I have a picture in my office from 2017 that my wife took of us reading our Bibles together at the breakfast table. This is one of my favorite pictures because every time I see it am am thankful that family devotions is something that we have chosen to make time for. It is very easy to get caught up in our business pursuits and miss the real opportunities that God has right in front of us to look after our own hearts and plant seeds in the little souls around us. In Ecclesiastes we read that all business pursuits are vain even those run diligently and honestly. Sometimes in business we make mistakes or we get ripped off or something else goes wrong and it can be very discouraging but I have found that the best medicine for my soul when faced with these difficulties is to remember that my business is not the only place or the first place that I have invested in. And the time I have spent with my family doing daily devotions cannot be lost, has helped us, and will help us again.
There was I time when I didn’t think I could afford a few minutes a day for family devotions. Back then I spent all my time working a wondering why the children where driving me crazy. Jen and I finally realized that we we overrun and we needed the daily influence of God’s word and our children did too. We began family devotions out of necessity with just one verse at breakfast. “Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the sons of God.” and then we sang a line from “Jesus Loves Me”. This is all we did for weeks. It only took a minute and then I went to work. After a while we had it memorized and we added another verse. A couple of verses grew into all the Beatitudes, then the whole armor of God, then the Love chapter, then days of creation. Last year we read Alexander Fletcher’s “A Guide to Family Devotions” and this year we are reading through the whole Bible together. Today, we still sit, read the bible, and sing a hymn together for our family devotions. On most days we do it all in less that 20 minutes. Now I am watching my family and business grow, and I wonder why I ever thought I didn’t have time for one minute of family devotions.
We hope that by reading this you will be encouraged to start or keep reading God’s word with your family as part of your daily routine.
