Brad Keller - 14 November 2009 02:03 AM
So what got you guys talking about family devotions?
It’s really a combination of things for me. Josh had mentioned making Christ the center of his home. And at the same time I’ve had a concern for the spiritual health of our families, including my own.
I’ve read several book on the family that have fostered an interest in family devotions. The first book I ever read was recommended by Ligon Duncan. It’s called The Family Worship Book by Terry Johnson. It’s a very helpful book; it includes a complete liturgy for family devotions including selected scripture readings, prayers, hymns, etc. We used this book for a short time in our home and later adopted our own format that worked better for various reasons, but mainly because our children are too young to benefit from a formal liturgy, so we use a more simple format of an opening prayer / call to worship, hymns, bible stories and then prayers by each one of us. The beginning section of this book is very helpful for building a case for family worship and providing a vision for what it can be and how it can help.
The other book that was very heart-changing for me was Douglas Wilson’s Standing on the Promises: A Handbook of Childrearing. The most significant thing I took aware from this book was that it is important, as Christians, that we create a Christian culture at home. The culture within our homes should be biblical, and spiritually nurturing, and God centered. While the rest of the world may be godless, while we may experience chaos, idolatry, and all sorts of spiritual trial and temptations, our home and our families should be the daily retreat where we can come home and experience spiritual renewal with a home culture that is intentionally God centered, and gospel centered.
Another book that is a classic and more popularly known, is Shepharding a Child’s heart by Tedd Tripp. This book is also very good. It doesn’t specifically talk about doing family devotions, but it does talk more broadly about shepherding our children’s hearts rather than behaviors. Parents tend to focus on behaviors, and use bribery to change their behavior. Parents, including myself, tend to rely on a system of rewards for good behavior instead of teaching them about the state of their heart and helping them to become more aware of the selfishness, lust, idolatry, rebelliousness that lives in the heart. As we shepherd their heart, we also help them to come to God, who ultimately, renews the heart through the forgiveness of their sins and faith in Christ.
I sill have more books that I have not had a chance to go through, but they are all very encouraging towards the same end.
