For years I’ve attempted various approaches to implementing a consistent daily devotional for our family. Reading randomly selected Bible passages, reading through books of the Bible, reading through “devotional” literature. And each time, the attempts have only lasted a few weeks… at most.

In addition, in the past, I’ve also tried to teach our oldest son a simplified version of the Shorter Catechism. At the time, I simply had him memorize a given question & answer pair, then proceed to the next when he had it down; with no fixed schedule. And with no fixed schedule, that too faded after a few weeks.

So when I began our latest “attempt” at holding regular family devotions, I did it with no small amount of skepticism at my own ability to maintain it. And for that reason, in spite of repeated encouragements to blog about it from Lois, I held off. Why document my own “inevitable” failure?

However, I’ve now been able to maintain a consistent morning devotional with the family for over two months. And we’ve gotten into enough of a groove that the children both expect and even occasionally remind me that we haven’t done it for the day!

So I gladly want to share how we’ve been able to do it thus far, and will continue to do so, Lord willing. We’ve been combining the catechism and Scripture readings by using the excellent book by Starr Meade titled Training Hearts, Teaching Minds. The structure of the book is as follows: Each week, for six days, we memorize a single question and answer from the Shorter Catechism. In addition, the book has a short reading (usually 1-2 paragraphs, plus Scripture references for reading) relating to the catechism question of the week. This book uses an “updated language” form of the catechism, incidentally. I have some sentimental ties to “What is the chief end of man?” vs. “What is the primary purpose of man?” so I’ve opted instead to use the text of a separate Shorter Catechism (A Baptist Version) booklet I acquired in years past.

What I’ve found as we’ve proceeded is that this approach provides three crucial elements for making it work long-term:

1. A schedule for reading, and simple readings that are thematic. This helps provide accountability to a schedule, and lessens the burdens of selecting “random” teaching each day.
2. Memorization activities that are cumulative for the children. The catechism is a tried and true way to provide a solid foundation for understanding God and His Word, and the weekly pace is “just right” for actually memorizing, not just hearing and forgetting. My oldest (5.5yo) is now able to recite from memory the first eight questions from the catechism, and his younger brother (3.5yo) has even managed to pick up the vast majority of them!
3. Flexibility to augment the material with my own ideas. On occasion, I’ve taken the children away from the breakfast table (where we do our devotion) to have an interactive demonstration of a principle in the day’s reading.Today, for example, the reading focused on the days of creation: “The work of creation is God’s making all things of nothing, by the word of His power, in the space of six days, and all very good.” So partly inspired by a suggestion in the reading, I decided to have Matthew draw along as I read through Genesis 1:1-27, “documenting” what God created along the way. This was the fruit of it, with annotations by me after the fact (click to see full-size version):

I am so thankful for the last two months. God has provided a means for leading my family daily in God’s Word, and in the meantime has even strengthened my own faith and understanding of God’s Word. I am so encouraged when I ask my oldest, “What is God?” and he just rattles off with hardly any effort:

God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal and unchangeable, in His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth.

I pray that God may continue to bless us and help me to teach my children God’s truth, and that He may cause it to bear fruit in due season in saving power!