My son and I are starting something new this year that has already given wonderful results. Each night, just before bed we are doing a short devotion together. Its only about a page long and has 2-5 verses with it. It is small, bite size chunks of God’s Word that can be easily absorbed and talked about. Although my son is only 9, this is not a kids devotion. Its an adult devotion someone got me for Christmas and it is wonderful. At the end we have been practicing praying together about God helping us obey what we learned in the devotional.
As we were doing it one night, my son was being unusually goofy. I would read something and he would talk about something completely unrelated and laugh. I would ask him to try and focus. He would for an amazing 3-4 seconds, then be off topic again. I would try to wrangle him back in only to hear a few moments later disregarded laughing. I was pretty irritated as I finished the devotional. (I say “I” because my son really wasn’t a part of it) I told my son to go get ready for bed. He asked me, “Dad, aren’t we going to pray?” I turned my head sideways like a confused dog, looked at my son and replied, “Sure. What will we pray about?” His response summed it all up. “Um….”
I told my son with all the love I could muster, “You know, I am trying my best to train you up so that you love the Lord, but tonight you just didn’t really care. That hurt.” My son hung his head. He realized that his lack of attention to what I was doing hurt both me and him. He asked again, “Can we pray?” I agreed. He then asked God for forgiveness, he asked God to help me forgive him, and then asked God to help him take the devotion time seriously.
I hugged my son, told him I did forgive him, and tucked him into bed.
I would love to say that is the end. It makes me look pretty good. Its not.
As I sat down in my chair, I will admit I was still a bit frustrated with my son. I was putting in time and effort to teach him and he wasn’t putting forth any effort back. Then God spoke to me. “Jon, you have no idea how many times I have tried to teach you, but you were uninterested in what I had to say.”
That hurt.
I prayed the same prayer my son had prayed moments earlier.
My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, listening closely to wisdom and directing your heart to understanding; furthermore, if you call out to insight and lift your voice to understanding, if you seek it like silver and search for it like hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and discover the knowledge of God. – Proverbs 2:1-5
If you don’t do a devotion with your children, you really should. It will be great for both of you.
In Christ,
jon walton
That Hurt...
