Family Devotional Ideas

Preschoolers/Early Elementary

• A Child;s Book of Character Building by Ron and Rebekah Coriell, enables you to focus onone character quality for a week. For example: Chapter on initiative. This quality is defined and a memory verse is given, followed by four stories that teach initiative: Initiative in the Bible, initiative in the home, Initiative at school, and initiative at play.
• The flash-a-card Bible story system form Abeka Books is also a wonderful tool to use for evening devotions for Preschoolers. They love the pictures and the read along stories captivate their attention.
• Prayer Album: You can teach your children to pray for others using photos of family members, missionaries, church staff, and etc. compiled in a prayer album, along with alist or drawings of specific things to pray for these people.
• Memorizing God's Word; The book My ABC Bible Verses-Hiding God;s Word in Little Hearts by Susan Hunt. Each page begins with a verse, explanation of what that verse means, and then a story using that verse. It ends with a "Let's talk: and a "Let;s pray section. Every page's verse corresponds with a letter of the alphabet starting with A and going to Z.
• Young children love flannel graph stories. After they hear and see the stories a few times; let them take turns telling the story.

Older Children

• Twenty Questions Game: One family member chooses an item from the Bible. The remaining family members then have the opportunity to ask a total of 20 yes/no questions to discover what the chosen item is. First, try to discover whether it is person,place, or thing, if it is from the Old or New Testament, etc. Questions become more specific until someone can guess the answer. Then the family can discuss its' significance in Scripture.
• Another interesting idea for your family is to read short stories about the martyrs. You can get some great stories from Voice of the Martyrs. reading stories about others who have been forced to sacrifice so much to follow Christ, gives great object lessons about the trials they may face or do face regularly as a family.

• Get a book of object lessons (using everyday objects to teach a spiritual truth) from your local Christian bookstore. Try doing a different object lesson each night for a month, or try doing an object lesson every Monday night, etc., to spice up you current family devotions. If you have older children and younger children, assign the older children the responsibility of providing the object lesson for the family. This can be a good experience to help your older children learn how to teach spiritual truths.
• Consider doing a study with your family on the people mentioned in the Hall of Faith in Hebrews 11. Work together to memorize this portion of Scripture slowly. Each day, begin by reviewing the verses you have memorized so far and by learning your new verse or section. then, take the next character mentioned and study in detail the events of his or her life, going back to all the other Scripture passages that mention his or her story.
• If you have any children learning the piano or another musical instrument that would be easy to sing along with, consider having them learn one hymn each week or month that they can play for the family as the family sings along. You may want to sing each song every day or once a week. Try always to be encouraging and supportive even when the song did not go well.
• Discuss with your children issues that they are having at school, church, or with friends.
• One night a week, have the children lead the whole worship service with a song, prayer, and lesson.
• Teach them a soul-winning plan.

More Ideas

• Dad date night with only one child. This gives dad a time to ask about school, concerns, etc.
• Listen to your children. Listen to them not only, during devotional time, but also throughout the day to teach them biblical concepts. A Bible verse or lesson can be taught at any time as situations arise when it would be beneficial. As you have family devotions; try to give your children specific suggestions for how they can apply biblical principles. This will differ for each child based on his or her needs.
• Discuss with your children how they can help each other grow spiritually. Not only are siblings a natural source of accountability for each other, but they also desire to please each other-even if they fight from dawn till dusk! By showing them how they can help each other grow spiritually, everyone benefits.

Adults

• Volume I - My Morning Manna-Through the bible in one year by Ed Nelson
  
• Volume II - My Morning Manna- Journey through the New Testament by Ed Nelson
• This Day in Baptist History - 366 daily devotions drawn from the Baptist heritage

Note: These ideas were given at our Heart and Home ladies meeting which is the second theme listed under Joyful Planning.