These devotional times don’t have to be just for families with children either. Anyone who shares life with other people could do it. Christian housemates, empty nesters, and married couples without children could consider committing to a regular household devotional gathering like this. 

A couple of years ago I had a nagging feeling that I could be doing a better job leading my family in faith. I didn’t grow up in a Christian home, and I had very few solid role models in this department. Experience tells me most Christian men, especially those without theological training, feel similarly—but even going to seminary and being a pastor didn’t seem to be helping me much. I could prepare sermons, teach classes, and meet with people in the church, but I was having a difficult time consistently pastoring my own family.

It was around this time that I began hearing about something called ‘family worship’. I was intrigued by the idea. Sure, we said grace at meals and read storybook Bibles at bedtime, but it all seemed inconsistent and our progress was lackluster. The idea of regularly having a family time of devotion that looked more like what we do in church on Sunday excited me—but honestly, I lacked confidence about getting started. To make things worse, our time and attention spans were limited with all the demands of school and extracurricular activities. Ultimately I was convicted that this was not right. I should be able to get my family together to glorify the triune God as a matter of priority each day. Anything we were putting before this had become an idol to us, no matter how valuable it was.

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