Tips to Maintain Family Prayer During Summer Months
Summer is here and school is out for the season. If your household is anything like mine there is a whole lot of rejoicing from the children and a little bit of sadness from Mom, although I do rejoice a little bit when I get to banish the dreaded sock drawer until September. I confess, I do love the regular schedule that school brings into our family Mondays through Fridays. Bedtime, wake-up, leave for school, come home from school – everything (usually) runs according to schedule. And right there in between waking up and leaving for school is our family prayer time.
However, for the next two months my beloved schedule is on hiatus. From past experience I know that family prayer, just like the sock drawer, gets abandoned in the shuffle of shuttling little bodies to and from an abundance of summertime activities.
Family Prayer During Summer
In the Old Testament God spoke to the people of Israel and instructed them how they should live. God did not just encourage, but commanded His people to teach their children the instructions found in His Word.
”Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.” – Duet. 11:18-19 NIV
I want my house to be a place where the presence of God is real. Where He is part of the family and the children know it. I want my children to feel natural asking me or others about Jesus and turning to Him in prayer. I’ve found that the best way to encourage this in my own home is to do exactly what God says in Deuteronomy 11. Teach my children His Word, talk about Him as we relax at home and in the car and pray together regularly and naturally.
I’ve chosen to make living this way a priority in our home, and although we continue to talk about things of God throughout the summer, I also don’t want to abandon our precious family prayer times until the Fall. To help keep our priorities on track, I’m considering three options to help maintain our family prayer during summer months.
Tips to Maintain Family Prayer During Summer Months:
- Gather the family for prayer before the first member of the family leaves the house in the morning (whatever time that may be.)
- Find one activity that occurs on a daily basis in our family all summer long and schedule a family prayer/worship time before or after that.
- Choose a book or books to read together as a family before bed and at the end of each nightly section pray together as a family before tucking any little (or big) ones to bed.
Do you have family prayer during summer months? How do you keep Christ the center of your home in the summer?
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