I was on amazon.com today and saw there was a great deal on the best children's bible on the market which I recommend to every parent with young kids. I have been through a half dozen or so children's bibles over the last 6 years since becoming a dad but we are on our second time through The Jesus Storybook Bible, and nothing else comes close. When I saw the current deal of less than $10 I wanted to get one for every parent, grandparent, aunt, uncle and every person in our church who knows kids. I can't afford all those copies but it at least got me thinking about my devotional time with our boys and I wanted to throw out some thoughts on family devotions, both to help those among us who need ideas or direction, and to invite others to share their insight from their own approach to family devotions. So, these are some of my thoughts and I invite you share yours as well.

1. Keep it reasonably short

 I try to do about 15 minutes... if you go any longer it just gets frustrating because kids get goofy and can't sit still and stay focused. That was hard for me for a while because of my own religiosity of wanting the boys to listen to me preach while they take notes. Longer devotions don't make for more impact unless the impact you want is boredom. Brevity will lead to your children enjoying time in the word, time with their parents and time to worship together. 10-15 minutes is plenty of time to point them to Jesus and not so long that they will never want to be pointed there again.

2. Read

As I stated above, we love The Jesus Storybook Bible. The stories are short, rich, easily understandable and relatable and every one points to Jesus as the hero. This is an amazing $10 investment in your family and in their spiritual development. For older kids, you may try Proverbs, which you can read through a million times together and gain wisdom. If you go this route, my parents used to have us read through all 31 chapters each month, studying a specific character trait each month. This is a very easy way to do bible study as a family.

3. Worship/Sing

I bring my iPhone into the bedroom with the boys and we play 1 or 2 songs and sing together. I like to do one upbeat song and let them sing and dance around the room together and experience the joy, freedom and fun of worshipping Jesus. Have fun with this though... you may do the same song each night and make up motions of some kind or trade of singing different parts. Worshipping should be a joy and delight.

4. Pray

When they are really little you may have to have them repeat after you, but you want each child to pray every day and learn to talk to God. For us, this starts with them expressing thanks to God for at least something because we want to cultivate a heart of gratitude and humility in our kids. As children grow, help them to be mindful of praying for the needs of others. Our boys pray for the child we sponsor in Haiti each night, they pray for family members and friends who are sick or going through things. Understand, these prayers aren't pious. They are short and sweet... but heartfelt. Some nights we try to confess sin and repent for bad attitudes as well and this should be a regular part of prayer time.

As well as praying with your kids, pray over your kids. They need to hear you pray protection and peace over them so that they know you are trusting God and they can too. 

5. Be consistent

Whether it is each morning before work and school, or during the evening or at bedtime, make sure to implement this as a regular time that your family can enjoy and even look forward to. For us, this is our bedtime routine. I would say that at least 4 or as many as 6 nights a week we do this in some form. For example, some nights, when we are out late we do this in some form in the car. Our mornings, days and evenings can be pretty crazy, but we try really hard to protect this time as much as possible. Because it is a priority, our boys anticipate it, enjoy it and miss it when we don't do it. I love this because they deeply desire to spend time with their daddy talking about Jesus and praying together. 

6. Leverage Media

Our kids love television and movies as we adults do. While we try to limit their consumption we do allow them to watch things and we especially enjoy family movie nights. We have found that the Gospel is the greatest story ever told and that every story told after it, including all movies and tv shows, contain echoes of the Gospel story. Watch things with your kids and discuss what they watch and help them identify truth and lies in the stories and where gospel elements are present. When you do this, you help them see Jesus in everything, even secular entertainment, and you also teach them to use discernment when watching movies and shows. If we watch something during the evening, I want to discuss it at some level during our devotional time. This exercise is really helpful as well in constantly reminding children that they are a role player in God's great story rather than Him being a part of their story if they decide to let him.

7. Older kids help lead

For us, Dylan is 9 and our time is more geared toward the twins who are 5. Because Dylan loves to lead anyway, he sometimes reads the stories, or gives real life examples of biblical principles. Whatever the case, this is a chance to let your older children develop leadership skills by having them set the example and participate in a meaningful way.

Anyway, I hope this is helpful for some and, again, I would love to hear from others if you have ideas to share. If you want to purchase a copy of  The Jesus Storybook Bible, and believe me you do, click on the title.