Drive-time Devos

Last year my boys and I started something new. We had previously met at 6:45 each morning to do a devotional together as we prepared for the day. This worked well but it seemed to always cause us problems with them being able to finish getting ready for school. So I decided to try something different. We have a nearly 10 minute drive from home to their school. So now we utilize the time we previously spent in silence or listening to the radio by doing our devotional then. I still read my devotional as I eat my breakfast, but then I relay the same devotional to them in a way they would better understand it. We cover the same topics and stories but in a way that is engaging for them. This definitely makes for some interesting conversations on the way to school. Ultimately I hope it helps them grow in their faith and sends them into school ready for the day ahead of them.

I would like to say I brilliantly came up with this idea of doing our devotionals while riding down the road, but I'm just not that smart. What I am doing is putting into practice something that was wisely commanded nearly 3,500 years ago. In the book of Deuteronomy we find some real wisdom for how to spiritually prepare our children for the day they face and the years to come. The Bible says in Deuteronomy 6:4-9 (NIV), "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. 5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates." I can't tell you the last time I walked down the road with either off my sons. But I can tell you that every day I spend some amount of time with them in my truck. Most of the time it is spent taking them to school or picking them up from their grandparents' house after school. The best way to avoid wasting this precious time is to spend it on what matters. You don't have to have a seminary degree or be the most educated Christian of all time to be able to discuss spiritual matters with your kids. All you have to do is share with them what God has taught you that day in your own devotional time and help them apply it to their own lives.

The time we have with our children from birth to age 18 slips by so quickly. It is only 6,570 days. Counting the time they are sleeping or at school and you are at work, the time you have to impact your children spiritually is drastically reduced. The best way to make the most of the time you have to impact them spiritually is to spend those times that seem to be unimportant doing something important. If you don't personally have a time where you do a devotional, then start making time today and find a good devotional to feed you spiritually. You can't give your kids what you don't already have. Start spending time doing a devotional today so you can pour into your kids what they will need to face the day ahead of them.


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