When I opened up my first copy of The Good News Family Devotional, I was surprised by my initial reaction—my eyes welled up with tears. Some of my tears were tears of joy. I love everything about how Harvest House designed the book—the cover, the bookmark, the interior design, the feel of the pages. It’s a satisfying joy to hold a new book in your hands and see the words you labored over in print.
However, most of my tears were of a different sort. They were tears of longing, a homesickness of sorts. The longing for what was and for a season that has passed. In the long days and years of motherhood, the daily rhythms of home felt like a season that would never end. Yet, slowly and surely, my littles ones have grown and flown the nest (oldest, middle, youngest). Currently, my oldest daughter is in Southeast Asia, my son is preparing to move out of state for graduate school, and my youngest is finishing up her freshman year and spending the summer overseas.
Which means, we won’t all be gathered around the breakfast table reading the Bible together and praying for one another. Mike and I were on a walk this weekend and we both were surprised that the thing we miss the most in this new season is those family conversations around the table. In the moment, I don’t think we realized just how special it was to gather together, discuss God’s Word, and pray. We knew it was important, but now we realize: it was foundational. Those simple conversations built our home and affected every area of our life together.
Parenting Advice
If I could give one piece of advice to a younger family, it would be this: spend time together as a family reading God’s Word and praying for one another. Set it as a pattern of your home. There will never be a time when it is convenient or easy. Start when they are young. Start as soon as they can talk. Start today.
If you don’t know where or how to begin, that’s why Mike and I wrote The Good News Family Devotional: 52 Weeks Through the Gospel of Mark. We want it to be a resource for your own spiritual growth and a help to you as you teach and train your children.
Deuteronomy 6:5-9 instructs us:
You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
Parenting Example
Surprisingly, the first command for us as parents isn’t to teach our children. The first command for us
is to love the Lord with all our heart, soul, and strength and to cherish his Word in our hearts.
Then, after we’ve tasted and seen that the Lord is good, we’re to teach our children diligently: in our homes, along the way, in the morning and in the evening. When we read and study God’s Word for ourselves, we’ll be more equipped for these everyday conversations with our children about it. Our love for God will naturally overflow into whatever we are doing as a family.
For this reason, we divided the gospel of Mark into 52 weekly segments and provided devotionals for you as the parent to read first. Hopefully, as you read the passage and contemplate the truths and explanations in the devotionals, your own understanding of God’s Word will grow. You’ll feel more equipped to talk about the passage with your family. And, as you know God through his Word, you’ll love him more.
Parenting Help
In addition to the devotional for you as a parent, we’ve provided helpful tools as you teach your children. For each passage of Mark, we’ve written a Parent Introduction to help you start the conversation with your children. Usually, these remind your children about the prior reading and prepare them for what to listen for as they read the passage for the current week.
We’ve also chosen a Big Idea for the Week. Children learn from repetition, so it’s helpful to tell them the Big Idea at the beginning and review it at the end, and all throughout the week as you reread the passage. For each lesson, we’ve provided Questions for Younger Children and Questions for Older Children. The younger children’s questions typically are more observation questions, helping them focus on the who, when, and what of the story. Part of biblical literacy is listening well and paying attention to the details of the story. The older children’s questions focus more on interpretation, asking probing questions that explore the deeper meaning behind the details. We’ve also provided a Family Application Question to discuss together, so you can consider together how God’s word changes the way we live.
Each lesson will close with a Parent Conclusion and a review of the Big Idea of the Week. In addition, there’s a Family Prayer to read, as well as prompts to help your family pray for a variety of people throughout the week.
Parenting Patterns
You may wonder where to fit this into your already full family schedule. Our family gathered every morning at the breakfast table to read the Bible and pray for one another. It didn’t take long (and we missed days!). Aim for patterns of the home, not perfection. Another time in the day may work better for your family, or you may prefer to set a time once a week (perhaps on Sunday) to spend a longer time studying the passage together.
Whatever way you choose, let us encourage you—reading the Bible and praying together as a family will bring your family together in beautiful ways. When we look back at our years of raising young children, some of my favorite memories are laughing around the breakfast table as we studied God’s word and prayed for one another. These conversations are daily spiritual food you get to share together. We hope you’ll enjoy the feast!
