As a mom of five children, ages 6 – almost 15, I still haven’t figured out the best way to have my kids do a daily personal devotional time.
I think if I was homeschooling, it would be built into our schedule. Of course, I could always wake them up earlier and force them to do their devotions before they go to school, but I want their time with God to be a time they do without me forcing them to do it. Since I am in charge of the History and Bible for 1st-8th grade at our little school, I do have them do the 1st – 8th graders do a devotional time every morning as they come into school. Children do need some encouragement and resources if they are to have an effective devotional time..
In the past, I have bought devotional books that are age appropriate for kids. I have had journals that are made up for them. I have bought downloadable materials, and I love the short devotionals that are on Answers in Genesis website. For family devotions, we have read out of devotional books, but we often just read a chapter of the Bible with each person reading a certain number of verses. At the end, we will read different notes out of various study Bibles and discuss them.
Any parent that has more than one child knows that every child is different so a book that appeals to one child may not appeal to another child. I don’t want my child to stop doing devotions because the devotional book they are using is one that he or she cannot relate to.
Here are some devotional books that we have purchased for our children:
- For the very young, Ella Lindvall’s Read Aloud Bible Stories are my most favorite books. I absolutely love them! My 1st grader even enjoys them because now she can read them herself. I only have the first four of the five books.
- We have several of The One Year Devotionals for Kids. Each page includes a short story with application questions.
- I enjoyed the devotional Jesus Calling for lower elementary children.
- Some of my girls have read the The God and Me Bible Devotional books. (Ages 6-9)
- This past summer, I got the 3-Minute Devotions for Boys for Joshua, 3-Minute Devotions for Girls for Kristi, and 3-Minute Devotions for Teen Girls for Karis.
- Joshua also has The Action Bible Devotional book.
A few other books we have used for family devotions, but they would also be great for personal devotions are the following books:
- God, What’s Your Name? by Kay Arthur and Janna Arndt. I want to try out some of their other Bible Study books for kids.
- A Faith to Grow On by John MacArthur — Great devotional book to give children after they have made a profession of salvation.
- Proverbs for Kids — every kid and adult can benefit from studying the Proverbs.
I received in the mail a new kid’s devotional book so that I could give my honest review and offer one book to my readers as a giveaway!
Indescribable: 100 Devotions about God & Science by Louie Giglio is a delightful hardcover devotional book where each devotion spans 2 pages, has a verse, a science topic with a Biblical application, a prayer, and a little section called, “Be Amazed.” That section is either an amazing truth about God or an amazing fact about nature or science.
As all of our kids are wired differently, I can see science or nature loving children looking forward to their personal devotions while they are reading this book. Homeschool parents could use this devotional along with topics of science. In the introduction, Louis Giglio shares which devotions have to do with space, earth, animals, or people so that you could read just those devotionals when you study those specific topics.
The aim of the author is that the readers will be in awe of their Creator God and then also realize that the same Creator knows us better and loves us more than anyone on Earth ever could.
Indescribable is a resource for faith and science to come together in a conversation, because no question is too big for God.
You can enter to win a copy of this book! It would make the perfect Christmas book for a child. Please only enter if you reside in the United States.
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Some of my favorite posts from last week’s party:
- 5 Suggestions For Living A Slower-Paced Life from Women Abiding
- Raising Baby without Going Broke from Frugal Family Adventures
- My Story of Sexual Abuse #MeToo from Mom Maven
- 8 Lessons I’ve Learned Parenting My Strong Willed Child (And My Favorite Book On The Subject!) from Simply Living Love
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I love any devotional book. We always read from one after dinner together at the table. Even the ones for kids teach my husband and I a little something. 🙂 Thank you for the link-up!
I take our Upper Room and make it relate to the girls.
When my kids were little we used a devotional called Keys for Kids by Children’s Bible Hour.
I like any devotional book with lots of pictures for my little Granddaughter to see and listen to me read to her.
That looks fun, Tammy! I love Ella Lindvall’s book for the little ones, and I’m so glad you gave them to us. They’re falling apart, and I’ve been wondering if I should buy some more just to always have them in my family library for grandchildren in the future one day. 🙂 I also like Ken Taylor’s The Bible in pictures for LIttle Eyes or something like that, and Catherine Vos’s Bible. Hers doesn’t have many pictures; it has excellent summaries of Bible stories. It’s a great transition between reading straight Bible and summaries of the most important stories. Now we’re using Long Story Short in our family devos. I hope to soon use Our 24 Family Ways by Clarkson, which we have. We tell our kids to read the Bible every morning before breakfast. So yes, it’s “forcing,” but they’re growing up with the habit, so I don’t think they’ve ever seen it that way. There are times when they don’t do it, but in general, they have a habit of waking up and (most of them) heading straight to the couch to read their Bibles, and I haven’t really tried devotionals except for children’s Bibles on the shelves which I allow the non-readers to look at. Carson has learned how to listen to the Bible read to him on the iPad. For kids devos on their own (not in family devos), I’m excited about trying a Kay Arthur inductive Bible study scheduled with MFW in our curriculum this coming year in James called “Boy Have I Got Problems.” One more idea, mixing personal devos with family: a family we enjoy fellowshipping with in Joburg has mainly teens. The pastor bought each of them a Kay Arthur inductive study Bible. It has some notes, and gives a blank line for each chapter for you to fill in your own “chapter title.” It gives some thought-provoking questions to help you come up with your title. I love this idea, and it seems perfect for teens/the logic stage. Each day this family reads a chapter (I think they’re following McCheyne’s reading schedule) from the OT and the NT, each individually before they come eat. Then after breakfast, they take some time to read one chapter together, maybe the OT one and talk about what chapter titles they came up with. It doesn’t take very long. I really liked this method and think it would help with accountability, if they know they’ll be required to give their thoughts.
Ooh — thanks! You could write a blog post about it 🙂 I am going to look into the Kay Arthur Bible. I did buy some devotional/study Bibles for the older girls, but these sound great.
Maybe not for young children so much but I like Made to Shine: A Girls- Only Devotional.
I won a devotional once called A Content Heart. It was geared towards youth and I really liked it a lot.
My favorite is Indescribable: 100 Devotions for Kids About God and Science
My son has the VeggieTales 365 Devotionals for Boys and he has really enjoyed it this past year.
My kids like mini bible stories picture books.
My daughter loves the Veggie Tales devotional. My eldest son likes “Devotionals for Boys”.
I think this is a great idea for youth!
I like Chicken Soup for the Kids’ soul. Has lots of great affirmations and praise.
Forever my Baby you will- thank you