These are challenges that all people face, but especially as teens.
Dating
Marriage
Sex
Social media
Drugs/alcohol
Pornography
Self-Image
Peer pressure/bullying
Respect
Responsibility
Anger
Depression
Rebelliousness
2009 Lifeway Survey – 2900 Christians, 90% had “desire to please and honor Jesus in all I do”; only 19% read Bible daily
Stands to reason that the % of families who have consistent family devotionals is lower.
One of our main goals this year is to get consistent, dynamic, vulnerable, bonding, open communication, Bible centered family times. We want these times to become the norm, not the rarity. If you are having them consistently every week, that is great and you can help the families/parents that are having a difficult time.
Why are family devotionals important?
God Commanded Us to Teach Our Children
Deuteronomy 6:5-9
5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.
God Tells Us That It Will Have A Long Term Impact
Proverbs 22:6
6 Start children off on the way they should go,
and even when they are old they will not turn from it.
What are the benefits of family devotionals?
Increase closeness with your spouse
Increase closeness with children
Build your faith in God’s promises; individually and as a family
Build effective communication
Increase desire to seek God
Advance spiritual growth
Provide insight for living life
Provide comfort/encouragement
Prepare us to share our faith
Build a Christ centered home
If we know family devotionals are important and their significant benefits, we should strive to be consistent in having them.
Deuteronomy 4:9-10
9 Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them fade from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them. 10 Remember the day you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, when he said to me, “Assemble the people before me to hear my words so that they may learn to revere me as long as they live in the land and may teach them to their children.”
Some reasons we may not have consistent family devotionals:
We forget
We let them fade from our heart and replace with something else
We are all in different spiritual conditions. No matter where we may be, we can begin training within our households.
Our goal is to establish a consistent time to have family devotionals. Talk with your family and decide on a day and time. This will be your priority. If teens have a lot of homework, work around it, work ahead of time.
If we already have established devotionals, great. If not, let’s begin.
Additional Scriptures for Study:
Ephesians 6:4
4 Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.
2 Timothy 3:14-15
14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, 15 and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
Genesis 18:18-19
18 Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him. 19 For I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just, so that the Lord will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him.”
Joshua 24:14-15
14 “Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. 15 But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”
Psalm 78:1-7
1 My people, hear my teaching;
listen to the words of my mouth.
2 I will open my mouth with a parable;
I will utter hidden things, things from of old—
3 things we have heard and known,
things our ancestors have told us.
4 We will not hide them from their descendants;
we will tell the next generation
the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord,
his power, and the wonders he has done.
5 He decreed statutes for Jacob
and established the law in Israel,
which he commanded our ancestors
to teach their children,
6 so the next generation would know them,
even the children yet to be born,
and they in turn would tell their children.
7 Then they would put their trust in God
and would not forget his deeds
but would keep his commands.
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