devotional voiceover

Devotionals are important, but we can't give what we don't have. We need to be filled with Jesus before we can share with others. It can be a struggle to find time for devotionals, but we need to make it a priority. Every prayer and reading is valuable and plants seeds in God's heart. Devotionals can include prayer, reading the Bible, and using devotional books or apps. It's important to focus our minds on God and seek His kingdom. Devotionals can be done alone or as a family. There is no perfect method, just being with God is what matters. Family devotionals can be tailored to different age groups and can include discussions and Bible reading. Whether you already do devotionals or are looking to start, I think it's really important to note that you can't necessarily give to someone else what you don't have yourself. And discipleship looks a lot like this. It's feeding another what's on my plate. So if I'm eating mashed potatoes, I can't offer strawberries because it's not what I'm feasting on. And the same goes for devotionals. So before I do devotionals with the kids, I really do need Jesus to fill my heart first. I really can't offer substance and manna to my children if I'm not first feasting on Jesus myself. And personally, I've been in a fight to wake up early to get that time alone with God before the rest of the family wakes up. And I mean, this has been such a fight. But I go back to this quote of, I always have two choices, either excuses or opportunity. And as mommas, I think we all have a million excuses. And some of them are just so right, like nursing babies or not sleeping well or hormones or whatever it is. But I just think about how Jesus is interceding for us and how he's waiting for us every morning and how he just wants to be with us. And I think sometimes as Christian mommas, we just fall into this rut of feeling like it's a to-do list that we have to do or just another strain on our life. Or sometimes we might just feel guilty, like we are not doing enough and that perfectionism is just eating at us as if our time is in vain. But I just want to encourage you that none of this time is wasted. Every single tired prayer and sleepy prayer or reading time that you have in the Word, all of those things are seeds that are being planted that are blessing God's heart. And he listens to you, he hears you, he wants to commune with you. And some of this is just like a skill. It's something that we have to cultivate. And many times in the morning, I'll actually just pray for grace. I will pray that he will draw me. I will pray that he will draw my heart, that he will draw my affections. Just like if you are a married woman, there are times when you have to pray for those affections for your husband or desires for your husband or grace. How much more so a perfect God when we are imperfect ourselves. And so I don't discount any of my small things. I don't discount any of my weak prayers because I know that God can do a lot of powerful things in my weakness because he is strong when I am not. I make sure to really guard this time. I pray for my heart. I even lay hands on my mind and I ask that he would fill me with revelation. I pray that he would fill me with fire for his word, for just burning intercession for what's on his heart. And I just pray that he would guide me. I want to be able to say, God, what is the word that you have for me today? What is it that you want to speak into my spirit or impart into me? And so my devotionals personally start out with first asking for him to draw me. So I spend that time in prayer, just quieting my heart and just imagining that he's right there with me. So it's tangible. It's practical. So that when I'm with him, it's not just a far away and distant God, but it's someone that's just sitting right beside me. And the next thing that I do is I always have a journal with me and I want to steward whatever God is speaking to me. So in the Old Testament, the Israelites had manna that God sent to them daily and that was their daily provision. And so every day, the word of God is our manna. It is our daily bread. And so we're to feed on his word daily, which means he will give us nourishment and provision for our soul. Sometimes I'll just start out with writing prayers and it might be anything that's on my heart. Like, Lord, I want to grow in confidence or I want to grow in favor. Or God, I ask that you would strengthen me in this area of weakness as a mom or just in my anxieties or stress or whatever that's on my mind and heart at that moment. I'll just write out some prayers. And then the next thing I do after I spend some of that morning time just getting my heart ready is I will turn to the word. And I try to not just skip around. I try to stay somewhere consistent. So if I'm working through a psalm or a proverb, I'll also work through the New Testament. I might start in the Gospels and I might work my way through Colossians and Ephesians and so on. And that way I have something that I can chew on and then come back to and continue to read in context. I also really love to have some sort of devotional book, Causing My Heart to Burn. And so currently I'm in a season of wanting to just simplify my life in God and to grow in the area of prayer. And so I work through prayer books or a different kind of devotional. Sometimes I even pull out my phone and I go through the Bible app and go through a guided meditation for that day or a guided prayer or a verse of the day. And I just position my heart to receive from God for whatever that he wants to give to me, whatever he wants to download into my spirit. And I just try to be submitted to that, available to that, and faithful. So today the word that I got was just that scripture, you keep him in perfect peace whose mind has stayed on you. And I just started thinking, God, that is what I need. And all my anxieties and all my stress, I need that perfect peace. And it comes with my mind being disciplined to staying on him. And so that was my prayer today. Lord, let my mind stay on you. Let my mind seek first the kingdom of God and stay on the topic of Jesus so that I may have this perfect peace. And the last thing that I like to do to close off my devotionals is just spend some time praying over my home specifically, over my children, over grace for that day. I love to just ask for his kingdom to come. So a prayer might be like, Jesus, let your kingdom come into my home. Let revelation come into my home. I ask that my children would just be awakened to your spirit today. I ask for the spirit of revelation, spirit of wisdom, spirit of insight. And I just pray these kind of prayers over my home, over the course of my day, that he would guide every step and protect us, guide us, lead us. And I just pray for his kingdom to come. And so in a nutshell, devotionals look different daily. But overall, the same theme exists between prayer, the word, spending time with him. And then, of course, the little kiddos come out. So when that time comes, my private time is over. They want snuggles. They want breakfast. They want to play and so on and so forth. Now, if I, for whatever reason, don't have this time alone with God, whether I was too tired to get up or maybe just had a longer night, I make sure to fight for that time with him as a family. Of course, this time will look a lot more distracting. But I know that none of this time with Jesus is in vain. I really love this quote, May my ceiling be their floor. So just creating morning moments of being disciplined, to spend time with him, being diligent, being intentional. I really, really desire this for my family. I want my children to wake up and just thrive, just thrive in their morning devotionals. I want my children to wake up and have that time with Jesus be anointed and inspiring and not such a drag. And I want to create that space for them. And I want them to look back in their childhood and say, man, we've always had this time with Jesus and have so much treasure that he filled them with throughout their years of upbringing. And so just like with breakfast, we don't skip meals. We don't skip breakfast. We nourish our bodies with a nutritious meal. And so we must treat our spirit the same way. If Jesus is the bread of life and he is who he says he is, then we must be nourished by him. He must feed us and we must eat and partake of him. And so you might be similar to me and to many other mamas who struggle doing devotionals alone or as a family. So whether you're feeling overwhelmed or intimidated or just simply not drawn, I get that. I've been there. And we all go through seasons. Some seasons we are pumped. We want to be with him. We can't wait to get away and be with him. And other seasons we're just dull and we're empty. And we've all battled those temptations. And it's part of just growing by still carving out time to be with him because he's worthy. And so for me personally, for many years, it just felt so overwhelming. I felt intimidated by not knowing where to start or which devotional to do, what topic to cover, or if my kids will even be interested, if I even bring up devotionals. And so for the longest time, I just had a hard time even finding something that was solid for our family. And that perfectionism, man, it just eats so many of us up. And so I just hope that some of these little conversation pieces will stir your heart to know that there really is no perfect method. There is no perfect devotional or perfect way to do any of this. I mean, the only thing that you ought to do is just be with him. That's it. Devotionals are just us meeting with God. And it's a relationship. We grow with him. The more we spend time with him, the more we become like him. The more we learn to hear his voice. The more that he speaks to us when we speak to him. And that is, I would say, the perfect devotional is just being with him. And so now that you've been with me on my private devotionals, I want to show you a little glimpse of our family devotionals. For me personally, the 24 Family Ways by the Clarksons have been one of my absolute favorites. I love Sally Clarkson. I have gleaned so much from her, and she's impacted my life in so many ways. And I really appreciate how this is catered to different age groups. So for me personally, speaking to a toddler or a preschool-aged child will look totally different than speaking to a 9-year-old or a teenager. And so I really appreciate that there's different questions and different conversation pieces that they offer. And I love how they turn you to the word. And so we start out with just some conversation pieces to just kind of get us going into the mindset of devotionals. And then I will go ahead and bring out the word. And I know oftentimes our children don't always understand. I mean, many times, even as adults, we don't always understand the word of God unless the Holy Spirit reveals it to us. But I remind myself of 2 Timothy 3.16. It says, All scripture is given by inspiration of God. It is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. And so for me, I just go back to this, that the word of God is living, and it is the Holy Spirit that is the one that is planting these seeds. And so even if I don't always understand or grasp what he is doing, I know that reading his word is powerful and that our spirits will soak it up, that there will be wisdom produced, that there will be truth produced. And I'll share more about the power of the word soon. But I definitely don't watch the fruit of my child in that moment. So if my child feels more busy or more distracted, I don't go ahead and discount that as saying that devotionals don't work. Because I know that this is part of my training as a mama, is I have to train my child how to honor sacred space. I have to train him how to be reverent in God's presence. I need to train him how to sit still, how to read the word of God, how we can apply it. And we have a lot of times of conversation throughout the day. So I'm reminded of Deuteronomy 6, 6-7. It says, these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children and shall talk of them when you sit down in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise. And so for me, this whole scripture emphasizing the importance of making God's word central part of everyday life and everyday conversation. And I also just want to be obedient to anything that I sense God is requiring of me. And so even if my times with my children look uninspiring or distracting or busy, I know that I'm being faithful and I'm being obedient to create a space for God to intervene and encounter my child. And so after our devotionals and times in the word, I will pray for my children. I will lay my hands on them and I will pray just whatever I sense God has for that. So I typically will ask that God will tenderize their spirit, that he will make them sensitive to him. I pray that God would keep them from the spirit of this age, from the power of this age. I pray that they would be set apart. And I just pray everything that I know to pray for my children because I know that prayers can be prophetic and we get to usher in destinies and callings and legacies into our children simply by being obedient and praying for them. And so after we have times of the word, we pray and typically I try to make this time really fun. So we'll have a worship dance party. We will just run around, burn our energy. And again, this isn't necessarily always a time of like powerful worship. It's more so showing like God is sacred. He's reverent. He's fun. He's enjoyable. His presence is good. His presence is filled with joy and laughter. There will be weeping and there will be joy. And so just showing my children that we can dance and we can weep and God's presence is more than enough. And so I love to have these moments with my child and I do fight for them. Oftentimes if we get too busy or a lot of life is just going on, I have to just stop and remind myself what is the call. Motherhood is more than just being a busy body. Motherhood is a calling and I have to be intentional to make sure that God is pleased at the end of the day that I'm faithful to steward what he has given me. And so these times are precious. They're sacred. I love them. Sometimes they are a lot of work, but they definitely always leave us unified and connected and just so much more enriched with God's presence. And I think just to reiterate, there really is no perfect method to devotionals. There is no right or wrong way. The most important thing is that you are spending time with God as a family together. And so whether your devotionals look like just reading one proverb a day or just spending a few minutes in prayer, God will honor you carving out this space for him. And so different seasons look different. So sometimes we have dance worship parties. Other times we have more times in the word. Other times I might just be loving on my child and speaking over them the things of God, the realities of God, the character of God. Sometimes I might just even pull out my phone and just play worship music that's more soaking. Like one thing we've had on repeat is Beautiful Jesus by Melissa Helter. And another one is Pure by Abbey Gamboa. And so whatever I sense the Lord is doing for us is where we stay. And so I believe as Christian moms, obviously we all desire our children to grow up in the faith. But are we living set apart at home? Or are we just living our American dreams with Jesus just stamped on it? Are we actually living set apart? Are we actually showing our children what Jesus looks like behind closed doors? And this is so important. So even though our devotionals are special, I mean, whether you're working through the word of God or just through a children's Bible story or whatever you are doing, those are all very special and very good. But they are just means to have more of Jesus. And so don't get caught up in maybe the perfection of it or how to do it or the methods of it because it's just a means to get more of God. So whatever causes your family to get more of God is what you are to go after. And so if you're spending time doing devotionals but then the rest of your day you're just living in the flesh, whether you're irritable or stressed out or selfish, then you're not actually living out the life of Christ. And so when the word of God, it says what I read earlier to Timothy, that it's useful for teaching, for correcting, for training in righteousness. And so the word of God is powerful to train us, to teach us. And just like we want our children to be trained up in the things of God, we must be diligent to allow the Holy Spirit to train us, especially as mamas in the area of our emotions. I think sometimes we can call them hormones or PMS or whatever it may be. But honestly, at the end of the day, we are all responsible for looking like Jesus, for exemplifying Jesus, and for walking out His characters of just the fruit of the Spirit, of love, of peace, of purity, of faithfulness, of self-control. All of these things, right? So that's really just my heart with devotions, is laying these foundations, creating a safe space for God to come and encounter my children. I mean, we pray for God to come and encounter our family members, but we need to be faithful to create that space for Him to visit our children. We need to make sure that we are making room for Him. And so I've showed you a couple different snippets, whether we're working through a child's Bible story or a devotional book or having times of worship or prayer or even just doing fun crafts. At the end of the day, we just need to be faithful that we are meeting with Him, however that looks like. And so I hope that this encourages you. And if there's anything that you do that has been impactful for your family, please leave it in the comments below. I would love to glean from you and what the Holy Spirit has showed you. And I hope that this chatty, conversational-type video was fruitful and inspiring. And until next time, thank you for watching, and I will chat with you again soon. Bye!