Family devotions

At the risk of appearing self-serving, I'm going to write about our family devotions. I say it might appear self-serving, because like any spiritual discipline in the Christian life, beginning or maintaining family devotions can be a real challenge and my writing of our family's practice could easily be interpreted as drawing attention to how pious or faithful we are. However, my goal is to encourage families who might read this to start, or continue, having times of family worship.

There is no verse or passage in the Bible that prescribes exactly what a family ought to do for devotions. The Scriptural basis for family devotions is clear (namely, the responsibility of parents, especially fathers, to bring their children up "in the discipline and instruction of the Lord"; see Eph. 6:4; Deut. 6:4-7), but God has not given us detailed instructions on how to order them. So, our family's practice is not an example for all to copy. However, what we have done has worked well and has been a blessing for us.

Normally, we have devotions twice a day (exceptions are Sundays, when we don't do devotions at all, and anytime we don't have time for them). In the morning, we go over one catechism question from the Westminster Shorter Catechism. Then, we read a passage from the Old Testament. If the passage is one that contains material not appropriate for young ears, I skip it (for example, we did not read the Song of Solomon for family devotions!). Our practice has been to start at Genesis and read through the entire Old Testament, one passage at a time. Yes, some passages, like genealogies and the Levitical laws, don't make the greatest devotional material. However,  it's important to see things in perspective. Over the course of years, we'll have read through the entire Bible together as a family. And that's worth a few weeks here and there of slogging through the tougher sections of Scripture.

We then talk about the passage, a time in which the children often have more questions than there's time to answer - though the questions are sometimes only marginally, or not all, related to the actual passage! Next, we sing a hymn from the Trinity Hymnal. In the morning we sing the same hymn for about a month at a time, in order to learn it. I will pray after singing, and that ends our morning devotions.

In the evening, the format is basically the same but with a few minor differences. Instead of a catechism question, we recite some list of Bible books, usually the books of the New Testament. It's amazing how adept little minds are at memorizing! Then we read a New Testament passage (again, gradually working through the entire NT), discuss it, sing, and pray. In the evenings, we work our way through the Trinity Hymnal, singing one hymn each evening. So, we are learning the hymnbook as well as the Bible.

Now, I realize this may be daunting for some. After all, I'm a pastor and I've been trained to teach the Bible! But, I think any motivated father (or mother, as the case may be) can lead family devotions well. A person doesn't have to preach a sermon - just talk about one or two key thoughts in the passage. Maybe there'll be no comments on the passage. What's crucial is some regular time in which the family's attention is given to the Word and prayer.

Being consistent in this is a challenge. Our lives are busy and interruptions are legion. The kids may be acting up, or complaining about having to have devotions. And often I just plain don't feel like taking the trouble to get started. But I'm convinced that the habit of family devotions, no matter how spotty they may be at times, is a means God uses to richly bless a family. Will family devotions guarantee my child will come to saving faith in Jesus Christ? Of course not. There is no method or technique or practice that guarantees to bring about what only the Holy Spirit can accomplish. But family devotions are a way of instilling the Word of God into our children's, and our own, hearts and minds. And God, who is faithful to his covenant promises, and gracious and good, can and will use them to bring our children to understand, and believe in, the love and grace he has for us in Christ.

What prompted me to write this was, in fact, our family devotions this morning. We read from 1 Samuel how barren Hannah prayed to the Lord, asking him for a son and promising him that if he answered her prayer, she would "give him to the LORD all the days of his life" (1 Samuel 1:11). He did answer her prayer, and Hannah fulfilled her promise: she gave her son Samuel to the priest Eli to be in the service of the Lord all his days.

As Christians, our children belong to the Lord. What better way for us to give them to Christ than to lead them regularly, in the home as well as in church, to the Word of God that bears witness to the life-giving Savior?