Family Christian Devotions

I’ve been thinking recently with a heavy heart about how to pass on faith from myself to my children and family.  It seems  like a daunting task, but yet, it is the expectation that a Christian father lead his household in this matter.  Here are my thoughts on the subject, and how I’m going to begin.

First, I have had a difficult time trying to decide what to do.  Some materials seem a little much right now for my young children.  The books written for smaller children I really have a hard time using.  I feel like they aren’t getting much when I use them.

My plan is to create my own short devotional materials, which will include at least one Bible verse to think about, and a lesson either about a Bible passage, or a Christian classic, such as Pilgrim’s Progress, the Didache, etc.  I would hope to pass on some of the learning I acquired over the years to them.

I plan on incorporating other Christian classics in our devotional time, because church history is quite full of lessons throughout the centuries that should help shape our lives.  While I believe in Sola Scriptura and many of the principles and thoughts of the Reformation, I also believe that in the last few decades at least, Christians have lost some ground due to chasing after new things and forgetting history.  I want my children to have the benefit of seeing Christianity through a historical lens.

I originally wrote the above paragraphs in February 2010, but never did complete the post, as I’m a perfectionist and didn’t feel it was complete.  In the time since then, we have almost completed Little Pilgrim’s Progress reading a chapter every night we are able to.  Saturday and Sunday nights are hard, since we are usually tied up with other family and church things.

I can see how my children, even the youngest, are starting to piece together parts of the Christian life by comparing the allegory to what they are hearing us and the church teach.  It is having the effect I was hoping it would have, showing them that my wife and I take Christianity seriously, and allowing them to hear (albeit an adapted version for younger children) a classic book in Christian thought.

Now I have to start thinking in a few months about the next book I will use.   Maybe we can find a children’s devotional book.  Once they get a little older, maybe we can use the Apostles or Nicene creeds.  I’m getting interested in New Monasticism and find an abbreviated format of some of the sequences they follow may help.