Putting God first in your family is important. Making time in your day to read the Bible and pray together as a family can allow your family to grow closer together and closer to God. Below you can read how this time can truly help you and your family! You can start having Family Devotions today!

Big Ideas

1. Start simple, show the importance

2. Consistency is key

3. Find what works for your family

For where two or three gather together as my followers, I am there among them.

Matthew 18:20 NLT

Putting God first in your family is important. Making time in your day to read the Bible and pray together as a family can allow your family to grow closer to each other and closer to God. This applies to any family size- 1, 2, or 10. I, myself, don’t have a family of my own yet, but I have three close friends who are family to me here in Morehead. One night we started doing prayer requests and praying right before I’d leave the house. After a couple nights of that, we started reading the Verse of the Day on the Bible app and discussing what it meant to us. It’s amazing how one verse can lead to a great discussion when you simply ask what it means to each person in the family. Anything can happen when you allow God to move. And it really can be this simple! All it took was 15-30 minutes. All you need is to allow time in your day to get together and have a devotion! You need that time with God and so does your family. 

Time. That’s the first step. Make time. Have a family meeting, explain what you’ll be doing and see what works best. Find what works best to get everyone around the table or in the living room for the devotion time. If you have younger kids, maybe find a time right after dinner to start. If it’s just you and your spouse, check your schedules and see what works in the evenings for you all or try an early morning study if you’d like. Test it out and see how it works! It’s okay to make changes to find how you can incorporate a daily family devotion time. 

The second step is to pick a leader and what you’re going to do for the devotion time. Anyone can be the leader. You don’t have to know the most, be the most outspoken, or the oldest. You just have to facilitate and get everyone in the same room for the devotion time. The leader will just lead the study. Which may sound like a big task but it’s really easy! Here’s how it would go: 

• Let everyone know it’s time for family devotions 

• Once everyone is gathered, you can open it with a question of “How’s your day been?” or just get right into the study. 

• You can start reading through a book of the Bible, use a study guide book to help with questions,  do a video study,  youtube video devotions, or go through a plan together on the Bible app.  

• For example, if you’re doing the Verse of the Day, you can have everyone pull it up on their phone.  If you prefer, you can give the verse and then pull out your Bibles to read it out loud. Then you simply ask the question, “What does this verse(s) mean to you?” and let the discussion begin.  

• Allow time for them to think about it, but make sure everyone answers. Once everyone has, you can go into prayer time. For prayer time, just ask if anyone has prayer requests and no matter how big or small, acknowledge them and then pray. 

• You can even take turns praying each night.  Don’t overthink it.   Everyone's a little scared to pray out loud, so you’re in good company. Just go for it! 

• Start small, don’t overwhelm yourself or your family. Allow space and time for everyone to get the hang of doing family devotions together.  The goal is to start somewhere and keep it up! You can do it!

The third step is to enjoy and stay consistent! Have fun with it!  Find new places to have your family devotion times - around a firepit, by the lake, build a fort of blankets and have your devotion under it, go hiking and find a spot to stop and do a devotion, or do it while having dinner. There’s so many ways to make it fun and enjoyable! Reading and studying the Bible should be enjoyed and not endured. So shift your perspective and come in excited for your family devotion time! Most importantly is to leave room for God to move. Consistency is key. Make a habit of this, make it a routine, put it on your family calendar. Once you decide the time and what you’re doing for it, stay consistent and you’ll see a change in your family and yourself! 

When you do your family devotions for the first time! Post a picture on social media, tell us what you’re learning #NoOrdinaryFamily! We can’t wait to see what you’re doing for this time and what you learn!