“You shall teach them diligently to your children and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up” Deuteronomy 6:7
I will give a random list tomorrow of various things that I can remember our children doing for “personal devotions.” Some of these were “assigned” (if needed) and others were what the kids did themselves. Some of the lengthier ones were probably done later in the day as assignments. With chapter books, etc., we just encouraged the kids to do a “chapter a day.” Our experience has been that we need to look at things that we do in our family in the long-term. Everything doesn’t have to be done “right now.” “Slow and steady, steady and slow…that’s the way we always go…” (I will have homeschooled for thirty-three years, including when I started homeschooling my sister, when our homeschooling journey is over. I will have had “children” at home for thirty-six years by the time our youngest probably leaves home around twenty! It’s definitely going to be the long-term things, schedules, lifestyle choices, and daily relationships that make the difference in that lengthy period of time.)
Note: I do the same thing for my own “devotions” (which are usually spread out over three different periods of time—in the morning, another quick time of slowing down in the late afternoon/early evening, and at bedtime—a chapter from the Bible; a chapter from a discipleship type of book I am reading; a short prayer/worship time. (Oh, plus praying for my kids when I dry my hair—efficiency expert here!) This is not a spint—it’s a marathon that I want to run (and want my children to run) all of my life.
Once our kids were teens, we seldom told them what to do for devotions. We mostly just spot-checked with them to see how their morning times were coming along. I often pick up books for the kids for discipleship, etc. and sometimes assign these for school (or for devotions) as well. Tomorrow—random list…I do mean random!
