Starting Devotions with your Children
Question: When and how do you start having devotions with your children?
Answer: This is a great question! It’s wonderful to know that as moms you are thinking about the importance of creating this special time with your children. You are beginning as you mean to go.
Hopefully the practice of having a ‘quiet’ or ‘devotional’ time was part of your daily routine even before you welcomed your first child into your family. If it was, great! If not, now is a good time to start.☺ Here are some thoughts on having devotions with your child, depending on where you are in your parenting journey:
Newborns: Once you’ve got the whole feeding time down, use some of Baby’s wake-time to read a short devotional out loud, either while holding baby or when he’s in his infant seat near you. (The YouVersion app has lots of wonderful devotionals for new moms.) Remember, God’s Word is living and your baby will enjoy hearing your voice as you share His truth with him.
Toddlers/Pre-schoolers: There are many toddler devotional books available. One of our personal favorites is The Jesus Storybook Bible. It’s a good resource to introduce your child to actual Bible characters. Focus on character building books, keeping them age-appropriate and simple. A good time for establishing the habit of having devotions together might be right after breakfast when their tummies are content. By starting early in the day, you can reinforce whatever the virtue or story was about in conversations throughout the day.
Early Elementary (pre-reader): There are lots of great books available and often authors that you enjoy will have a children’s version. For example, The Purpose Driven Life has devotionals for 4 to 8-year-olds and also 8 to 12-year-olds. If you are home educating your children, you can make your Bible/devotions the first “subject” of the day. If your children attend a local elementary school, you can still have a set time, possibly even before they leave for school. Be sure to include some discussion, but keep it simple: “What was your take-away from today’s reading?” If you’ve been training them with dialogue questions, they will be used to providing some sort of answer. Please don’t accept “nothing” as an answer. You may need to prompt a thought, but you want to help instill thinking and meditating on biblical truth.
Elementary on up: As the child’s reading and writing skills develop, you may want to provide a journal for your son or daughter to start writing both prayer requests and/or a word or thought that was meaningful to them.
Reading seasonal books is another way of having devotionals. There are a number of Advent/ Christmas and Easter devotionals available. By including readings tied to holidays, your children will grow in their understanding of the ‘why’ behind the celebrations.
Not every mom journals during her own quiet time and it’s something I really wish I had started earlier on. One day I did begin and now I am so thankful I did. There are days that I don’t journal, but still have my quiet time. So don’t be legalistic about it. Personally, I write something like a letter, starting out with, “Good morning Jesus” and then thanking Him for the blessings of the previous day. I then continue with whatever happens to impact me from my reading that morning. Most days I also include prayers for whomever the Holy Spirit brings to mind, in addition to praying for my adult children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. (Yes, I’ve been doing this for a long time.)
Hopefully, these few thoughts will provide encouragement for you to begin the process. Start small, keep it simple with realistic expectations and you will find as this habit begins in your life, your children will follow your example.
Blessings,
Anne Marie Ezzo