16 Best Family Devotions (For All the Family)

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Common questions amongst time-poor Christian parents who want to nurture their children’s faith might be: What are the best family devotions? What are the best ways to come together as a family around God’s word? What will really ignite our faith as individuals and as a family?

And will we make it out through a whole devotion without strangling each other?

(Seriously, though, will we?)

Hands-down the best thing we can do for our families is lead them towards God, nurturing their faith and ours, as we open the Bible and pray together. Here are the best family devotions our family has found to facilitate this.

If you’re not raising small kids right now, why not bless a family you know with one of these fabulous devotions for families? You’ll be adding a fun surprise to their day, as well as blessing them with special family God-times which could have eternal significance.

This not only strengthens our faith (and, my goodness, don’t we all need some of that right now?) but strengthens our family ties too. If you hadn’t previously thought of gathering your family together for a devotion, then I really hope this post inspires you to do that.

And if you’re sceptical that your family will actually be able to cope, check out my post Family Devotion Ideas (When Your Kids Are Running Riot).

Which family devotional should we try?

The following list will give you plenty of ideas, but here are two more.

1. If you’re coming near to Lent or Advent, you may like to pick up a resource which is specific to this season. I have a post on Lent Devotions for Families which includes a wide variety of helpful resources, suitable for all kinds of families, and also 20 Best Books to Read During Advent if you’re looking for something to try in December. For a more playful, interactive approach, you could also try a Jesse Tree (Advent) or Resurrection Eggs (Lent).
2. Don’t underestimate the power of simply reading the Bible to your children, without a devotional guide to accompany it. I have a comprehensive list of Bibles for children of all ages here, as well as a guide to 100 Short Memory Verses for Kids in case you want to go down the Scripture memorisation route.

Bible Devotions for Families

1. Table Talk

Age suggestion: 3-7

This is a wonderful resource to use with young-ish children – I’d say if your family had a combination of preschoolers and primary-aged kids, then this would be a good choice. It’s designed to be done around a table, so would work really well during a meal, when everyone is sat down anyway. (IMHO food is an excellent way to keep kids occupied…)

Each day is short and manageable, and the Bible passages link in with XTB notes, which is great if your older kids are following these anyway. You get a starter question, a short Bible passage, some questions to think it through, and then a prayer idea.

How can I put this? My family have very short attention spans when it comes to family devotional studies – so even a Table Talk session, which is beautifully succinct, might be a little too much for us.

In this case, you could easily leave out the starter question, or cut down the ‘talk’ and ‘think’ sections, to make it even briefer.

2. The Lion Storyteller Family Bible

Age suggestion: 4-8

This family Bible features 41 Bible stories, each with questions and interactive ideas to go along with the story, and would suit families with under 8s who enjoy read-aloud stories. Each story is illustrated in colour – and, read as a whole, give a pretty good Bible overview. You could attempt one per week, for example, and it would see you through most of the year.

There are quite a few questions (usually a good 4-5 at the end of each story, plus some dotted throughout), but of course you could just pick one or two to get discussion going. The point is not to cover all the given material, but that there is plenty of it, to give you options to suit your family’s age, stage and style.

A particular strength is that the questions focus more on the ‘why’s of each story, so you won’t feel frustrated that your kids aren’t being encouraged to think deeply about what they’ve heard.

3. Indescribable: 100 Devotions about God and Science

Age suggestion: 5-9

Particularly great for scientific kids who love exploring the world around them, this book contains 100 devotions to do daily, weekly, or whenever suits you. Each devotion contains a Bible passage to look up, a reflection from author Louie Giglio, a prayer and a scientific fact.

The aim is to get kids praising the awesome God who made our incredible universe. It’s a bit wordy, so your kids would have to be really interested in this kind of stuff – or old enough to be able to sit and listen for a few minutes while you read – but the content is very strong, and guaranteed to raise fascinating questions and discussions with your children.

And, when you’ve finished, you can grab the sequel: How Great is Our God, for even more fascinating reflections on God and science.

4. Faith at Home mini mags (UK only)

Age suggestion: 3-11

These wonderful mini-mags, produced by experienced children’s writer and mum Victoria Beech (Godventure), are great for creative, active kids. The magazines each take a different theme or Bible passage, and include loads of ways to explore the Bible passage creatively using art, craft, music, poetry, outdoor adventures, and buckets of imagination.

The magazines are produced every month, and you can either buy them on their own or sign up for a monthly subscription. Not only is this option cheaper, it means you’ll have a brand-new resource posted through your letterbox every month without even thinking about it!

Highly recommended for kids who like to explore the Bible in active ways!

(Ooh, and don’t forget to check out Victoria’s guest post for this very blog, all about How to Have a Family Passover Meal!)

5. 52 Faith Adventures for Dads and their Kids

Care for the Family has produced this more active type of family devotional: 52 activities for dads to do with their families, each one linked to a Bible story or an aspect of faith.

But as with most books with these kinds of titles, the content could be used by dads or mums! Anyone who’s looking to engage their kids in faith through fun, memory-making ways would appreciate this guide.

And contrary to what you might expect, the activities are not all hiking and building fires. There’s a good mix of indoors and outdoors activities, sport and creative, noisy and quiet. Choose what your kids will enjoy, then go for it!

6. This is Awesome Cutlery – family devotionals

Age suggestion: 5-11

This unique resource is based on popular kids’ album This is Awesome Cutlery. (Check this post for more brilliant family worship music!)

There are 12 songs on the album, and 24 devotionals in this little book – two per song. Each devotional is short and snappy, featuring brief prayers, Bible passages, questions and humorous interjections from Captain Awesome and Cutlery Boy. It’s a clever structure: the change in pace between the different short activities will help keep the attention of children who might switch off with a longer passage, longer prayer or greater number of questions.

Although this would definitely be a great family devotional option for Awesome Cutlery fans, it’s possible to use the devotional even if you’re not familiar with the album. (Although as you can easily access Awesome Cutlery via YouTube or Spotify, why not get to know the songs as you do each devotional?)

7. All Together Now – family devotionals

Age suggestion: 5-11

This is the second album and set of family devotionals from Awesome Cutlery. Like the first, it features 24 devotions – two each on the 12 songs from the album.

There are a couple of differences in the format. The initial prayer has been replaced by an ‘ice breaker’ question, and the brain teaser has been removed (as these are essentially the same thing!). There are slightly more questions overall, and I like that an extra (short) section has been included to encourage children to think deeper – ‘respond’, ‘challenge’, ‘imagine’ etc.

We had a go with these devotions in the car, which might sound a bit random, but it’s where we have a CD player, where we often listen to our Awesome Cutlery album anyway, and where we’re often looking for activities to pass the time on long road trips! (Have you tried road trip devos before? I recommend them!)

8. Exploring the Bible

Age suggestion: 5-11

This is a really simple way to open the Bible with primary-aged children, and works well as a family devotional as well as a child’s individual devotional. If you follow the whole book from start to finish, it will take you through the whole Bible in a year with your kids. Obviously you won’t read every single verse, but your kids (and you!) will end up with a thorough narrative of the Bible.

Each week has an introductory bit to read together, but each passage has just one question, making family devotionals super quick and open-ended, allowing for further discussion and prayer time – or for dashing off to the toilet, if you’re our kids (whose bladders all seem to sync for family devotion times…).

9. Life Together

Age suggestion: 5-11

Steve and Bekah Legg are experienced parents, and this shows in the devotions for families they’ve produced. They’ve kept things short and snappy: each devotion is just two pages long and more than manageable with a family (our kids were aged 12, 10, 7 and 7 when we tried it, and the length was just right).

The Bible passage for each day is included in the book, making it a great choice for holidays – or, in fact, any day when you can’t find your Bible. Then you get a helpful explanation/application of the Bible passage, fun facts and stories from Steve and Bekah, some questions to discuss together, and a prayer. It’s not the deepest, most challenging resource, but it’s more than manageable for busy families, and it will get you reading the Bible regularly – what’s not to like?

Plus if you enjoy this one, there are more in the series: Time Together, All Together and Growing Together, amongst others.

10. Devotional Dippers

Age suggestion: 5-11

10 of Those are onto something with these! They are truly awesome.

Great for 5-11s, you literally pull one out of the tube whenever you have a few minutes (over a meal is ideal). Each stick contains a ‘key word’, accompanying Bible passage to look up, a question and prayer idea. They all fit on a stick, so they have to be short and sweet!

The tube just sits on a shelf in our dining room, and every so often we pull out a stick. All our kids (aged 5-10) absolutely LOVE the randomness of this! And although we haven’t done this consistently, I’m seriously thinking it will be our daily devotional resource after Easter. It’s certainly one of the best family devotions for busy families, as it’s so quick and easy, but can really lead to some good discussions.

So far, there are three tubes you can buy: we have the Key Words one, and there are God and Prayer tubes too.

11. Compassion Explorers

Age suggestion: 5-11

This is a wonderful free resource for family devotions, downloadable as a PDF here. The seven sessions, produced by the charity Compassion, focus on social issues through the lens of the Bible: justice, love, compassion, worship etc.

Each day’s material could actually be done over a few days as it’s very comprehensive, but the global focus kept our children’s attention. The devotionals include an introduction (usually a true story from elsewhere in the world to illustrate the day’s theme), Bible devotional, prayer ideas, fun facts and creative activity.

We enjoyed this resource, and I think many families would. It’s educational, Biblical and hugely thought-provoking.

12. A Taste of Asia

Age suggestion: 5-11

These 21 beautifully-illustrated devotions for families focus on different parts of Asia. Produced by 10 of Those in conjunction with OMF, each day’s double-page spread features stories and facts from the country or people group in question, as well as an opening and closing prayer, a short Bible passage, and a couple of questions. There’s often a creative activity or challenge too, something children can attempt later on.

We enjoyed this resource, which was unusual in feeling both manageable and thorough, with plenty of space for creativity. It’s beautifully designed, so would make a great gift too!

13. Family Time

Age suggestion: 5-11

The subtitle of this handy paperback is ’82 devotional life lessons and simple prayers’ which seems to aptly sum up what you get here: devotional life lessons, each based on a verse of Scripture.

Each day is short and simple: play (something to play or discuss), say (something to read together, ending with the Bible verse) and pray (a written-out prayer). This book is a godsend for exhausted parents, as everything’s there for you and it’s very do-able.

Each day’s ‘devotional life lesson’ links to something children will relate to from their own experience. For example: being worried, when we get in trouble, sickness, doing our school work, and so on. Relating the Bible’s words to how we act in our everyday situations is so powerful, and this is a really good way of impressing God’s Word on our children. In addition, towards the back of the book, there are three mini themes: festivals/holidays, the Lord’s Prayer and the Ten Commandments. The ‘devotional life lesson’ format continues, but under these three subheadings.

Our kids enjoyed these devotions, especially as the ‘play’ activity at the start did a great job of hooking them in.

Prayer-based Family Devotions

Sometimes you’re looking not so much for a Bible devotion to read together, but a way of developing your family’s prayer life, particularly interceding for others. Here are three resources my family would recommend to help:

1. Our Family Prayer Journal (UK only)

Age suggestion: 2-11

We really like this journal, which features space to give thanks, pray for others and pray for ourselves, plus stickers to use when prayers have been answered, or just because. I like that there’s a Bible verse to read each day, so that even if you read no other Bible, at least you’ve seen one verse!

It’s a great, short and simple way to focus our minds, and it’s undated, so you can dip in every day, once a week, or whenever works for you! It would also work brilliantly alongside a Bible-reading resource.

2. Open Doors World Watch List children’s pack (UK only)

Age suggestion: 2-11

This is another free resource, but please believe me when I say that that’s not the only reason we like it. The World Watch List pack helps families to pray for countries on the ‘world watch list’ (the 50 countries where Christians face the most persecution for following Jesus). At time of writing, this resource is being updated annually too, so you can not only keep praying year after year, but be assured of up-to-date information.

In your pack (which Open Doors will send to you FREE upon request), you get a world map wall poster, with the 50 countries labelled, a ‘prayer passport’ booklet with a prayer and flag for each country, and a set of stickers to stick to the map each time you pray for a country.

It’ll keep you going for a year if you do one a week, but you could obviously whizz through quicker (the prayers are very short) and do it over a couple of months. We’ve enjoyed pairing this book with the next resource, so it’s taking us a bit longer.

3. Window on the World

Age suggestion: 5-16

One of the best family devotions, we’ve found, is to focus onto different parts of the world in prayer. Window on the World is a brilliant resource to use for primary-aged kids right up to teenagers, with loads of fascinating stories, facts, colour photos, maps and prayer points for a variety of places around the world.

Focusing on areas which have far less than we do is a healthy habit for being able to count our blessings and know God’s provision and comfort.

>> Read my full Window on the World review. <<

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If you’d like more children’s Bible recommendations, do check out WHAT IS THE BEST CHILDREN’S BIBLE TO BUY FOR MY CHILD? which lists at least 20 different ones, suitable for babies to teens!

I hope you’ve found some inspiration amongst our best family devotions – but if you’re still unsure of how to get your noisy, crazy family engaged in God-time, be encouraged that my family is hugely chaotic and we (sometimes) manage it – check out Family Devotional Ideas (When Your Kids are Running Riot) for inspiration and hope!

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