#family

What’s the Purpose (and the Benefit) of Family Devotions?

What’s the purpose of family devotions? Probably no habit or discipline is so lauded, recommended, or even commanded among Christian families than this. But what’s the point of it? What is it meant to accomplish? Over many years of leading family devotions, I have been surprised to learn that it’s both more and less than I had expected. As Aileen and I began building the habit of family devotions, first as something that followed dinner and later as something that …

10 Ideas and 10 Tips for Family Devotions in 2019

A new year is just about upon us, and as it dawns, we have a new opportunity to lead our families in devotions. Whether you’ve been utterly consistent or mightily struggling, here are 10 ideas and 10 tips that may help as you consider the year to come. Ten Ideas for Family Devotions Just Read the Bible. This is the simplest suggestion of all: Just read the Bible a book at a time. Younger children tend to do best reading …

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Why We Chose a Christian College

Two of our children are still in the public school system, yet our son is attending a Christian college. A reader wrote and asked us about that decision. Here is my answer.  Transcript As you know, I get lots of questions in and love to answer some of the ones that come from people who read my articles or who watch my videos. I got one recently I thought was actually quite interesting. Someone was saying, why is it …

Raising Our Children To Be In But Not Of The World

Parenting is tough. One of our greatest challenges is to raise kids who are able to exist in this world while not being of this world. A reader recently asked for some thoughts on this, and here’s what I had to say. Transcript I wonder if you’ve ever thought about what it would be like to raise children in a perfect world. Think about God creating Adam and Eve to live in a perfect world, free from sin. They were …

Do Your Children Play Video Games?

Parents often feel guilty about how much time their kids spend playing video games and they sometimes have questions about whether their kids should play them at all. When I speak on issues related to families and technology I’m always asked to addresses kids and their games. I take a shot at doing that here. You can purchase the Circle device mentioned in the video here. Transcript Over the last few weeks, I’ve had a bunch of opportunities to speak …

It Takes a Church To Raise Your Child

You’ve probably heard it said that it takes a village to raise a child. Parenting is so difficult, so complex, so relentless, that it is more than any two people can successfully handle. Children thrive under the responsibility of loving parents but also under the watchful eye of a caring community. I have always believed in the wisdom of this proverb, but I’ve come to appreciate it even more as my kids grow older. And as I’ve come to appreciate …

Devotional Resources for Children

As Christian parents it is our great desire that our children come to know the Lord. For them to know the Lord, they need to learn how to encounter him in his word and to speak to him in prayer. From a young age we are trying to instill in them this habit of reading the Bible and praying. Over time we want them to pick up this habit on their own. Today I want to tell you about a …

Kids and Cellphones – Three-Minute Thursdays #9

Welcome to another edition of 3 Minute Thursdays, where, in three minutes or less, I try to say something useful, maybe even helpful, about a subject that’s of interest to people like you and me. Today I want to talk about our kids and their cellphones. Really, I want to talk about when should we as parents get our children their first smartphone.   (Here’s the Circle device I reference.) Transcript Welcome to another edition of 3 Minute Thursdays, where, in …

Vlog: Why My Family Still Doesn’t Do Sleepovers

Many years ago Aileen and I made a decision for our family, little knowing how that decision would end up reverberating around the world. We decided not to have our kids participate in sleepovers. Here’s why, many years later, my family still doesn’t do sleepovers. It’s available in YouTube and Facebook formats and, as always, there’s a transcript for the readers. Note that the videos also now feature captioning. Rush Transcript A few years ago Aileen and I made a …

The Art of Godliness, Episode 3: Family Devotions

Today I bring you episode 3 of The Art of Godliness, the new podcast hosted by myself and my good friend Paul Martin. The purpose of the podcast is to think out loud and in public about how to live a quiet and peaceful life, godly and dignified in every way. In episode 1 we discussed conflict resolution and in episode 2 turned to honoring parents. Now, in episode 3, we turn to family devotions. We discuss what constitutes family devotions, …