Real-World Family Devotional

This week, I talked with a friend about the family devotionals that we do with our kids, or at least that we try to do. I pulled back the curtain and let him peak inside the family devotional time at the Aguilar house, which is not very impressive. On Saturday mornings, we read a short passage, and I try to ask some basic comprehension questions. Then we share what we are grateful for and what we are struggling with (prayer requests). Then we pray for each other, and Tina and I usually end up leading each kid in the prayers that they are trying to pray. We try to walk the fine line of forcing them to do something they don’t want to do without making Bible time something they hate. It doesn’t feel magical or even meaningful most times.

I realize, however, that the majority of our discipleship happens in other real-world scenarios that I try to take advantage of. For example, our kids will often say they are afraid of one thing or another at bed time. That’s when I teach them how to deal with fear. “You remember how we deal with fear. We pray, ‘Jesus, I love you. Jesus, I trust you. Please be near to me right now.’”

When they pray that way, I ask them how they feel. The fear often goes away after one prayer, but if it doesn’t, I say, “Okay. Well, you know what we do about fear. Let’s pray again…”

In other real-world discipleship moments, Abigail will ask some deep questions, and I try to answer at age appropriate levels. I tend to consider quite a lot to be age appropriate. For example, she remembers when we ministered to a scary looking street person named Jason who was trying to come off of drugs. Naturally, she asked a lot of questions. “Why did he start doing drugs?” “Why does he keep doing them if it’s making his life so bad?” “If that’s what can happen when people do drugs, why don’t we just warn people before they ever try them?”

When she asks questions like this, I could choose to give her a kid version of the answer, “because sometimes people make bad decisions." However, I find that level of answer to be not quite age appropriate in that she should be told more. The fact is, kids her age are already experimenting with sex, drugs, and rock n' roll, so why not be a voice of reason on those topics. 

In those situations, I choose to say what I truly think. “People do drugs because it feels incredible. Even when parents warn kids not to do drugs, kids get curios and want to feel that incredible feeling. Probably, many people you know will try drugs for that same reason. You will probably get very curious to feel that feeling, and you’ll certainly have the chance to try it some time. Everyone has the chance, and everyone has to decide if they’re going to or not. Our friend Jason had the chance to try, and he probably thought that he would be okay. That’s what satan wants everyone to think about ALL kinds of sin. He wants people to think ‘it’s not that bad.’ ‘I’ll just do it a little.’ ‘I just want to see what it’s like.’ That’s how Satan works, and that’s how he catches people. What do you think you’ll do when you get those chances?”

That feels a bit intense, but it’s conversations like that where the theology we squeak out during our family devotionals gets real traction. I could tell her, "don't do drugs." But if we have a candid conversation where she is able to gather information and make her own decision not to, it is more likely to stick with her when satan's opportunity arises. 

The family devotionals help us train the kids how to sit respectfully and listen to bible teaching. They give us a chance to formally teach our kids to pray, but we also need to keep our eyes peeled for real-world opportunities to reinforce that we really do believe in God and we really do turn to him for help and to understand the world around us.