Category: Family Devotionals

Fun Family Activity on Controlling Your Words

One of the great things about little children is that they have no filter. If they think it, they are extremely likely to say it! While that can be funny at times, they can also say things that unintentionally hurt the feelings of others. Over time, most children begin to develop a filter of sorts. They learn that it is probably not the best idea to say certain things. As the world around them is beginning to have no filter, however, you will have to spend more time working with your children on developing a godly filter between their thoughts and words. There is a fun mini family devotional and activity you can do with your kids to begin the process.

For the activity you will need white paper, markers or crayons, pens and scissors. Call your kids together and tell them the story found in Numbers 20:7-12. Point out that Moses evidently thought he would strike the rock instead of speaking to it as God commanded. His thoughts convinced him to (in this case) not say something God told Moses to say. More often though, we think something and shouldn’t say it, but do.

Give your children each a sheet of paper. Have them draw a brain at the top and a mouth at the bottom. The drawings don’t have to be fancy, just clear enough so your kids will remember which is which. Then have them cut another sheet of paper into strips.

Have them write on slips of paper things they often think, but shouldn’t say out loud. They can stick these slips to their brain drawings with glue or tape. Then have them write on slips the types of things they should be saying to others and tape those slips to the drawings of their mouth. Older children can draw a filter between their brain and mouth and write down things they could say to themselves to remind them to not actually speak things that shouldn’t be said.

After they are finished, talk about their art. How hard is it for them to remember to not say certain things? What can they do to get better at filtering their thoughts before speaking? Why does God want them to be so careful about what they say to others? With older children also talk about the difference between opinion and truth and that it isn’t necessary to share their opinion with anyone. (Note: “Their truth” is usually an opinion and not an objective truth.) You might also want to all memorize scriptures like James 1:26 and 1 Peter 3:10.

If you have children who are extroverted, you will need to revisit this conversation multiple times. Extroverts are more likely to speak, which often increases the chances they will say something they shouldn’t. Introverts aren’t immune to saying unkind things, however. They just may say it a little more quietly or think no one hears them because they are saying it under their breath.

If your family has developed really bad speech habits, you may want to have a fine jar for collecting fines when people don’t filter their speech. Of course, once your kids can control their tongues, don’t forget to work with them on controlling those negative thoughts to begin with! The Bible says this is one of the most difficult skills to master, so make sure you spend plenty of time with your kids working on it.

Fun Activity for Teaching Kids About Perseverance

Let’s be honest. The Christian life is a marathon, not a sprint. Those who don’t have perseverance won’t make it to the end and spend eternity with God in Heaven. History is full of stories of people who perhaps started out as Christians, but quit when it became too difficult. If your kids are going to be faithful, productive Christians, they need perseverance.

Perseverance requires a good kind of stubbornness. A willingness to keep living the Christian life even when it gets hard or seems less fun than sinning. The problem is how to help your children develop perseverance before they need it to live the Christian life. Fortunately, there’s a fun family devotional you can do to help your kids begin to understand the importance of being perseverant.

You will need 5 straws, a piece of paper, a plastic fork, one soda can, 6 inches tape and a rubber band for each child. Call your children together and tell them the story of the walls of Jericho found in Joshua 6:1-27. Point out that the walls didn’t fall the first time the Israelites marched around them. Or the second. Or the sixth. And even on the seventh day when the walls finally fell, they had to march around the walls seven times before they fell.

Ask your kids why they believe the Israelites didn’t give up and quit before the walls fell. Ask them to explain perseverance to you. If they are younger, you may need to explain it to them. Have your kids think of examples when perseverance can help. Explain that being a Christian is not always easy. People may tease them or refuse to do things with them because they worship and obey God. They will have to be perseverant in order be a faithful, productive Christian for their entire lives.

Give your kids the items you gathered. Tell them they are to use the items to design something that can shoot a rubber band at a target three feet away and hit it. Give them several minutes to try. When the time is up, ask if they would like to continue or give up. After you’ve had fun with the activity, talk about the perseverance needed to succeed. How can they be more perseverant when things get tough?

Fun Family Devotional on Obedience

Obedience is crucial for your children to live a faithful, productive Christian life. If your children obey you, it also makes your parenting job a lot easier. Yet, it seems that from a very young age, children want to do what they want to do – even if it means disobeying you and God.

Part of the problem is that children don’t have enough life experience to understand that rules are meant to protect them. When they disobey, there will often be negative consequences in the moment or at some future time. When those consequences are delayed, your kids are even more likely to believe they can disobey at will – leading to all sorts of serious issues.

There’s a devotional you can do to help them begin to understand that obeying God’s rules and yours is necessary for living the best possible life. You will need some light weight or origami paper and instructions to make various origami figures. It can be helpful for you to practice making them ahead of time if you’ve never done it before.

Call your kids together and tell them the story of the twelve spies in Numbers 14. Instead of focusing on the lack of faith at the beginning of the chapter, look closely at the end of the chapter when the Israelites tried to take Canaan against the word of God and Moses. What happened when they disobeyed? Why is it important to always obey God? What did Moses and God know that the people chose to ignore? What do parents, God and other adults know that kids don’t know? Why do adults and God make rules for kids? What are those rules usually designed to do? What happens when kids break those rules? Your goal in this conversation is to help your children understand that rules are not made to keep them from having fun, but to protect them from something they aren’t wise enough from which to protect themselves.

Give each of your children a piece of paper. Don’t show or tell them the origami figure they will be making. Do not demonstrate how to make the folds, but read the verbal instructions, one by one. In most cases, the finished figures won’t resemble what was supposed to be created. Show your kids what they were supposed to make. Talk about how disobeying the instructions – even a little – changed the intended result. Point out that when we disobey, our lives often don’t turn out the way God had wanted them to be. We can end up with a big mess when we insist on doing things our own way and disobeying God.

Have fun making additional figures adding visuals and help when needed. Talk about how much easier life can be when we listen to God and obey Him. It’s still not perfect, because everyone doesn’t obey God all of the time, but it is much fuller and richer than living a life of disobedience.

You can revisit this topic regularly using other Bible stories and any activity that requires following instructions. Spend time making sure your kids understand the importance of complete obedience to God.

Fun Family Devotional About Hezekiah

Hezekiah is one of those people in the Bible your children may never learn about in Bible class or church. Yet he is one of the more well known kings of Judah and has several fascinating stories of his reign told in the Bible.

Perhaps the most well known story about Hezekiah is found in 2 Kings 20. Hezekiah had become ill. The prophet Isaiah came to him and told him we was indeed dying. Hezekiah pleaded for the Lord to spare him. Isaiah told him that God had decided to let him live for fifteen more years. Here’s where it gets really interesting. Hezekiah asked for a sign that the Lord would indeed let him live several more years. Isaiah offered to make the shadow on the steps move either direction. Hezekiah wanted it to move backwards, because that was more difficult – and it did.

Your kids may not understand the idea of shadows going backwards and forwards. Making a sundial is a great way to teach them how shadows move and why Hezekiah knew going backwards was more difficult than forwards. You can find instructions for making a simple sundial here. You can also take note of how the shadows move over time on the steps of your porch if you have them. (If you want to go deeper, try making a wall sundial and note how you have to position the numbers differently for it to be accurate.)

As you reflect on the lesson and activity, discuss the power of prayer. Ask them to think of other times when God did what seemed impossible in the Bible. Talk about the amazing things you have seen God do today. End with a prayer asking God to help your family remember the power of God and the importance of praying to Him.

You and your children may want to explore the next story about Hezekiah in chapter twenty. Note not only the pride Hezekiah had and the consequences of it, but Hezekiah’s somewhat strange reaction to God’s consequence. How can our pride be our downfall? Why is it easy to pretend not to care about negative consequences that will happen in the future? Have they ever done something they knew would have negative future consequences, because they wanted to do what they wanted to do so badly? What happened when the consequence finally came? This is a great second lesson to introduce the concept of making good choices, in part, so you don’t have to experience those negative consequences in the future.

Fun Family Devotional and Service Project

There is a passage in Acts that provides not only an interesting devotional topic, but an opportunity for a family service project. In Acts 19, Paul is in Ephesus. Several interesting things happen, but starting in verse eleven (through verse twenty), it really gets intriguing.

Evidently, Ephesus was an area where the people were heavily into magic (not the entertainment kind) and it appears even some of the Jews considered themselves exorcists. When they tried to replicate the miracles Paul had been doing, however, they were unable to do so. Eventually, the people became convicted that what they were doing was wrong and brought out their magic books (scrolls) to be burned.

This story makes a great springboard for discussing with your children the influence books can have on their hearts and minds. What are some books that they believed changed their thinking or attitude about something? Was it a change of which God would approve? Have they ever read a book they believe wasn’t good for them to have read for some reason? Why? What kinds of books might it be smart for them to avoid reading? What types of books should they read more often? This is also a great time to remind them the Bible is a library of 66 books and reading each book is important because they contain things God wants them to know.

Don’t let the conversation veer too far away from self censoring the books they read. This is not the time for a political discussion on censoring others. The discussion could extend, of course, to the content they stream, the music they listen to, etc. Remind them every creator has an agenda. Some are helpful and some not so much. Very little content is as neutral as we want to believe. You may even want to teach them how to evaluate a book for beneficial or harmful content before reading it.

Finally, start collecting good Christian and other books to donate to a ministry that could use them. Urban ministries and faith based tutoring programs rarely have enough books. Ministries that work with children in other countries may have a hard time finding children’s books in their language or bilingual ones in their language and English. Or raise money for children’s Bibles (many languages only have one version – usually in language equivalent to the old KJV and need children’s Bibles to make the Bible more understandable for those who are young) or Christian books for children and teens (remember, not every Christian book contains truth either).

Have fun with it, but make sure your kids have the tools to make wise choices about the books they read.