How To: Private Family Devotions

And that’s never enough. Know, the Gospel is not, we haven’t fully given the Gospel to someone unless we have urged them and called them to respond to that Gospel and trust in Christ. That’s because it’s not just information, It is a saving message. And to do that requires faith and requires receiving Christ. And so, the question then that that comes at that point is, how do I do that?

What is the process? What is the method? Because a lot of people just don’t, they don’t know how to deal with this question with their kids. Maybe it’s something they were never taught. And the truth is, most of the time, we don’t know how to do things because we were never taught by our parents. And we carry that on, do we not? We carry that through. So, whatever handicaps, whatever, or in the positive sense, whatever things, good things that we have from our parents, those tend to be the things that we carry on because those are the things that come natural to us.

But whether that’s true in your case, in my case, in my case it wasn’t true. I did not come up reading the Bible. Never heard my mom read the Bible to me, never heard, we never had private devotions in our family, ever. We didn’t pray over our meals, nothing, nada. You didn’t go to church or anything like that. But whether that’s true of you or whether you brought up in a Christian home, the Lord still calls us to learn some new things.

And he lays upon us, he stresses upon us this duty. And how you go about giving the Gospel to your children is actually easier than it seems, and it actually comes very natural. If we follow the principles of Scripture private family devotions. And that’s what I wanna talk about tonight, is this. Basically, I’d like to give you a how to regarding private family devotions. Now I imagine there’s some people among us tonight that have never had private family devotions, that’s never been a thing.

You’ve never conducted private family devotions with your children or you’ve never been party to it as a child or as a teenager. But there is always opportunity to change that and to make a step in the right direction and it will yield good fruit even if it starts out a little bit difficult. And sometimes it will, especially if we’re not accustomed to it. So I wanna give you just some practical things based upon scriptural principles which I hope to show you, and hopefully it’ll be a help to you to kick start that. Or if you’re already doing that, to restart it, or encourage you to persist and renew your private family devotions with your children.

First Timothy chapter four verse number 13 says this, till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. Give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. Look if you would at second Timothy chapter number three.

Second Timothy chapter three Verse 14, the Bible says this, second Timothy three verse 14, but continue thou in the things which that which thou hast learned and has been assured of. Knowing of whom thou hast learned them. And that from a child, thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus. Let’s pause a moment and just ask the lord to help us as we study his word tonight.

Our lord, we come to you now once again in the name of the lord Jesus and we ask for your help and guidance and hearts to hear and tenderness of hearts to respond to these truths and principles. And Lord, the things you’ve told us to do, to take what you’ve said in your word very seriously and to not just hear it, but be a doer of the word for our kids’ sake and also for our own sake.

I pray, Lord, that through this month, as we concentrate on the family and the various needs and aspects of the family, that you would strengthen the families of Choice Hills Baptist Church. That You would strengthen relationships between husbands and wives, between parents, children, between children with their siblings, and whatever other kinds of relationships in the family that you might want to touch and to work. Lord, we also acknowledge that there might be other things that aren’t related to the family that you want to deal with and you want to speak to. I pray that you would do that. Lord, help us not to be in the way that your will might be done. So help us, we ask in Jesus name, amen.

The first thing I wanna show you when you have private family devotions is this, read the scripture together. Read the scriptures together. I’m I’m just trying to give you very practical advice. Read the scriptures together and when we come down to the end, we’ll have, I’ll kinda summarize it for you. But reading the scripture, just out loud as a group, reading it, give attendance to reading. Now, in this context in first Timothy four, it’s referring to in a in a church setting. There’s actually a couple different ways you could you could pay attention to it and you could you could think about it. You could think that Paul’s speaking to Timothy on a personal level and he’s saying, hey, you need to make sure you read the Bible but it could also be in a church setting. Either way, it works. Here’s the point, it’s important to read the Bible, right? It’s important to read the Bible. And remember, the first century, everybody didn’t have a copy of the Bible like we have these books that we’re just giving away.

Bibles were very expensive, and so often people would gather to hear the Bible read because that was where the Bible was kept. Maybe at the meeting place or at the the church house or whatnot. And then second Timothy chapter three, if you’ll peek at that one more time, verse number 15, it says, that from a child, thou hast known the holy scriptures. So, if Timothy from a child, starting when he was a child, he knew the Bible.

Now, I I don’t know the age but I assume that he would he started learning the Bible before he could read himself. And you gotta remember that in 2026, in our country, our literacy rate is like way above 90%. Most people, most adults in America, the vast majority of adults in America are functionally literate. They can read, they can read a newspaper, they can sit down and read an article, and I’m thankful for that. But that’s not always been the case.

It’s always been the case. So, I don’t know where Timothy is on that spectrum but I would say this, if he if he knew the scriptures from a child, it meant that somebody is reading it to him. It’s implied that most likely his mother and his grandmother who were ladies of faith were reading the Bible to him. Now, let me say, let me say something right here.

As we’ve covered this and we’ve looked at August Family Focus as well as other other topics that we’ve covered, it is the first and foremost, it is the duty and responsibility of the father and the husband of the family to lead his family. He is the one that is to be taking the lead, doing, doing the things first that the family needs and setting an example but we all know that that’s not always the case.

And in the case of Timothy, that was true. It was not ideal. Timothy did not apparently did not have a father leading him, reading him the Bible. But he did have a mother and grandmother leading him. And so let me encourage you. If you’re in a situation where there’s not that that who is supposed to be a a male leader doing that. For whatever reason, let me encourage you mother. Let me encourage you wife.

Let me encourage you to step up and do that thing because it is good and it will help. Timothy is a living example of a faithful servant of god who did not have the ideal situation with dad leading his family reading the scripture. He had mom and grandma grandma doing it and it was still effective. That’s why he was wise unto salvation but notice, he, somebody was reading the Bible to him. So, let me give you a few things about reading the scripture together.

You know, when you have children and they start out small, of course, kids don’t, they don’t, it takes them time even when they’re in first grade and second grade and third grade. It’s not until later parts of elementary school that kids become proficient in reading. And even if they’re proficient in reading, not withstanding what all these this, you know, the grade level scores of the bible and all this stuff. You know, they say that, but everybody knows that you as an adult, you as a college educated adult will have parts of the Bible that are confusing and difficult to understand. How much more a fifth grader or a sixth grader? I mean, I I know. They said, well, it’s only on the sixth grade reading level. Yeah, okay. Okay, you get to some parts and it’s it might as well be on the fourteenth grade reading level.

We all need wisdom in that but here’s the point. It’s gonna take some time for for for kids to grow up and be able to learn and read the scriptures by themselves and do so efficiently and with understanding. What are they doing in the meantime? And in the meantime, we can read the scripture together and that provides the opportunity for a younger child to hear and to understand the Bible directly.

Not just not just you know, ideas about the Bible but to hear the word of god themselves. Now, will they understand everything? No. Do you? No. But that doesn’t mean just because you can’t drink a five gallon bucket of water at one time doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take a sip or take a glass of water. So this reading the Bible to your kids in private family devotions or we might say call it family worship is a way to interact with the Bible directly even though they can’t read themselves.

So, let me encourage you to do this and I I’m not I might not even be speaking about little children. In our church, there’s there’s people that have little children like Thomas. Andrew, Joanna have little Thomas. And then, of course, the Veracruzas, they have little kids still, and then various going on up through there. But then there’s some that don’t have babies yet and want babies, and there’ll sometime hopefully comes coming soon. There will be babies that will be coming along and so, you might have to put this on on your hat and just hold on to it. It might be that you’re you you have a grandchild that you have an opportunity to to read the Bible to or whatever. Remember, you have scriptural principles and examples for all of those cases.

So, here’s here’s the the simple process. It’s it’s not hard. There’s no big method to it. Pick a book, start reading. A chapter at a chapter at a time. It doesn’t have to be profound, it doesn’t have to be eloquent, it doesn’t have to be anything. Just pick a book, John, Mark. Mark they say is one of the easiest books in the Bible to read because it has a lot of action verbs and short single syllable words. Okay? Pick Mark, start reading, one chapter at a time.

Read slowly, read deliberately, and as you, as the parent, as you read, think as you read. Now, if you would look at Matthew 14. Matthew 14. I wanna show you this principle about reading the scripture together. Matthew 14 Verse 16.

And this is I’m giving this principle to you in a a kind of concise way, by means of an example. Because this is an example of this principle we see in various other places in scripture as well. Matthew 14 verse 16, this is the feeding of the of the 5,000. Verse 16 says, Jesus said unto them, they need not depart, give ye them to eat, speaking to the disciples.

And they say unto him, we have here but five loaves and two fishes. He said, bring them hither to me. And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the grass and took the five loaves and the two fishes, notice it’s food, you see this? I’m gonna get back to that in a minute, but notice five loaves and two fishes food, one of which is bread.

He took the five loaves and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed and break and gave the loaves to his disciples, and the disciples to the multitude. You see that? You see the principle? Jesus did not pass it out himself. You say, well, he was just for convenience. Maybe, there were a lot of people but the principle that’s being illustrated here is that Jesus gives it to the disciples, the disciples distribute it to all the people.

And that’s the way you read the Bible to to your children. It doesn’t have to be eloquent. You don’t have to prepare you know, an eight point outline with sub points. You don’t have to have the illustration and the and the nice sounding poem. You don’t have to have any of any of that. What you do is you teach and you point out and you explain whatever it is that god teaches you and in fact, here’s the secret, that is all ministry is anyway.

That’s all it ever is. God gives to the minister things that he then turns and gives gives to others. That’s this principle. And with your family, when you’re the minister, that’s all you’re doing. But that leads us to a truth, which we have to understand.

If your own personal bible reading and your own personal devotional life is tepid, thin and emaciated, and it’s poor, then when you go to read to your kids, you’re going to feel that. And so, here’s a secondary effect of this private family devotions, which is this, it will help your personal devotions like it helps them. It will prod and urge you and me to be in the word because we know we’re going to be giving the word to others. In fact, that’s another principle of ministry generally speaking. A lot of people get and and it’s hard for me to understand because you know, I’ve been in ministry for all these years and all of that. So, sometimes it’s hard for me to understand but some people are terrified to stand in front of people And and I and I I understand that at least on a conceptual level.

And I think one of the reasons they’re so terrified is because they don’t know what to say. Well, I wanna tell you, nobody, you know, I don’t care what nobody really knows what what’s going on. All we know is we try to get something to the lord and pass it on to the people. And that’s all a minister does. But that means that I have to be in the word.

That means that I’ve got to know what it says. And you know what? You might come to a place where you don’t know what in the world, what in the world a passage means or you don’t know what it’s talking about in the Bible. That’s fine. You can ask people, you can ask somebody at church, somebody you trust. If you have a question, you can ask me. I can do my best to help you. If I know the answer, I might not, but if I do, I’ll try to help you. But here’s the key.

Here’s the key. It is best if you, as the parent, are your kids’ greatest spiritual authority, not me. You should be that. And if you don’t get something in the scripture that you’re reading to your kids, that’s okay. Ask somebody and then once you get your answer, whatever satisfies you, then you can tell your kids, don’t just send them to somebody else. You need to be that authority.

You need to be the one that they trust, the one they look to when they have questions concerning spiritual things and concerning God’s word. You see, this is part of the reason why the Lord has laid such a burden, and it is a burden, it’s a duty. He has laid upon parents to teach their children. Because in teaching them, we grow. As they grow, we grow. You think the disciples as they were passing out that bread and those fish? You think they might have been dipping their hand in there and feeding themselves as they went? They probably were.

There was plenty to go around. And as you read the scripture to your family and to your children, make it practical as well as theological. You say, man, don’t know anything about theology, I don’t know all those big words, that’s fine, that doesn’t matter. You give what God gives you. It’s that simple. And when that’s true, your children become a reflection of your own walk with the Lord.

And when that happens, you have a really good reason to walk with the lord. Right? You see, the point is when you read the scripture, it is not only to see what happened in the text when you read, for instance, the narrative parts or not only to know what the text says but the idea is to take the word of god that we’re reading, we read it, we understand it, at least in on some level and then to take that and make it practical by putting the truth of it in the lap and in the life of our children.

That’s what that’s what how the scripture is designed to be used. Again, there’s no reason to be long or profound. When we do our, we call it Bible time, we’ve always called it Bible time, we have teenagers that are adults going to college and we still call it Bible time. Maybe that embarrasses them a little But when we We have Bible time still in our house and I almost never, I think I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve actually looked at anything before going to the Bible and reading it to them.

No preparation, why? Because this is the way the Lord teaches them, is by teaching me and I pass it on to them. So, that’s what I said, it’s easy. You just pick a book, start in chapter one, read one chapter each time you have your private family devotions. Make it practical. Make it practical. The second thing I want you to see is this, keep, as you read the Bible, keep the gospel at the forefront.

Keep the gospel at the forefront. That goes back to what we saw this morning. Which is, of all the commandments we can teach our God our kids, Psalm 78. Seven and eight. Right? Of all the commandments we can teach them, of all the works of God that we can teach them, which one are the forefront? The ones at the top of the pile, the ones that have priority. Well, obviously, the the the ones that deal with the gospel, Christ’s work for us.

The gospel that Christ commands us to repent and believe the gospel. That all these are the top of the pile. This is the commandment we read in first John chapter three. And this is God’s commandment. That we believe on his son. That’s that’s what the Bible says. So, as we read the Bible, we need to keep the Gospel at the forefront. It should never get get far from what we’re reading. Now, here’s here’s the problem.

The reason why this is important is because we can very easily, as we read the Bible to our kids and try to make it practical, we can very easily get diverted into moralism or simply to try to pull out things that’ll make the kids behave. Rules that they need to follow. And and and some of that is is necessary from time to time but we if that’s all we point out from the scripture, we’re missing the boat.

We are missing the boat. The scripture is about the lord Jesus Christ and what he did. Even the laws and rules point to him and so he should be the center, the point of the scriptures is to direct them to the magnificent truths of the gospel that they might, Psalm 78, personally trust and hope in god.

If we find ourselves as we read constantly veering back toward moralism and everything we read, the truth is that shows more about our understanding of the Bible than anything else. If we see the Bible only as rules and regulations, as orders about what to do and not to do, and we don’t see how that the all the roads of scripture lead to the gospel, lead to the person of of Jesus Christ. If we don’t, if if we don’t pick up on that, that that reflects on our understanding of the Bible. There’s a there’s a point for growth right there. A point where we need to we need to look at the scripture and go deeper into it.

We need to, as we read, we need to find some way to relate what we’re reading to the gospel, to Jesus Christ, to his incarnation, to his coming, to his death on the cross, to our sinful nature, to eternal punishment, to Christ’s love, to Christ’s resurrection, to what true faith and trust looks like, to to forgiveness of sins. In other words, there are so many things in the Bible as you go through Genesis or Exodus. I’ll give you a couple examples in a minute. There’s so many things that if you just think as you go, again, open the Bible, continue with the next chapter. If you think, you can find a road that’ll lead you back to the lord Jesus Christ. Remember, we’re not trying to be profound. We’re just trying to teach kids the truths of scripture.

Not trying to go deep. Let me give you a couple of examples. Look at Genesis chapter six. Genesis chapter six. Verse five. I just picked two examples that pretty much everybody in here is familiar with because I wanna show you. As you read these, a way that you can bring these things back to eternal truths regarding the gospel. Genesis six verse five, the Bible says this, and God saw the wickedness of man that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually, and it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast and the creeping thing and the fowls of the air, for it repenteth me that I have made them. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.

Verse 12, or verse 11, the earth also was corrupt before God and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. And God said, I know at the end of all flesh has come before me, for the earth is filled with violence through them, and I will destroy them with the earth. As you’re reading to your children, Genesis chapter six, you go through there. It’s very easy for to say, well, those were bad people, weren’t they?

And God wasn’t happy with them. Right? And you can draw a picture of your ark with the little giraffe head sticking out. But a gospel perspective on this is to say, you see those people, how bad they were? That’s the same kind of heart that we have. You see how God responded? God destroyed them. And God is going to judge, judge all of us one day, all of mankind.

But do you see that one guy found grace in the eyes of God? Do you know what grace is? You see, that’s not deep, everyone in here understands that. But instead of just looking at it flat, you can find those roads that lead you back to the cross. Look at, look if you would at Exodus 16.

Exodus 16 verse 11. Let me just make a point about regarding the gospel, you know, we can concentrate on what Christ did for us, and that’s that’s right, that’s good, but one thing to remember and not to overlook is what made that necessary, and that’s our own sinfulness. One of the most prominent truths in scripture is how wicked man is. Do you know that? And if you read the Bible to your kids, what you’ll find is that truth is everywhere.

Everywhere. Starting in chapter three of Genesis, all the way to chapter 20 of Revelation. In fact, you can find it in 21 too because there’s certain people that aren’t in the the new heaven and the new earth. It’s everywhere and that is an important truth for your kids to know.

Because what they’re hearing outside is everybody’s a good boy and girl and they’re not hearing, they’re not hearing the scriptural truth that we are desperate sinners in need of a savior. And so, Exodus chapter 16 verse number 11 and the Lord spake unto Moses saying, I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel. Speak unto them saying, at even you shall eat flesh, and in the morning, you shall be filled with bread, and you shall know that I am the Lord your God. And it came to pass that it even the quails came up and covered the camp, and in the morning, the dew lay round about the host.

And when the dew that lay was gone up, behold the face of the will, upon the face of the wilderness, they, there lay a small round thing, the small, as small as the hoarfrost on the ground. And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, it is manna, for they wished not what it was. And Moses said unto them, this is the bread which the Lord hath given you to eat. This is the thing which the Lord hath commanded. Gather of it every man according to his eating and Homer for every man according to the number of your persons. Take ye every man for them which are in his tents.

Famous story of the manna. But what should the manna drive us to? This is why our own reading of the Bible is so important. The manna, the first thing it ought to remind us of is I am the bread of life. So, we don’t read the manna just to know what happened with the manna and the children of Israel had everything. There’s there’s truths you can get in there like god provides and things like that but there’s also this grand truth how that god gave them bread from heaven to supply their need and how that points to the gospel. Again, these are the kinds of truths you look for and pay attention to as you go. You won’t see them every day, every time you have your private family devotions, no. It might be on occasion.

But when you see them, it will be an opportunity for your kids to learn the gospel. The third thing I want you to see is this, pray together. Pray together. Look at Luke chapter nine, if you would.

Luke chapter nine. Let me ask you a question. Have your kids ever heard you pray out loud? And I’m not talking about praying over food. Have your kids ever heard a sincere, heartfelt prayer to God in their ears? You know for a lot of people, their kids have never heard that. Never heard it. But they should. And this is the pattern our Lord gave us with his disciples.

Luke chapter nine verse 18, notice what it says. And it came to pass as he was alone praying, his disciples were with him. See that? Jesus is praying, his disciples are there. Look at Luke chapter number 19 verse 28. And it came to pass about an eight eight days after these these sayings, he took Peter and John and James and went up into a mountain to pray.

His disciples are with him. They hear him pray. Chapter 11, look at that, if you would. Verse one. And it came to pass that as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray as John also taught his disciples. So, they obviously knew he was praying, likely heard him praying, and so their question was, lord, teach us to pray. They heard him praying. That’s what prompted the question and then, Luke 22, look over there if you would, Luke 22.

Luke 22 verse 39. And he came out, this is at the garden, and went as he was want to the Mount Of Olives, and his disciples also followed him. He’s going there to pray. We already went through this in Matthew. Matthew where 26 where Jesus goes into the garden to pray, his disciples hear it. And that’s one reason why we have it recorded in scripture because they heard some of what he said.

So this is the example the Lord gave. The Lord prayed in front of his disciples. I wanna tell you something. There are few ways that your children see your heart and your motivations, especially as it relates to them more than hearing you pray sincerely to God in their hearing.

Because there’s a, for anybody who’s honest, there’s a certain fact of prayer where you know it’s silly and foolish to fake prayer to God. People do it. I mean, they do it all the time. But especially when you’re with your kids, because listen, your kids and my kids know everything that happens in the house. Even when the doors are shut, do they not? They know if you say foul words.

They know if you drink liquor. They know if you watch trash on TV. They know if you fight and scream with your spouse. They know everything. You can lock the door and you can say, oh, they don’t, they know it all. And so, for anybody who’s at least a little bit honest and sincere, you get down to pray knowing full well that your kids know all your dirty laundry, you know what that gives you?

A really good reason to get right with God. Here’s the danger. Oftentimes when that’s the case, rather than getting right with the Lord or with that person with whom we’ve been fighting, we withdraw. And we say, no more private family devotions.

So, our personal walk with God and relationship to others is a function of our private family devotions. You see, one affects the other. The Lord has designed it so that if you’re gonna get down and pray to God in front of your kids, you have a very good reason to get things right with your spouse or with them or whatever that needs to be done so that you don’t play the hypocrite and I don’t play the hypocrite in front of my children.

And I’ll tell you, I’ll be honest with you, there have been a number, lots of times that I’ve had to go to my wife and say, hey, I’m sorry for what I said, I’m sorry for what I did, please forgive me. Or go to one of my kids and deal with the matter. You know prompted it? Private family devotions.

As I said, people often kids often never hear their parents pray at all apart from meals and maybe once in a while if they’re called on to pray in church, but your kids need to hear your sincere prayers in private because they need a window into what’s in your heart.

And the truth is that prayer with your children is a, in private, is a fitting area to provide an example. Because unlike other things, prayer is something that’s better caught than taught. You know, when I was a missionary to Cambodia, Cambodians don’t know how to pray. Like, that’s not a thing. Even the word is not a word that they use. In fact, the word actually means in the like outside use is like a petition, but not in to God. It would never be used like that. But it’s kind of been borrowed for Christian use because it’s a petition to God.

But they don’t know how to do it. How do you do it? Okay, here’s what you do. You say, Our Father, and then you say thank you, and then, you know, we could go through the five step process or whatever, the model prayer, and that’s fine and good, but probably the most effective way to teach them is to let them hear you pray. And all of a sudden, they figure it out. That’s the same is true with your kids. That’s why they need to hear you pray.

And here we go back. You see this truth we keep coming back to? Our prayer life now is going to affect them. Because they’re following our example of prayer.

And we will set a pattern for how that they will pray later in life. And you know kids pray and they say crazy stuff and it’s funny. If you’ve ever had family devotions with your kids, how many of you have had just absolute hilarious moments when kids ask for off the wall stuff, say crazy stuff, but it is hilarious. Our kids probably remember some examples like that.

I’m not gonna put you on the spot. It’s good times, but they learn to practice prayer in the safety of their family and that’ll set the pattern for later in life.

The next thing I wanna show you is this. So we have so far, we’re getting close to the end. Read scripture together, keep the gospel at the forefront, pray together. Next, encourage questions. Look at Mark chapter four. Mark chapter four.

Mark four verse number 10. And when he was alone, speaking of Jesus, they that were about him with the 12 asked of him the parable. So Jesus taught in public, then when they went to the house, they had questions. They didn’t get it. You know what the lord did? He said, no, you’ll have to submit your questions in writing. It’ll be two to four business days before you get a reply. No. He fielded their questions in private when they didn’t understand. And so when you have private family devotions with your kids, open that thing up and say, does anybody have any questions? Questions are valuable, valuable.

Because questions provide a good provocation to you as a parent to know your bible and to be able to answer spiritual questions. First Peter three fifteen, you know this verse, but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear. The idea of being able to answer.

So, again, it affects us. Private family devotions affects us. If we’re if we’re going oak to open the floor to questions, we gotta at least be somewhat prepared to answer those questions and that helps us but also, as a mother, as a father, you are the shepherd of your family.

And one of the jobs of a shepherd is to keep watch over the flock, to guard them, to be circumspect, to pay attention. Questions are a great way to pay attention. Do they understand? What don’t they understand? Why don’t they understand? It can help you understand where your kids are. Next, consistency is key. Consistency is key.

Luke chapter four verse four, I’ll just read it to you. Jesus answered him saying, it is written, that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. You remember just a minute ago, when we were talking about the bread and the fish, and that’s kind of an analogy for how the Lord gives to us, or the Lord gives to us, and then in ministry, we pass it on to our children.

And you have the bread and the fish, which is food. Here, the word of God is directly related to food. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. But what is the most effective method in food? Is the most effective way of intake of food to fast for ten days and then eat a dump truck load of food? No. The way we eat food is we eat a little at a time.

A little at a time. A little at a time. You’ve heard of daily bread, right? Little at a time. Little at a time. Consistency with your children in private family devotions is more important than, and to be honest, it’s just as a matter of practical matter. If you don’t, if you and I, if we don’t ever do family devote, private family devotions with our kids and then once a quarter, we want to spend two hours on it, we are doing it all wrong.

Not to mention, they are going to loathe it with the deepest recesses of their soul. Just like you would loathe it if I preached for two hours every single time.

Once a quarter maybe. What’s more important is steady daily diet. Steady daily diet. As food must be taken in a little at a time with consistency, the results with intake of spiritual nourishment with your children in private family devotions, the result will be growth. Slow, steady growth and that’s true in all spiritual things.

Slow, steady growth, almost imperceptible growth, but growth nonetheless. So, set your heart, you just gotta put in your mind, alright, this is not gonna be easy. It’s not like a sprint, it’s a marathon. You start out and you pace yourself. You just read one chapter. If you can’t do it, do less than a chapter. The key is to do it consistently, consistently, consistently. Because when you do that, regular, consistent devotions, as a parent, it allows a parent, again, as a shepherd, to personally understand and observe and track the ups and downs of the spiritual temperature of your children. And once you have done that for a few months, and then later a few years, what you’ll be able to see is something’s off spiritually with this child or that child. And the reason you can is because of the consistency.

Alright, I’ve got two more. Quick ones. What number we on? Anybody got that written down? Six, this is 6. Thank you, Devin. Never ever ever ever under any circumstance misuse devotions. Devotions are a time, a sacred time that is dedicated to God and they should never be used for personal purposes. Here’s what I mean. Never ever use devotions as opportunities for passive aggressive venting to your kids or your wife or husband?

Or for hashing out grievances in a family, whether that’s between the parents and the kids, or between the husband and the wife. Because when you use the opportunity that’s supposed to be dedicated to God and his word and prayer for that, you defile that devotional time. And what it does, and this is terrible, it absolutely poisons family devotions to your kids and it will do them active harm.

If you have a grievance, and we all have grievances and issues and problems and personal, we all have that from time to time. Deal with that separately. Deal with that prior so that you can go to your family devotion time and you can do that and the air is clear. Using that for airing those grievances is it will do great harm. Now, is, as you have devotions, there is a proper place for correction as long as it’s in the right spirit, but not just simple manipulation of the moment for our own ends or to error our grievances.

Don’t do it. Don’t do it. Of course, you come across scripture and some scripture is it’s there, you know? Like for instance, if you have an issue with one of your children that’s not obeying or doesn’t have a bad doesn’t have a good attitude, like the worst thing you could do would be to go to Ephesians six during family devotions and say, children, obey your parents and the lord for this is right.

There’s a proper way and place to give that correction. But, commandeering the devotion time to do it is not it. And it’s actually carnal. It’s not spiritual, it’s carnal. It publicly embarrasses them in front of the family instead of dealing with it in the right way. Just don’t do it. Keep it sacred. Keep it holy. Last thing, and this is probably the most important thing in practice.

If you’ve not practiced family devotions or family worship, start. Do it. Just start. It’s hard, it’s awkward, it’s awkward for you, it’s awkward for the kids, especially if they’ve never seen you in that context, or if you’ve never been yourself in that context. But when you know it is your scriptural duty to be the evangelist and the discipler for your family, I encourage you to act in faith and begin.

And if you have the opportunity, start when they’re small. Because you’ll find that as kids get older and jobs and plans and calendars and schedules and all, it gets more and more difficult and the opportunity to have family devotions gets less and less frequent, so start small. But even if that time has passed, start now. Start somewhere, act in faith.

And be the shepherd and be the teacher and discipler for your family. A few bonus items to finish. Private family devotions teaches your kids to sit quietly and pay attention to the word. And that’s a valuable thing when it comes to church, is it not? Private family devotions teach by example the need for individual private worship and private devotions as an individual.

And I’ll just say this, for our family, as we’ve had private family devotions, the Lord has used them many, many, many times in their lives to bring them further along in their faith. Sometimes, dealt with them regarding where they stood with God in matters of salvation. He has used those times to really work in their hearts. It’s not every week, it’s not sensational like that, it’s that steady.

And that diet, that building, that edifice in your kids’ lives will make a huge impact on you and on them. It’s invaluable. So if you’ve not done that, if you’ve not started that, if you’re late on the ball, that’s fine. Start it. If it’s weird, that’s fine. Pray for grace and just do it. Just do it. Your kids need it. They need it. Let’s pray it again.