66 Books - Where Should Our Family Start?

A coworker asked me this week how Pete and I decide what to read for our daily family devotions.  I think that is a great question, and a common stumbling block for parents who want to start doing devotions.
Pete and I start off with a few premises:
1.  All of God's Word is good.  You can't really pick the "wrong" thing.
2.  God is aware of our helpless, clueless status as parents and He has willingly sent us the Holy Spirit to guide us.  

So working within that - every few months Pete and I check in on how devotions are going, and what we think they girls are needing to hear.  Last school year we wanted to focus on the basics of our faith, so we spent a whole school year reading through the Gospels.  We felt we needed to break it up a little bit to keep it fresh, so every four weeks we spent a week reading Psalms.  You can print out a copy of the reading schedule that we used right over there -------->

This year we decided we wanted to focus on memorizing a chunk of scripture to give our exchange student the opportunity to hear the same words over and over, and to help our girls to focus on sealing the Word of God in their hearts.  We chose the book of James.  We worked on that for 5 months ... and then the girls got really bored.

... so we went back to the Gospels for Lent....


With Easter behind us we sat down again to figure what would be next.  The Lord in His great provision brought The Family Devotion Bible to my attention.  This Bible has built-in family reading plans and discussion questions.  Discussion is something that we feel has not been going very well lately.  We do devotions at 7:15 every morning - and some mornings we are a quiet, tired bunch.












We are one week in, and for this season it seems to be the right fit.  We are actually having some great discussions.  Humorous ones too - like whether seals were created on the same day as sea creatures or land animals ... hmmmm... things to ponder when you have an 8 year old.








If the question of what to read is holding up your family from reading God's Word together here are three questions to help you make a decision and move forward.   Take time to pray together that the Holy Spirit will be your guide.



1. What do my kids need to hear?

2.  Where can I find that in the bible?  (If you don't know, ask a pastor, or leave a comment here and I will help you as best I can.)

3.  What would be a reasonable about to read each day?  (We normally do one chapter a day).

If you are interested in doing a chronological study of the bible with your kids (or if you just want someone else to map out what to read), give The Family Devotion Bible a try.   It is currently on sale here .

I pray your family's devotion time will be a joy and will bear fruit in your lives and the lives of your children.