Daily Devotions with Young Children

When my husband and I were married, part of our promise and vows were to help each other grow closer to Christ.  When we baptized our children, we made this promise again…this time for our children.  We made this promise in front of each other, our family, friends, priest, church community, and God. 

In all honesty, this is a challenge most days.  In the busyness of life, it’s often hard to not only dedicate time to building a relationship with Christ, but to model this for our children.  In my quest to do better at this for my kids and our family, I looked at what part of our day each day that wasn’t going very well and was in need of improvement…

• When were we/ the kids arguing the most?
• What seemed rushed?
• When were we not connecting as a family like I felt we should?

For us, it was breakfast time.  Not one person’s fault, but collectively all of ours. 

My observations of a few typical mornings…

• Adults rushing to get ready…kids doing the complete opposite and turning into sloths!
• Kids fighting over phone/ screen time
• Chores not getting done
• Adults making breakfast and lunches/ kids not eating breakfast and complaining about lunches
• My husband Shane getting ready for work
• Not all sitting down together
• Not consistently praying together at this meal like we always do at dinner

The list could go on as to why breakfast was becoming a dreaded pain in the rear instead of the most important meal of the day.  I quickly thought of why dinner works (most of the time!)…

At dinner we…

•  Pray
• We sit together
• We take turns talking about our day
• We always have a focus for discussion

After two recent deaths in our community due to vehicle accidents and the passing of a local firefighter, it made me absolutely sick to my stomach to know that the minute we walk out the door in the morning, we don’t know what God’s plan for us is and whether we will make it back home to dinner time to talk about our day.  I hated that sometimes as Shane and I walked out the door in the morning, the last thing we said to each other or the kids was often said in anger/ frustration. 

So, then came the question…what to do about this dreaded part of the day??  And instant thoughts of the NEED to fix this part of our day came rushing in!

Shortly after this thought, immediately the excuses of “I can’t do anything about it” came pouring into my head.  Uugh!  Sometimes, I’m my own worst enemy! 

Quick list of excuses:

• We don’t have enough time in the morning to do anything different
• We all have different routines
• There’s always too much to do
• Shane needs to get to work
• I need to get kids to school, etc.

Well, I reflected on this.  How can I counter the excuses?  Do we need to get up earlier?  What can I do to make things run more smoothly?  After thinking about it, I realized that the kids get up early enough, but Shane and I didn’t.  We needed to have a better routine and use our time more efficiently.  

I made a list of what I wanted breakfast time to be for my family…

• A time to thank God for giving us the gift of a good night’s sleep and blessing us with the gift to wake up to a new day
• A way to start our day together in a happy, uplifting way
• A positive experience for my kids and our family
• A time to use the blessing of a new day in a new way
• Set goals and plans for the day to make the most out of our day

So the big question became, what could I do to help make this special time of the day more meaningful?

Then I found it… daily devotions for kids!  A friend had suggested it a while ago on her Facebook page, and since my kids were pretty young at the time, I filed it away in my brain for “later.”  Well, after observing one of the worst mornings we’ve had (husband in shower & yelling at the kids from the shower, Brandon throwing pop tart crumbs on the floor on purpose and refusing to eat his banana, Blake crying because he couldn’t wear shorts to school, and me watching my voice get louder and louder at everyone)…daily devotions popped into my head… as if God knew at that exact moment I was ready for the “later” file to be pulled from my brain.

What are daily devotions?  A way to bless your kids and your family.  A way to begin (or end) each day with encouraging and enlightening words straight from scripture.  Devotions are written as if Jesus is speaking directly to your child’s heart.  Daily devotions help your children grow closer to God (our family uses 365 DAILY DEVOS FOR BOYS from Veggie Tales). 

BINGO! BIG problem SOLVED!

My husband and I now make sure we’re both at the table in the morning.  We pray as a family at breakfast and thank God for the blessing of a new day.  We talk about God’s love and have focused discussion like we do at dinner time.  We make goals for the day and are a happier family in what used to be typically the worst and most dreaded part of the day.

Is every morning perfect?  Nope!  Pop tart crumbs are still on the floor sometimes, and kids still cry occasionally.  Overall though, daily devotions have definitely helped our family have a happier home and a better start to the day.  I encourage you to try inviting God into the beginning of your day…it just might help set the stage for a happier day and a happier home!