Covert Family Devotionals
Ever have a child who went through a spy or detective stage? When our daughter was little, she went through a stage when she loved sneaking around the house looking for clues. She would look at things with her magnifying class (an homage to Nate the Great) and stand behind furniture listening for suspects to slip up and admit their “crimes”.
Well, parents can have a little fun, too! Instead of looking for clues, you can secretly drop clues for your kids on how to live a fulfilling, godly life. All you need to know is the secret to the covert family devotional.
Asking Kids Better Bible Questions
How many people were on the Ark? What was the name of the Apostle who denied Jesus? Who was in jail with Silas? Often the questions we ask kids and teens about the Bible have them recall facts. If we are trying to dig a little deeper, the questions often result in getting the opinion of the person answering the question. Both of those types of questions can be useful in a Bible classroom or around your house. They can confirm what knowledge has been retained or what a child’s opinion may be on a variety of subjects.
There are other types of questions I want to encourage you to start asking children and teens as you talk about the Bible and its principles. These questions will encourage them to think a little deeper. What you want to do is to try to get them to begin seeing connections between Bible stories, godly principles and real life actions. Hopefully these questions will encourage them to think a little more carefully before making decisions.
Clearing Your Calendar for Your Kids
If you are a parent, the title to this post probably sounds strange to you. It seems like almost all of your time is devoted to your children. You are either feeding them, bathing them, driving them somewhere, helping with homework or one of a hundred other things involved in caring for a child. Would it surprise you to learn even with all of that direct care, the average parent spends between twenty and forty minutes a day in meaningful conversation with their children?
In less than forty minutes a day the average parent is trying to imprint their children with everything they feel is important in life. Hopefully for many of you, this includes sharing important things about God and His plans for your children.
Creating Parenting Plans
Part of the fun of a vacation is in the planning. Our family is rather dangerous when it comes to vacations. We usually start out pretty calmly, targeting a particular city. Once the maps come out though, we tend to go a little crazy. We may notice we will be close to the state line of a state we haven’t checked off of our list or maybe we will read an article about a special place a few hours away from our main destination. Our final trip may not end up close to where we originally thought we would go, but because we developed a plan with some flexibility, we have always felt like we had the most amazing vacations we possibly could.
Parenting is a lot like that. You need to target some final destinations you want to make sure you reach with your child before he leaves home. Most likely your list will include some things about education and good habits. I pray your most important goal is to raise a child who is prepared to be an active Christian leader in the Church and in society.