A Great Family Devotional to Add to Your Christmas List
I love to interview people, and that means I go where people are. I’ve conducted interviews in some interesting locales: coffee shops, crowded hallways, commercial kitchens, women’s restrooms, and the sidelines of kiddie soccer games.
This spring, I interviewed author Grace Fox at a boarding gate in San Jose airport. Grace, an experienced journalist herself, knew I could barely hear her over the din of people chatting loudly all around us, so I just handed her my tape recorder and said, “Have at it.”
She told me about her new devotional book, 10-Minute Time Outs for You and Your Kids: Stories, Scriptures and Prayers You Can Share Together, to be released in January 2007. Intended for families with children between the ages of 8 and 15, this is a devotional for parents to read with their children.
The format is slightly different than Grace’s first two books (10-Minute Time Outs for Moms and 10-Minute Time Outs for Busy Women). Each of the 72 devotions opens with a key Scripture verse called Read the Clue. That’s followed by Discover the Treasure, a brief story that touches on themes such as friendship, keeping promises, and choosing wisely.
Next comes Share the Wealth, a discussion question that encourages discussion among parents and children, and a Scripture-based prayer. Each devotion concludes with Hide a Jewel, a short memory verse that relates to the theme of the day.
Grace says she wrote the devotional because she wants to help kids understand that God’s Word is absolute truth. Recent surveys show that only one in ten church-going youth believe in absolute truth. That statistic astounds and sobers Grace. “God wants us to be different; He wants us to shine as lights in the world. The stories and prayers teach kids how live God’s truth.”
Grace suggests that families try to make a priority of eating the evening meal together and reading the devotional. “As parents make family time a priority, they are setting an example for their children, so they’ll know how to do that with their own kids,” explains Grace.
10-Minute Time Outs for You and Your Kids makes it easy—and—fun to enjoy God’s Word together. “It presents the word of God as a treasure filled with pearls of wisdom and gems of truth to help us live life the way God intends us to live it,” says Grace.
Add it to your Christmas wish list and start next year out on the right foot with your family.
For more about Grace Fox and to subscribe to her free, monthly e-newsletter, visit www.gracefox.com.
Related articles:
Devotions for the Devotionally-Challenged (Review of 10-Minute Time Outs for Moms and 10-Minute Time Outs for Busy Women)
"No More 'Poor Me': 4 ways to cancel your pity party, by Grace Fox, Today's Christian Woman, Sept/Oct. 2006
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