In my last post, Struggling to spend quiet times with the Lord?, I shared my struggle on finding time to spend with the Lord and how these times have changed with each season of my life. Today, I tackle another popular question from mothers – how to get our children to do their devotions, preferably on their own.
Devotions with Younger Children
I have written about this in Doing Devotionals with the Children. I shan’t repeat them, except to add that it is advisable to make reading the Bible and praying a part of life in general, not saved only for Sundays. That is what Deuteronomy 6:6-7 is telling us to do : talk to them about it all the time when sitting, walking, lying down and rising up.
Student of the Word
UPDATE: It is with sadness that I discovered that Student of the Word curriculum no longer exists.
As they transitioned from Bible stories, we started using Student of the Word curriculum (SOW) for our Homeschool. I found it while researching for curricula in the early days of homeschooling.
I like this programme because it takes one through the Bible in a systematic way. It allows one to have a better overview of the entire Bible, not just bits and pieces of it. It teaches one to break down each chapter or book into 4 main parts and then gives you a topic to explore, a character to research on and a summary of the chapter/book completed. However, there are no answer keys to this programme! Yes, it means that I, the teacher, have to do my own Bible reading and research when I don’t understand a passage or verse. There is no cop-out and using the prepared script and answer!
For more on SOW, you can read How we use SOW and I love SOW. We used to be representatives s for them but it became rather complicated so we have stopped. But I still like their programme for the Bible portion of it.
I use the SOW format with the children until they finish up their primary school education. When they switch over to Abeka for Grades 8 to 12, they follow Abeka’s Bible lessons.
What our Children are Using/Doing Now
After using SOW for a few years, they would be able to read a chapter or book of the Bible on their own and glean nuggets of wisdom/teaching from it (or so we hope!). Then they move on. Currently, the older 2 do their own devotions (if any!). I do not monitor them as they are old enough to be held accountable to the Lord on their own.
The middle 3 children read one chapter of their Bibles daily, using the (S)cripture. (O)bservations. (A)pplication. (P)rayer. method for personal devotions. They will usually do their personal devotions in the morning before they start work. In the beginning, I require them to “hand up” their devotions journal for me to “check”. I am not checking for their answers/prayers/observations but that they have been diligent in doing their devotions. Occasionally, I will glance at what they have written or observed about the day’s reading.
I do not require the younger 2 to do personal devotions on their own yet.
It is my hope that as I instil in them a habit of doing their devotions daily and in the morning, this habit will carry them through their lives when I am no longer around. After all, as I remind them on a regular basis, I will not be around to check on them forever, nor do I want to!
Family Devotions Through the Years
What about family devotions?
Well, we have tried many different programmes, different styles and even just simple Bible Reading. Conclusion? We are still trying to find the best option for our family! I admire and marvel at families who joyfully look forward to family devotions, not just weekly but daily or nightly. We just can’t make it 🙁
It is slightly better now that we have older children who can participate and engage in discussions. But when there were younger than older ones, it was just plain awful and painful. In fact, for a long season, we just didn’t do it. Yeah.
Now we meet once a week, pray, read a chapter from the Book of Proverbs, share a bit, pray and are done. It is then followed by an update on the various activities each of us would be involved with in the coming week. All done in less than 45 minutes. Can it be improved? Definitely! But done is better than perfect!
The Ideal Situation
Ideally, everyone should be doing their devotions daily and without reminders. And then come together as a family to share and pray. But life happens. Not only do we miss one, two or a few days here and there, but there are also days when we really don’t feel like doing it. So we keep on pressing on, changing things around and tweaking what we have to make it work.
Model It for Them
Doing our own devotions consistently is hard. Getting the children to do it is even harder. But if we do not require it of ourselves, how can we require it of them? So before we search for this and that book/resource/programme, let us look to ourselves.
I am not saying it is easy. It is hard. Praying and doing devotions are unnatural disciplines for most of us. But consistency is the key. Let us not give up. Because we know that God’s Word never returns to Him void. It will accomplish what it sets out to do in His time.
We Can’t Save Them, Only Lead Them
Let me be clear here: no matter what we do or not do, we cannot save them, make them love or even believe in Him. We are not responsible for the salvation of our children but we are responsible for leading them to the Cross.
Are we?
Don’t Farm Them Out
Don’t farm our children’s spiritual health to others. Do not happily leave the children at the Church’s wonderful children’s or youth ministries and think that is enough. In the end, we stand before God to give an account of how we have led them to, or misled them from Him.
Pray
And as they grow into their own persons, be prepared that they will wrestle with God, as Jacob did, to “find” God and serve Him as their God, not daddy’s God, mama’s God. And meanwhile, we must pray.
So help us, Lord!
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