Snapshots: How Some Fathers Are Leading Their Families in Devotions
Different ways dads at Grace Rancho are discipling their families.
Mark Severance
How am I leading my family in devotions? In summary: in- consistently, imperfectly, sometimes impatiently, but striving to be faithful. Praise the Lord for his patience! Specifically, it’s been a goal to spend time as a family at least five days a week seeking the Lord in Bible study and prayer. Over the years, we’ve used many different approaches including: reading through a book of Scripture, Bible storybooks for little kids, missionary bi- ographies, age-appropriate Bible studies, and catechism-based resources. (If you’ve got any questions about specific resources, just ask me or Jodi. We love to share recommendations for re- sources that have been a blessing to our family!)
Most days, it’s short (and hopefully, sweet). Ten to fifteen min- utes is about the right amount of time. We’ve done dinnertime, bedtime, and breakfast time. I try to keep it interactive, with plenty of opportunities for questions and answers.
Bottom line, if flawless execution on your part and perfectly behaved and grateful children is your standard, you’re bound to be disappointed. Rather, strive for consistency and trust God to do His work through His Word. In the long-term, it’s unlikely that your kiddos will remember anything specific from family devotions. But they will remember that time in God’s Word and praying together as a family was an important priority. By grace, this will be an important way that God grows and shapes them for His glory!
Hans van Velzer
Family devotions have taken different shapes in our home over the years. The basic format that we have followed typically involves singing a couple worship songs together, reading Scrip- ture or some other Bible based devotional book, and praying through the membership directory for our church. My goal has been to make this a daily routine, usually right before bedtime as this gives us a chance as a family to close out the day remem- bering that it is the Lord who has ordained the events of the day and given us the strength to make it through to bedtime no mat- ter what the circumstances have been. We are currently reading through 31 Ways to be A ‘One Another’ Christian by Dr. Stuart Scott as a family. Lately we have been reading through this together just as we are finishing dinner. Sometimes our family prayer time is not as structured as I’d like, but our kids get involved in thinking about those in our church and our family who need spe- cific prayer. The most important thing that I’ve learned over the years is that consistency is critical when it comes to our “Bible Time.” When the day is filled with tough circumstances it’s easy to crawl inside your own head and let discouragement win the day. In those moments especially, consistency is crucial and the encouragement that comes from the excitement in our kids is a gift from God in our Bible time. It seems that pushing through those discouraging times results in memorable family devotions that remind us all how critical it is in the messy world we live in to come together as a family unit in worship and prayer before our Lord, Jesus Christ.
Frank Aguirre
What I’ve learned to do over the last few years is to take ad- vantage of the one on one times I have with my kids. There are times I’ll take Lanna on a “ride along” with Dad, so we usually get into what I’ve been learning and I have time to share with her as we are traveling from stop to stop on my route.
If I’ve been studying something from a growth group, or prepping to teach Sunday School, as an example, when we take neighborhood walks in the evening I’ll share some thoughts and raise some questions about the Bible story and get their feed- back. This usually leads to more discussion about what the Word says.
Recently, to my joy, I’ve begun a book study with my twin boys that’s soaking with Proverbs. It’s helping them understand what godly discipline looks like. It’s been a joy to see their response from the book.
Even though I imagine or plan what I’d like to do in a con- trolled, comfortable setting in the living room or kitchen table, with every eye focused on the scripture and everyone listening intently, everyone asking the amazing question, because of their amazing listening, and I provide the perfect biblical answer.....
um, it very rarely / never really happens that way. Instead God uses it in other ways when we are out and about. I’m reminded of this: salvation is of the Lord, growth is of the Lord, repentance is of the Lord. My point is God must do the work, but I need to be faithful in teaching accurately His word with those He has entrusted to me. Lord, help me!
Jesus said, “repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand” (Matt. 3:2). My role is to keep teaching my kids that truth; we all must be ready for His return.
James Bogle
My philosophy in terms of family worship is pretty simple: we do it together in the evenings, as often as possible throughout the week, and I remain flexible in order to seize opportunities to speak to my family about topics as they arise. The plans have evolved over the years as the children have grown, but we are currently reading through a chronological Bible reading plan. We start off with time in prayer (currently praying through a global prayer guide from Voice of the Martyrs, but the member- ship directory is a good resource too). We are also going through Jonathan Edwards Resolutions. I basically read it to them and then explain what it means. It’s a good short lesson to set the tone before diving into the word. In addition, we take one day per week (Sunday or Monday) to go through the sermon that we heard that week so that I can make sure the family understood the message and how it might be applied.
I mentioned earlier that I like to remain flexible. What I mean by that is there are times when we veer off of the regular plan in order to address a topic that may be a teaching lesson that can be applied right away, usually because something has occurred and it needs to be addressed biblically. Some recent topics in- clude purity and modesty, but we have also gone through doctri- nal items and/or topics that have come up in the regular reading plan, such as the Jewish feasts. Ultimately, the goal is to get the family together, hear from the word of God, and see if I can get us talking and growing. We don’t do it perfectly and it certainly doesn’t happen every day, but God is faithful to use it for our good.
Justin Grasmik
It’s been a type of tradition in our home to have a family break- fast and Bible time on Saturday mornings. I usually make an egg scramble and cinnamon rolls, and then we feast on the Word. I’ve been taking the family through Catechisms over the years. I’ll have the kids read the Scriptures that support the questions and answers and then we discuss appropriate responses to what we’ve learned. We also have a time of Scripture memorization. We’ve been able to memorize 26 verses, each starting with a letter of the alphabet.
After Sunday worship, we usually grab lunch and discuss the sermon. The kids are great note-takers, so they pull out their notes and recap the sermon by sharing the main points. This of- ten leads to more questions, and is an extension of Sunday wor- ship with the church.
During dinner time we like to discuss what each family mem- ber read in the Bible that particular day. Each of the kids has their personal Bible time and as we sit at the table, they take turns ex- plaining what they learned. Jaime and I ask leading questions and we all interact with our discussion centered on the Word of God. This is a great way of holding one another accountable with our time in the Word, while also nurturing family unity and modeling how we can all learn from each other.
As the kids are getting older, I’ve been able to start discipling the boys in an intentional one on one setting as well. I’ve been taking my oldest son through the Proverbs, which brings up many topics that allow a father to share how God’s Word applies to life. We both look forward to this time together of discipleship and relationship building.