When the Lord declared that Abraham would be the father of a mighty nation in Genesis 18, He described some specific attitudes and actions of Abraham (Gen. 18:19): “For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the LORD, to do justice and judgment; that the LORD may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him.” Abraham took charge of the household instruction in the ways of the Lord, and God’s promise was the result. The admonition to fathers in Eph. 4:6 to bring up a child in the nurture and admonition of the Lord certainly implies that intentional instruction occurs because of a commitment to purpose, not random occurrence.
Bible reading for understanding and prayer are the most important elements of your family time. Families will also find the promised instructional value of singing hymns and spiritual songs together (Eph. 5:19). Certainly, memorizing Scripture together and reading good Christian books may also be part of the plan.
The younger the child, the simpler the plan should be. For our family, from birth we prepared our girls for bedtime by praying with them and playing classical and Christian music. When basic speech understanding was apparent, we began reading simple children’s pictorial Bible stories. Later we moved to Egermeier's Bible Story Book and to “dad stories.” Our girls enjoyed those times when they could choose the characters for one of these fictional tales, where all kinds of animals learned the blessing of obedience and the curse of disobedience. In addition, they memorized Bible verses and listened to Patch the Pirate tales.
As soon as our girls could read and comprehend the Word, we guided them to establish the pattern of daily personal devotions. Later, from 7th through 12th grades, each took part in a program through our church youth group that included reading the Word, journaling, memorizing Scripture, and being involved in witnessing and ministry outreach. My wife has also done book studies with our girls that focus on the growth of a girl to a godly woman.
To this day, my wife has done a remarkable job to keep the family eating breakfast together. In the early years, we would read devotional passages and pray together at breakfast. But the start of the high school years presented challenges for maintaining family devotions, and I have struggled with consistency as jobs and school schedules change with growing responsibilities of both parents and children. One thing that works well with college- and high school-age children is something our pastor recommended—take time before bedtime to take prayer requests and pray. This activity will allow parents to hear the hearts of their grown children, opening up opportunities for counseling “by the way” (Deut. 6:7).
Important principles to remember include these: fathers should be committed to lead their families in the worship and instruction of God, family devotions should not only be relevant for life but also be brief rather than long, and expectations and methods should flex with the changes of family dynamics.