Structured Devotional Time With Children

Parent’s Responsibility

It doesn’t matter what denomination of Christianity you’re affiliated with, I think we can all agree that it is the parent’s responsibility to teach their children about their faith in an effort that one day, our children will personalize it for themselves and walk in Truth. You can drag your children to church, take them through sacraments, enroll them in every church program, send them to a Christian counselor, but if it’s not being lived and instructed at home, you’re taking a gamble on if their faith will stand as they grow and live life. In our years spent having a compilation of time talking with youth ages 12-18 and some in their early 20s, we found that most claim that their parents never led Bible studies with them and never talked with them about Jesus regularly or His standard for godly living. These teens were either questioning the significance of their faith, backsliding, or claiming hypocrisy in the church on the account that their parents said one thing, but showed them another. 

Brett and I both actively serve in youth ministry. One thing we have gathered from listening to these teens, and having young children of our own, is that we need to be diligent and endure instruction at home. Our children need to be hearing it from our mouths. From the time our babies were little, we started with lullabies about how much Jesus loves the little children ?, and as they grew and understood simple concepts, we read Christian books to them, or utilized phrases like “Do you know how much Jesus loves you?! Do you know that you are a princess/prince in God’s sight?!” “What would Jesus do?”. We incorporate Jesus into our dialogue regarding correction and discipline. As our children are getting older and are retaining/memorizing scripture (…yes our two year old is memorizing Bible verse’s!) we ourselves use scripture to provide answers and direction to our children. It has challenged Brett and I to know scripture and references on the spot for instruction and correction. It’s not easy at first, but anything that you make a priority will be attained with diligence!

My closest friend, and may I just say that friends are a very close reflection of who we are as individuals, recently gifted me Christian conversation cards for children through The Daily Grace Company. I’m so thankful for friends who have encouraged me in motherhood. Anyway, these cards prompted me to look into more tools like this, and I came across daily prayer cards. Each card contains a topic, image for visual learners like my kids, a passage of scripture, and specific things to pray for. Sometimes we just need tools like this to help direct our conversation, and these have been wonderful. I would strongly encourage you to go purchase them for yourself.

The kids wake up to seeing us with a coffee in hand and the Bible in the other every morning. We decided as parents that our children would see always see their parents praying and reading so that they mimic us as they grow. Children see and hear more than you might believe, and we know that when we honor God, He will see our efforts and bless us! Our eldest daughter and son, though only 4 and 2 years of age, can recite scripture and listen to a Bible story and answer questions. Children are never too young to begin! 

Start Today

To someone reading this now with regret, who maybe feels spite toward this post as opposed to inspired, I would say that today is a perfect day to begin. Maybe you haven’t placed priority on reading the Bible with your children, maybe you yourself don’t know where to start, or maybe for too long you’ve relied on the church to teach your children, today is the day that you open your Bible and read to your children. If you feel overwhelmed and unsure where to begin, there are so many tools online to help you study the Bible but most importantly pray. Pray that the Holy Spirit would direct you to what to read. We have both found that starting in the New Testament and grasping the gospel message lays a great foundation for understanding the rest of the Bible. Be cautious of using translations that are too interpretive or leave specific versus or wording out. We do recommend the NKJV or ESV version to best understand the dialogue.

Genuine Love

Regardless of how you accomplish this, just know that raising children to live counter cultural lives requires training. Children will never be morally bent toward good, so it is our job as parents to encourage and train them in the way that they need to go. Until they are no longer under your roof, you should be making an effort daily to point them to Christ (if you claim Christianity). It is not your calling to be their best friend, it is not your calling to let them “be their authentic self”, and it is not your calling to let them live life and make mistakes. You are called as a Christian parent is to live for Christ, live out the purpose He intends for you, receive grace for shortcomings, and teach your children how to live out their faith and be Christ-like. That is true, genuine love.