Family Devotion

Our daily schedules are not the most routine, but one of the devotional habits that we practice pretty consistently is our evening family devotional time (the four of us when we’re all home; otherwise, it’s one of us and the two kids, depending on evening meeting schedule).

When it’s time, we head upstairs and get the kids ready for bed, then they drink milk while we read (this *usually* keeps them fairly attentive). We’ve used a few resources over the last (nearly) three years, including My First Read And Learn Favorite Bible Verses, which we’ve used the most.

We also really like a storybook that we’ve been using for the last few weeks: Children of God Storybook Bible by Archbishop Desmond Tutu (see childrenofgodbible.com). The stories are creative and well-written and the artwork is high quality. We especially like that illustrators were selected from all over the world and were encouraged to illustrate the stories from their own cultures giving the book a strong cultural dynamic. We also like that each story concludes with a sentence prayer, which is a good lead-in to our family prayer time.

We pray after reading a story. We recently added My First Read And Learn Book Of Prayers, which we use occasionally (it includes morning, evening, mealtime, and various other prayers). The kids have also received a few “prayer angels” or “prayer bears” along the way that say a prayer when pressed. We’ve worn out a couple of them and we’re currently using a bear that prays multiple prayers, so we give each of the kids a chance to press the bear’s paw to hear a prayer. Then one of us prays (Joleen and I alternate evenings).

Finally, we brush teeth and tuck the kids in bed (Joleen and I alternate whose teeth we brush and whom we tuck in, as well).

It’s not always the smoothest process (especially if the kids are tired or wound up), but we believe—and trust—that we are formed by our practices!

2 thoughts on “Family Devotion”

  1. Thanks for mentioning the “Children of God Storybook Bible.” I looked it up and plan to order it for my almost three year old son who was born in Vietnam. It looks like a book he would love!

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