Your family will enjoy a lot of blessings as you pray together. Here are three of them:

1. It will teach your kids to pray.

In a fallen world, prayer is hard. Our kids won’t know how to pray unless we teach them.

Jesus’ disciples asked the Lord, “teach us how to pray” (Luke 11:1), because they saw the depth of his prayer life and wanted to know how they could pray like that. Let’s put our prayer life on display for our children, so that they can learn from our example.

Unfortunately, our children will probably hear a lot of bad examples of prayer in their lives. We need to show them that prayer is more than asking for things from God, it is passionate communion with our glorious God.

Our children need prayer, so let’s model it for them.

2. It will open their eyes to God’s purposes.

As you pray for your family, your church, and the nations, your kids will start to see that God is at work in our world and we have a part to play.

• Invite your kids to pray for missionaries, and they’ll be playing an absolutely crucial role in the spread of the gospel to all nations.
• Encourage your kids to pray for your pastors, and they’ll be working towards the long-term health of your church.
• Help your kids to pray for non-Christians they know, and they’ll begin to see the world as desperately in need of a Savior.

3. Show them that prayer really is powerful.

Prayer is totally different from good intentions or positive thoughts. Make bold requests while praying with your kids, and celebrate when God answers.

If your kids hear you merely talk about prayer, they might think that it’s an okay habit. But if your kids hear you desperately and urgently call upon God to act, they’ll know that prayer is a necessity.

Want more? Family devotionals from God Centered Family feature three Bible-based prayer points every day. I’m confident that reading Scripture and praying with your kids every day will deepen your prayer life, teach your kids to pray boldly, and unite your family with a deeper love. Get started here.

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The number one way to kill family devotions is overthinking it.

I have seen this play out in countless families, including my own. Many parents think that family devotions aren’t worth doing unless they’re done perfectly. We try to add unnecessary extra elements on top of reading, praying, and singing that make family worship too long, too difficult to plan, or too cumbersome to regularly practice.

During family worship, no one has to preach a sermon or lead a devotional. No one has to plan a craft or interactive activity. No one has to lead incredibly piercing application questions.

Crafts and sermons and devotionals and application questions are all great, but they don’t need to be a part of every family devotional time in your household.

All that you need is God’s Word.

Overthinking it and adding additional requirements to your family worship time will keep your family from having family devotions every day.

2. Make it a habit.

Don’t just make a vague commitment now to “do family devotions.” We need to pick a specific time and place to do family worship. Pick a time and place and STICK with it. This will help make sure it happens every day. Your kids will expect it.

It doesn’t matter what time you do family worship, but make it a routine — do it at the same time and in roughly the same format every day.

Use a time that works well for your whole family, a time when usually everyone (including both parents) is present and that other activities won’t typically threaten.

After dinner is usually the best time, because most families have dinner together, it happens every night at roughly the same time, and the whole family is already gathered in one place, so you don’t have to herd the cats twice.

BONUS RESOURCE: Download this printable habit tracker to keep track of your daily family devotions.

3. Prioritize it.

Make the commitment that you WILL have family devotions, no matter the cost.

It’s better to keep your kids up 10 extra minutes than to skip family devotions.

Let me say it again, for the toddler parents in the back: It’s better to keep your kids up 10 extra minutes than to skip family devotions.

4. Get a guide.

No one is better equipped to teach your kids the Bible than you are, but you don’t need to plan your family devotions from scratch every day.

This is why I created God Centered Family — to help remove every barrier and help you read the Bible with your kids EVERY DAY. Click here to learn more about our family devotions.

The post How to (actually) have family devotions every day appeared first on God Centered Family.

1. Your kids need to know that sin is real.

These scandalous Bible stories paint an honest picture of humanity. We aren’t just people who make bad choices, we are sinners to the core. And sometimes sinners make particularly nasty decisions that put our sinfulness on full display.

As you read the Bible with your kids, they’ll see that while sin is real and frequently looks enjoyable, it never leads anywhere great. Sin really won’t go well with us.

Sodom and Gomorrah is a graphic story that makes human wickedness clear. But the end of the story makes clear that no sin will go unpunished.

2. Your kids need to know that God saves sinners.

Even in the midst of the most heinous sin, God is working to redeem his people. the Bible is not a book about good people getting rewards, but a story of awful people being forgiven.

If our kids understand the horrors of David’s sin against Bathsheba, they will better appreciate the grace of Psalm 51: “Completely wash away my guilt and cleanse me from my sin.”

3. Your kids need to know that the Bible only has one hero.

Almost every major “hero” in the Bible fails in a massive way. All except one. The scandalous stories give us an opportunity to point our kids to Jesus.

• Abraham sold out his wife; Jesus will never abandon his bride.
• Judah sought his own pleasure with Tamar; Jesus laid down his life for our good.
• Moses killed an Egyptian to save an Israelite; Jesus himself was killed for the nations.
• Hosea was abandoned by an unfaithful wife; Jesus continually pursues his sinful church.

Not to mention, if we avoided “R-rated” Bible stories, we couldn’t read the center of Scripture with our kids — when Christ endured horrendous torment on the cross for our salvation.

Our kids need the Bible. Every word of it. So let’s read it with them.

Kids need ALL of Scripture. Family devotionals from God Centered Family will give you an easy-to-use discussion guide for EVERY CHAPTER of Scripture (not just the popular stories). Learn more here.

The post Should I read R-Rated Bible stories to my kids? appeared first on God Centered Family.

Pastors know that children’s ministry doesn’t happen automatically — a team of men and women are serving, praying, and planning so that kids in your church can learn in a safe and fun environment.

As you plan for the new year, here’s three things every pastor needs to tell their children’s ministry workers in 2023:

1. Your work matters.

This isn’t childcare or babysitting, so that the grown-ups can get to the “real ministry.” Our children’s ministry workers are serving on the frontlines of real ministry with real people who really need Christ.

In many churches, the children’s ministry is the largest concentration of non-Christians at any point in the week. This is an incredible opportunity and the volunteers working to make it happen need to be reminded that, through all the broken crayons and temper-tantrums, their work really matters.

2. Kids need Christ.

They don’t just need good moral lessons. They don’t just need entertainment. They don’t just need a good time. They need to know Jesus.

Remind your children’s ministry workers of the urgency of this message. Encourage them to work for God’s approval, not the approval of middle school boys. Equip your volunteers to give children something that they can’t get anywhere else — real freedom from sin and death.

PASTORS: We help busy pastors equip every parent in their church to disciple their kids. Preview family devotionals that your church will actually use right here.

3. I am here to help.

No one wants to feel alone in ministry, but often children’s ministry workers feel isolated, especially in churches where serving means they miss all or part of the main worship service.

Tell your children’s ministry workers that their work is important for the mission of the church. Their sacrifice is meaningful and doesn’t go unnoticed. Simple words of affirmation can go a long way towards equipping people to endure in children’s ministry.

But don’t just tell them that they’re doing a good job — offer to help. Are there new resources they need? How can you help recruit more volunteers? Do they need help working through difficult situations on the volunteer team or in the classroom? Are there urgent needs that you can pray for?

Offer to help, and then follow through. Commit yourself to encouraging, equipping, and praying for your children’s ministry volunteers this year.

The post Pastors, 3 things your children’s ministry workers need to hear this year appeared first on God Centered Family.

But family worship won’t just change your family, I believe it can change the entire world. Here’s three reasons why:

1. When we pray for the nations, God hears

Today, there are over three billion people who have no access to the good news of Christ. There are no Christians to tell them. There is no Bible or book in their language. There are no churches they can drive to.

This is an infinite burden that should weigh heavy on the hearts of every Christ follower.

But here’s the thing — you can make a difference.

In Luke 10:2, Jesus commanded his disciples to pray for “the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest.”

We are commanded to pray for the nations, asking God to send out missionaries, so that they might hear the good news that Christ died for their sins, rose again, and sits on a throne over all creation.

God hears your prayers. And that makes them incredibly powerful.

To help you pray for the nations, our family worship guides highlight a different unreached, unengaged people group every month — a distinct ethnic/language/culture group where Christ has never been named and has never been praised.

2. When we pray for the nations, our kids hear

When your children hear you pray for the nations every day, they will catch a global vision. They will see that Christ is worthy of worship from every tribe, tongue, and nation.

We want our children, from the very beginning of their lives, to consider their own role to play in this task of making disciples of all nations.

When we pray for God to send missionaries, we are showing our children that God is a treasure worth laying down their lives for, and that kind of love for God and zeal for his glory might lead our own children to the ends of the earth, where they can proclaim the good news of his Son to those who will never otherwise hear it.

3. We can do far more together than we can ever do on our own

When you subscribe to GodCenteredFamily.org, half of all subscription fees are being sent to faithful missionaries who are making a difference among the three billion.

Sure, $3 a month doesn’t sound like much, but if we all work together, we can have a huge impact, sending out an army of theologically sound missionaries to the ends of the earth.

Faithful family worship will not just change your household, it will change the world.
So let’s partner together to make disciples — in your own home, and to the ends of the earth.

The post 3 Ways that Family Worship will Change the World (Seriously) appeared first on God Centered Family.