I was a failure at family devotions. Again and again, we tried. We tried a new devotional book; we set aside time at the breakfast or dinner table. My husband and I set resolutions and recommitted to having Bible study and prayer with our sons. And after a few days, sometimes a few weeks, the habit got swept away in the busyness of our lives.  

I was a working parent, very involved in ministry, and I was dropping the ball so often that it wouldn’t even bounce anymore. Then I had to deal with the guilt! I knew I was commanded by Scripture as a parent to entrust God’s Word to my children and I was a failure. 

I remembered childhood friends whose families gathered in the living room, Bibles on their laps, to sing, read Scripture, and pray together. That was not happening at my house. I remembered kneeling in prayer every night when we visited my grandparents hearing my grandpa pray lo-o-ong prayers over our family and the community and everyone else. That was not happening on Percy Warner Boulevard.  

So what could we do? My husband and I could point fingers at one another and say, “You’ve got to lead this,” but ultimately it was a joint responsibility. We knew we should. We wanted to. But I was a failure. Or was I? 

We listened to records (yes, back then we did have tapes, but mostly we listened to records) with Christian music and stories. We read Bible stories at night and said our bedtime prayers. When they were in elementary school, as we waited at the door for the school bus every morning, the boys and I memorized Scripture. Years later, while I drove them to school, we prayed in the car (with our eyes open) about their school day. 

We listened to Adventures in Odyssey and Tinytown. We sang Christian songs. We adventured with the Sugar Creek Gang and Dallas O’Neill and discovered many Christian biographies. We studied for Bible competitions and reviewed memory verses. We talked about church and Scripture at the dinner table. We sought the Lord together when we met crises. 

Maybe we were doing just what Deuteronomy 6 tells us: as you go, as you sit at home, as you wake, as you lie down to sleep—teach your children about God and His Word.  

We weren’t formal and prescriptive. Our methods changed through the years as our sons grew. But Scripture was important in our home. Prayer was foundational to everyday life.  

We planted and watered seeds. We normalized conversations about God and faith and righteous living. We invited our children to share in our faith journey. 

Were we perfect? Certainly not. Far from it. But we provided (mostly) consistent examples of walking with Jesus and loving Him. We patterned our home life around church attendance and welcomed Christian friends. We invested in church camps and retreats and other youth events. We asked questions and analyzed decisions; we had hard conversations and also laughed together.  

I’m confessing this because I’m not the only one. Be as idealistic as you want. Set the bar high. The task is worth your time and effort. But if you fail, don’t stop.  

This commission to share our faith with the next generation is worth doing imperfectly. If you miss a day, start again the next day. If you miss a week, try again the next week. Something is better than nothing. Don’t quit just because you aren’t perfect.  

Maybe, if you keep valuing the most important things, the routines will grow more permanent, more natural, more ingrained into the fabric of your daily rhythms. And then, years from now, you’ll see your children sharing with their children what your parents and grandparents and great-grandparents shared with you.