Learning together through devotions

I found a devotional book at Family Christian one day that has proven to be a total blessing to our family. We had a family devotional before, that neither the kids nor us seemed to really be able to get into. It was so frustrating to me because I wanted so badly to get my family into good discussions and it just went nowhere.

The family devotional I'm speaking of is by Nancy Guthrie and is called One Year Of Dinner Table Devotions & Discussion Starters - 365 opportunities to grow closer to God as a family. It's great! The devotions are all dated, so you never lose your place.

To give you a better idea of how it is laid out, here is what the back cover of the book says...

A daily serving of spiritual nourishment for your whole family

Between sports practices, music lessons, and homework, we can feel like our days pass by without ever really talking with family members abou the most important matters of life and faith. This family devotional by popular author and mom Nancy Guthrie serves up a year's worth of daily truths from God's Word to chew on and apply to real life. Going beyond Bible stories, this book will help your whole family enjoy discussing biblical concepts and themes at a high level that kids from elementary age through high school will understand and relate to.

Each day's devotion includes:

Several Scriptures on the day's theme to read together

A brief devotion that gets everyone thinking and talking

Discussion starter questions to engage even the youngest and most reluctant participants



Transform family devotions from dry lectures into dynamic conversations as you draw closer to each other--and closer to God himself.



We don't do these devotions at dinner, but rather half an hour before bedtime. Amazingly, we usually end up going over that half an hour with our discussion. Asher isn't quite 4, so he just sits there and listens (he's smart as heck though, so I know he's picking things up). Riley is 7 and he does a great job answering the questions and even asking some of his own. The most amazing part to me though is how Gavin has responded to these devotions. He is 10 1/2 and is usually not all that into talking about God or anything to do with Christianity really. However, he has been so involved when it comes to these devotions and we have had some of the best discussions. Not only that, but we're all learning things about each other too. It has been so awesome and is ensuring that the boys see that the Lord is the center of this house and our lives. We are all growing. Growing as individuals, growing as a family and growing in the Lord.

I just wanted to share this devotional with everyone because it is really helping our family and I want everyone's family to experience the same things we are!