Our church denomination’s magazine, called New Horizons, recently had an uplifting article called “Family Devotions: Passing Down a Tradition.” The article gives many examples of families forming the habit of reading Scripture together,memorizing it, praying, singing hymns/songs to the Lord, and discussing the Lord’s work in their lives. What struck me was the evidence of God working in a covenantal way in families, from generation to generation to generation.

That could be a whole study in itself, and entire books have been written about covenant theology. What is important in this brief column today is the importance of family devotions. Deuteronomy 11:18-19 says, “You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul…You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house.”

Having family devotions does take discipline. It means keeping children at the table in order to open up the Word. It means saying no to the doorbell ringing, phone ringing, the computer clamoring for attention, a host of activities that could usurp some time to read and pray. Forming the habit takes effort and time. But we need to take advantage of these family eating times to feast also upon our Lord, too.