Daily Devotionals...Family Style

Mrs. Nurse Boy here.

I just wanted to share a little bit about our nightly Family Devotional Time. I have shared before that we are attending a new church and are in the process of making it home. This has been a very challenging year for our family for a number of reasons. Nurse Boy has a new job and is going to school, we have a Third Grader (enough said, right? Third Grade is a transitional year for many children), we have a 2 year old (who is almost THREE! Pray for me, people!), we have a Kindergartner (if I could bottle his energy, I would be a rich woman!), we are attending a new church, and God is challenging us in some exciting (and scary) areas.

God has been working in all of us in some pretty extraordinary ways! Most importantly, He is bringing all of us closer to Him and to one another. Nurse Boy and I had gotten pretty lazy recently. You see, our kids are in a private Christian school and even play basketball in a Christian league. They are memorizing 3 scriptures a week and getting daily Bible studies between school, church, and basketball. We had gotten lazy. Our Bible time was half hearted and often rushed. Sometimes, even, forgotten.

God challenged us to make time for a nightly, FAMILY devotional. After only a few days, we were amazed just how precious and beneficial this time together had become to ALL of us! The kids LOVED it and opened up in our nightly discussions. Some discussions blessed us and some gave us insight. All of our time together in the Word has been valuable.

We start off with everyone doing their own devotional. For Bruiser and Sweet Pea, that is simply looking at picture Bibles. We set our timer for 4 minutes. NO TALKING! Oops, I don't have to tell you that...

Dimples loves reading out of his devotional.

Next, we pray together. This is our prayer box. As a family, we came up with relatives, friends, leaders, teachers, pastors, and family issues/concerns that need prayer. We wrote them on little pieces of paper. Every night, each one of us draws three pieces of paper out of our prayer box.

We share what/who we are praying for with each other, set the timer for 2 minutes, and silently pray.

Sweet Pea has a lot to learn with the whole silent prayer thing, but that is a post for another day... (She also insists on praying for her friends every night regardless of what she draws from the prayer box. Olivia, Hannah, Keirra, and Marlee are some very blessed kiddos :0)

Next, we do our family devotional together. We have a verse of the day posted on the refrigerator everyday that is reflected in our Bible reading each evening. We start off reading the day's related Bible verses, read the story from our devotional, and discuss what we learned and how it applys to our lives. Individually and as a family.

We end in prayer. (This time we pray out loud.)

Simple. Refreshing. Revealing.

Thank you God for the swift kick in the rear! (What? He's never given you a swift kick in the rear before?) We have been blessed!