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We have reached the season of parenting at our house when kids are being shuttled to activities after school, when a shared electronic calendar becomes a necessity to manage the many schedules of everyone in the house, and when family dinners become a treasured rarity. With so much busyness, finding time during the week to dedicate to family devotions often takes a back seat. But, arguably, this is also the season of parenting when creating and maintaining a deeper connection to God is of greatest importance.
My family of four—Anna (12), Henry (8), my husband, and I—made it a goal to sit down to family dinner two to three times per week and begin the meal with Jay W. Bickelhaupt’s 5-Minute Bible Studies for Families. His studies are broken down by week into three-day increments. That’s just 15 minutes each week.
Each day has a short Bible reading and a paragraph about the reading, accompanied by a couple of discussion questions. The discussion questions are simple enough that my 8-year-old can easily participate, but not so simple that my 12-year-old is unstimulated. Topics cover everything from God’s promises to us to obedience and trust to Jesus’ resurrection and its implications for us as repentant sinners.
By starting our family dinners with a 5-minute Bible study, our discussions frequently led into much deeper applications of the day’s topics and readings. Often, my son would excitedly tell us that he remembered reading a particular verse or story in class. My daughter would make connections to her Catechism study. And certainly, those dinners were some of the best spent family time—reading and examining God’s Word and what it means for each of us!
For the busy family looking for a fun and easy way to make family devotion time a priority, 5-Minute Bible Studies for Families offers a flexible study option that appeals to all ages and engages all family members in the important activity of reading and discussing God’s Word.
For more information, visit nph.net or call 800-662-6022.
Author: Kerry Ognenoff
Volume 108, Number 1
Issue: January 2021
