Reading the Bible as a family is ideally an interactive activity. It’s not necessarily meant to be a monologue or a lecture. Nor is it to be done with an attitude of obligation, although it may start out that way. The goal is that we will develop a sense of committed togetherness as we learn about the Lord together with our children.
Choose your setting for reading with the design of everyone getting the most out of the time. Find what works with your family, making sure that distractions are kept to a minimum. That means no television in the background, cell phones are off limits and the answering machine or voice mail can pick up phone calls.
While our children were growing up, they understood that family devotions were a dedicated time. Once started they could not be interrupted except under penalty of death, or at the very least the biting stare of a glaring mother whose foot reached just far enough under the table to tap the unsuspecting shin of an errant child. Friends who showed up at the door were asked to join us or to come back at a set time, but family devotion time was God’s time and no one else’s.
Our goal is to turn our homes into mission fields, teaching with authority, serving in humility, and discipling in love. Jesus is our role model. He made himself a servant to the Word, wholly submitting to the task of raising disciples in His name. We are to do no less. Using the Bible as the foundation of who we are as Christians, we are to engage our children in the truths of God, not merely mouth the words as an exercise in duty.
Teaching the truths of God involves an attitude of the heart, assimilating our love for Jesus with our love for our children. It is an act of wholeness and purity unrivaled by anything else we could choose to do.
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