Parenting isn’t easy work—we all know that. But what a lot of parents think is even harder is parenting discipleship. God has entrusted parents to be the main faith shapers in their children’s lives, and that vocation can often seem to be a daunting task. In Proverbs, God commands parents to “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6). While it is clear that the job of discipleship and faith leadership is a vocation given to parents, how can the church help parents in this way?
Walking Alongside Parents
As the church, we should encourage families to take on this task by equipping them with the tools needed to do this important job. One way we can do this is by having resources available for families to utilize. This could be in the form of a resource wall, physical library, or a digital library on your website. Whatever you choose, it should be comprised of a mix of shorter and longer length media. When thinking about what resources your church should provide to help equip families in discipling their children, remember that families need things that are easy to use, short, and interactive.
Devotional Helps
One great way to help equip parents to disciple their children at home is to utilize devotionals. One great devotional series is Little Visits. These devotionals are great for families, with different volumes for different ages.
Little Visits for Toddlers are great for young kids, infants through ages 4–5. Each devotion has a short Bible verse and a fun activity to do together or song to sing, as well as a short prayer and instructions for the parent to help expand the conversation. These are also uniquely designed in twelve different sections to correlate with the months of the year!
Little Visits with God is great for kids around ages 7–10. These devotions are great for the whole family as they help families learn more about who God is and how He loves them. Each devotion includes a fun story to introduce the point, a focus Scripture verse, a prayer, and some discussion questions. What I love about this devotional is that it is very versatile for families. Families with younger kids can talk about a couple of questions, while families with older kids can answer more of the questions, as well as read the extra Scripture in every devotion.
Little Visits with Jesus is, in my opinion, the most versatile of this series in terms of age range, working well with younger and older kids. These devotions are focus on who Jesus is and how to share Him with others in your life. These short devotions include a Scripture verse, a short devotion that includes family discussion questions, and a closing prayer. There are also about twenty devotions per month, so families have a type of structure; they can do about five devotions a week, without feeling the pressure of a rigid schedule.
My Devotions is another great multi-age devotional, but it is geared especially for preteens. The fun part about these is that they can be mailed straight to your house quarterly with a subscription! Issues could be used by preteens themselves or as a family, as parents walk alongside their kids teaching them the importance of personal devotional time.
Or, if parents prefer devotions on their phone or tablet, they can access My Devotions in the InPrayer app for iOS and Android! This makes it easy for families to do devotions anytime, anywhere.
Another great resource are story book Bibles. I love how there are different narrative Bibles to match different age group, and how easy and simple they are to encourage faith talk within families. Giving families story book Bibles helps encourage them to read the Bible as a family at an age-appropriate level and encourages Bible literacy in small nuggets. One of my favorite story book Bibles is the One Hundred Bible Stories book. This book has a hundred different Bible stories geared for ages 8–12, but it could be used with the whole family too! There are also discussion questions for each story to expand the conversation.
Other Things to Consider
Something I try to do for families is give them smaller challenges. Using resources that are split up into different, easier-to-accomplish chapters, or broken down by week or month, can help families feel like it is a more achievable goal to finish. While larger resources like the ones mentioned here are great, I also try to give families different, smaller resources for different seasons, the church seasons, or months of the year to help encourage them to complete these smaller milestones. Recently our families have enjoyed a month-long Thankfulness calendar and a daily Advent devotional.
Regardless of the materials you choose, remember that families need encouragement and the church to walk alongside them in this journey. Checking in, praying with parents, and giving them resources are all ways that we, as leaders, can partner with parents to help them fulfill the vocation of faith formation that God has given them.
Scripture: ESV®.
Looking for more resources to encourage parenting discipleship? Browse family books on cph.org.
