get hit. Act out Daniel
in the lion’s den. Be a lion. Roar. Play out
a Bible story with them whenever you can. It will
help them retain the principles behind the story.
If I remember rightly, when kids hear something, they
retain 30% of what’s heard. If they hear and
see something, they retain 70%. But if they actually
experience something (see, hear and participate in),
they retain 90% (I can’t remember the exact
statistics, because I only heard them). Use the time
when they are young and impressionable to impress
upon them biblical truths. I was deeply into play-acting
until one memorable day. I was rolling around on the
floor doing something incredibly funny, when I looked
up and saw that none of my children were even cracking
a smile. It was then that I realized that they were
no longer impressed.
5. Don’t make the devotional time too long.
Keep it to 10-15, perhaps 20 minutes. Have them repeat
a memory verse (from the reading) together six times.
Do the same verse each night during the week. If they
remember it at the end of the week, give them some
sort of reward (we often gave our kids a candy bar).
The reward is important. We all need an incentive
and a candy bar is a good incentive. Perhaps you could
have them write verses they remember in a book, and
review it regularly.
6. If you want to keep the attention of your children,
thoroughly flavor the reading with anecdotes. An anecdote
is a short story that illustrates something special.
Jesus used them all the time (parables). They will
make your teaching palatable. Make them short, and
preferably humorous. We have plenty of these in, The
Evidence Bible (Bridge-Logos Publishers).
7. Close the reading in prayer, asking God to help
you and your family to remember the lessons they have
learned.
