Wise Up – 10 minute family devotions in Proverbs
We have been using Wise Up for a number of weeks, and the whole family really likes it.
The topics are relevant and easy for children to relate to.
We have been doing family devotionals weekly, and we’ll read a day or two’s worth from the book, and sing a song (usually with the song playing on Youtube alongside). The songs have been really lively and tuneful, and the kids enjoy them (especially the first one above – This is where it all begins). If you can, it’s best if you could do family devotions daily, perhaps just before bedtime.
As you can see in the photo above, there are also activities scattered in the book, that are effective teaching aids for the lesson that week.
The New City Catechism
Another book that we’ve been using for our family devotionals for about half a year is The New City Catechism. It’s a Christian catechism in a devotional edition, which pairs 52 questions and answers with a Scripture reading, a short prayer, and a devotional commentary. We take turns to read each section, with the kids reading the questions and answers, the verses and the prayer right at the end, whilst the adults read one short commentary each.
Although the subject matter is slightly more weighty and a bit harder to truly grasp some times, we think that it’s worth going through this, not least as a model on how to pray.
Published by Crossway, the commentaries are also by the best Christian writers of all time, from CH Spurgeon and Jonathan Edwards, to Timothy Keller and DA Carson.
The cool thing about this book is that it comes with a free app (iPhone and Android), that has an abridged children’s version of the ‘answer’, as well a song version to aid memorisation. For the first 10 questions, we adults tried to memorise the adult answers, and the kids memorised the children’s answers. For the next 10 questions, our willpower flagged a little, and we just read them. 😛
As with the best books available, these were purchased from Shalom Christian Media (SCM), where no wishy-washy vapid theology is found on its shelves. SCM is also a great place to browse and buy books from, since profit is not their motive, and the price of their books are often cheaper than what is offered on Amazon, even before shipping charges.
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