Family Devotions

Q. Can you suggest an effective, yet simple way to have family devotions with children of multiple ages? I can’t handle anything consistently if it’s too complicated.

A. One of the most consistent and effective family devotions our family did together was to study the book of Proverbs each day. We wanted our children to be wise and know how to respond to the challenges they would face in the world. This is important whether one is homeschooling or not.

There are 31 chapters in Proverbs. Each day we read one chapter that correlated with the day’s date (On Nov. 1 we read Proverbs 1; On Nov. 2 we read Proverbs 2, etc.). At the beginning of a new month, we began reading Proverbs again one chapter a day.

We read the entire chapter and asked each child to tell us the verse that was important to him or the one that he didn’t understand so we could talk about it. Even the youngest child, who could talk but not yet read, could remember a topic he heard and soon learn to say what he liked about it. As parents, we also chose one verse each to discuss.

Benefits of Family Devotions

This was a great opportunities to relate God‘s Word to family conflicts, or what was happening in society, or what was being promoted in the media. We wanted them to understand there was a standard for godly behavior—our family rules weren’t just based on our opinions.

Year after year, we read Proverbs over and over again—sometimes with other types of Bible studies. Eventually, they began to memorize large portions of Proverbs without even trying. We wanted the wisdom and practical applications of the Book of Proverbs to became part of their thinking and part of their life.