I need to write a paper on "Developing Family Togetherness" and/or "Effective Family Devotions."

I would really appreciate any help... either by pointing me to some resource on the web, books, or even your own personal experience.

I am curious how some of you try to hold together and build your families closer. I also am curious on how you do family devotions... especially with young children and with older teens that are so busy and maybe don't feel that family devotions are that important.

Thank you for any input.

Serving the Savior

Marc

-- Anonymous, April 08, 2000

Answers

Homeschooling!!!!

The wonderful solution to all the above mentioned problems.

-- Anonymous, April 08, 2000

Amen...Amen...and Amen, Danny! If only everybody else would catch on to this.

-- Anonymous, April 08, 2000

Marc,

I have to agree with the above comments - HomeSchooling works wonders in this area.

Now, if that isn't happening or if it isn't an option - you might want to work these things into your life as life goes by, which is basically what I did before we became Homeschoolers.

We didn't set aside specific times for devotions or Bible study times. It was expected of each family member, but each worked it into their own timeline - such as doing their Bible Book of the Month reading and Study Questions.

What we did do a lot of was "real time" examinations of current events. As we heard different things on the TV or Radio, I would ask questions to stimulate what they thought of those situations and then discuss them from the Biblical perspective. Doing such lead to many in-depth discussions and a lot of soul-searching among the participants.

I figure this may be the best way to prepare my kids for life. If they learn to look at the "real-time" situations they will face in life from the Biblical side in the first place - it will save them from a lot of grief later on.

This may not be a perfect (or even the best) method, but at least neither of my boys have become axe-murders yet. I guess that says something about the method.

-- Anonymous, April 09, 2000

Get up early in the morning. If you have youngsters they love to sit on your lap and hear stories. When you are getting ready for bed read the kids a story. My kids loved it and looked forward to it more than tv.

One morning in Montara, CA my son Luke got up and was sitting at the table with me. I had a fire going and the sun was peeking under the clouds. I asked him if he had read his Sunday School verse for the day. He said, "No, I don't want to." Before the words had left his mouth a bolt of lightning flashed right outside our window and before the thunder had rolled away he was off his chair, into the living room, got his bible, got back to the table and was reading his Bible verse, John 3:16. "Guess God wants you to read that Bible verse." I said.

I tried to submit the story to a Christian Childrens Magazine but they rejected it saying "This story is to improbable to publish."

Sometimes other things work well.

-- Anonymous, April 09, 2000

Thank you everyone for your responces. We are currently homeschooling and I agree that it works very well for the reasons mentioned (and others).

The problem I have is that I need to write a 10 page report on the subject and was wondering where to go with it... maybe I will talk about homeschooling... though I am not sure if this is what the paper is to be about.

Thanks again

Marc

-- Anonymous, April 10, 2000