We Will Tell the Next Generation ~ Family Devotions

...We will tell the next generation
the praiseworthy deeds of the LORD,
his power, and the wonders he has done.
Psalm 78:4b

Barbara over at Mommy Life has a wonderful post today about Family Devotions in her home. I commented there and told about some of the things we do in this regard, and I got so excited I decided to start a little mini-series on this subject of passing on our faith to our kids. In our homeschool, and in our everyday life, we try to be very intentional about teaching our children deep doctrinal truths. We want them to have a bedrock foundation so that the Holy Spirit has lots of "handles" with which to grab our children's hearts in His good timing.

I am grateful and blessed to have a husband who has a very short commute and so has time to lead our family in devotions every morning before he leaves. There have been seasons when that wasn't the case, and family devotions were in the evening, or whenever we could manage to get everyone together. I know everyone doesn't have this ability, and I think it's just important to set a regular routine and stick to it. If Rick couldn't do it in the mornings, I made sure I did something during the day, even if it was just a short Bible story and prayer before naps. And we have had plenty of times when our family devotions are disrupted by crying or uncooperative children, but as they have grown, they have learned that this is what we do together daily as a family. Daily perseverance is truly the key.

Since both Rick and I were raised in the Episcopal Church (see the last post), we both have a deep respect and love for the Book of Common Prayer. We begin our daily devotional time with Morning Prayer. It's amazing how quickly our kids have learned the prayers, the Apostle's Creeds, and the Scriptures that are part of the service. Each child has a prayer book, and even the non-readers like to follow along.

After that, Rick usually uses a daily devotional called "Training Hearts, Teaching Minds" which goes through the questions of the Westminster Shorter Catechism, one question each week, with five days of teaching and application on each one.

I have a list of Scripture that the kids memorize individually from age 3 up as well. And we memorize things together as a family.

All of our kids are also memorizing catechism questions. The younger kids use First Catechism from Great Commission Publications, and then they graduate to the Westminster Shorter by the time they are about 10 or so. I start my little guys at age 3 with the First Catechism, and it is just so cool to hear them...and then to see them start making connections with every area of their lives...

Who made you? God...
What else did God make? God made all things...
Why did God make you and all things? For his own glory...
How can you glorify God? By loving Him and doing what He commands...
Why are you to glorify God? Because He made me and takes care of me...

Talk about TRUE self-worth! :) I highly recommend catechizing your kids. I am amazed at the doctrine I have learned, even from the First Catechism. And it sure helps in answering those unanswerable questions kids love to ask.

Great Commission also has a neat little thing called Memory Work Notebook by Paul Settle. It divides the catechism questions into a grouping for each year from age 3 to 12th grade, with suggested Scripture and hymns and creeds to memorize as well. I have found that to be a great track to run on. There's also a CD of songs that reinforce these catechism questions by Judy Rogers called "Why Can't I See God?" It is excellent!

We also sing hymns, and do other things with Scripture during the day. I will post some more of the things we do in future posts.