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Making Time for Family Discipleship with a Busy Schedule

Making Time for Family Discipleship with a Busy Schedule

Last updated on: July 12, 2024 at 6:39 pm by Joy Wendling, MA

Making Time for Family Discipleship with a Busy Schedule 2024-07-12T18:39:04-07:00 Joy Wendling, MA

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You can disciple your child in your busy schedule. | Photo by Ivorymix.com.

Our lives are busy. Whether you are taking your kids to school, soccer practice, dance lessons, or church activities, our schedules are full of good things. Christian family life is an abundant life! But, only because of Jesus! So, how do we make time for family discipleship with a busy schedule?

Everyday Moments

We don’t need to stop what we are already doing to be intentional with family discipleship. God gives us clear directions on how to disciple our children, even with a busy schedule:

“Listen, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength. And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today. Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up.”

Deuteronomy 6:4-7 NLT

If we simply notice God and point Him out to our children in everyday moments, our children will begin to see God and His work in their everyday lives.

Let’s look at some simple ways to do this in each of the scenarios that Deuteronomy 6 gives us.

At Home

Mealtime prayers and conversations. Thanking God for your food and day can be simple and impactful for family faith. Don’t worry about having to be perfectly quiet and orderly, God is not surprised or distracted by your family’s noise.
Adding faith to what your children are playing. If you see your kids playing, take a moment to ask the Holy Spirit how you can come alongside their play with a truth about God, a Bible story, or even an identity-building affirmation.
Praying out loud for help and celebration. Model praying without ceasing to your kids. If something goes well, thank God. If you need patience, petition God. Is something lost? Ask for help. Your kids don’t need to pray with you for it to plant seeds.

On the Road

Practice a memory verse on the way to school. Car rides are an amazing time to playfully memorize Scripture or prayers. We love to use that time to recite and talk about the Lord’s Prayer.
Worship God in song. Cars and music go together like peanut butter and jelly. So crank up the music and praise God together.
Pray when you hear sirens. My girls all learned from a young age that when we hear sirens we ask God to protect the helpers and help those in need.

Going To Bed

Practice a daily Examen. Loyola Press defines the Examen as “a prayerful way to review the day to recognize God’s presence and movement in our everyday lives.” Bedtime is a great time to teach your children this simple spiritual practice.
Create a ritual of safety and love. Bedtime can be full of anxiety and fear for children. We can help our children’s identity and trust that God is with them through intentional bedtime rituals.
Read bedtime stories. Reading to kids at bedtime is a beautiful time of connection and helps to slow their bodies down for rest. You can up the intentionality by reading Bible stories.

Getting Up

Take a moment to connect. The first three minutes of our days, and our children’s days, are important. It sets the tone for day and can be hard to come back from if it doesn’t go well. Try to start the day with eye contact, a smile, and a hug. You communicate that you are delighted with them.
Bless and affirm your child. As you tie shoes, apply sunscreen, or say goodbye for the day bless your child and affirm their identity as an image-bearer. Tell them something God did a good job on when He made them or highlight a gift of theirs. It will be a reminder of Whose they are.
Acknowledge God’s presence and ask for guidance. I once heard that “guidance” means “ God U and I DANCE.” I love that! With your kids or simply in front of them, tell God hi and ask Him to be your dance partner guiding your family through the day.

Seeing God

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, but when we start recognizing and talking about God in the everyday moments, our kids start seeing Him there, too. You don’t need to have formal family devotions to make a lasting impact with family discipleship.

God wants to be in your family’s whole, busy, crazy life, not restrained to a 10-minute family Bible study.

For more on maximizing everyday moments, read this post that I wrote for FamilyChristian.com.

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About joy wendling

Enthusiastic. Passionate. Profound. Joy Wendling is a family pastor, writer, speaker, podcaster, certified parent coach, and founder of Created to Play. She has over 20 years of experience in children, youth, and family ministry, as well as a Master’s in Youth, Family, and Culture from Fuller Theological Seminary. She also is certified in Connected Families Parent Coaching and Parenting for Faith. Her idea of relaxing is gazing at the mountains from her island home with an ice-cold Diet Coke and a good book. Joy lives in the Pacific Northwest and enjoys laughing and playing with her five daughters and husband. You can read more about the author here.

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