When my oldest children were preschool age, I incorporated Bible lessons and scripture memory into our Morning Time. At that point, we primarily read from The Jesus Storybook Bible and I dabbled in the devotions from Leading Little Ones to God. We also memorized short passages of scripture that I hand-picked. While I loved both of those resources and still use them now, when my children were around age 5 and 6 I wanted something we could do as a family that would focus more on character training and Biblical application. 

My husband and I decided that it was time to prioritize a time in our daily rhythm that he could begin leading  the family in devotions and prayer. We shifted his work schedule around to make this possible over breakfast each day before he left for work.

After much searching, we decided on using the family devotional, Our 24 Family Ways by Clay Clarkson. The devotional’s premise is that you are creating a culture in your home of how your family thinks and acts.  Based on the idea that we are called to “train up a child in the way he should go”, Clarkson maps out 24 ways which you can use to teach and instruct your children. I loved this idea because I felt like it was giving clarity and verbiage to the character traits I desire to see in my children. We refer to the 24 ways given in this book all the time now, even after finishing the devotional, to redirect heart attitudes and behaviors. We have now used this devotional twice and I can't recommend it enough!

The devotional’s layout is simple. It is set up to be used for 24 weeks, one week per Family Way. The 24 weeks are broken into 6 sections. 

The six sections are:

1. Concerning authorities in our family: these ways address love and obedience to God, parents, and other people of authority. 
2. Concerning relationships in our family: these ways address having a heart of love, service, encouragement, and forgiveness towards others. 
3. Concerning possessions in our family-: these ways address thankfulness, contentment, generosity, and stewardship of belongings.
4. Concerning work in our family: these ways address diligence, taking initiative, working cooperatively, and taking personal responsibility for cleanliness.
5. Concerning attitudes in our family: these ways address choosing joy, being a peacemaker, patience, and showing grace to others.
6. Concerning choices in our family: these ways address making right choices in the midst of peer pressure, self-control, and truthfulness.

Each section has 4 Family Ways and each Family way includes a picture with a story starter for discussion, and 5 days of questions, scripture readings, discussion prompts, and prayer ideas. Each day is presented using the acronym ARTS.

A – Ask a Question

This section gives the leader questions to get the children chatting before reading the bible passage.

R – Read the Bible

Bible passages or stories that are applicable to each day’s topic are listed here with a short summary. My kids loved to use their own Bibles to look up these passages and take turns reading aloud to the family. 

T – Talk about it

Here, questions are given that relate to the passage as well as open up discussion for life application.

S – Speak to God

In this section, prayer prompts are offered as suggestions. 

In addition to that, each week has one passage of scripture intended for memorization, some commentary, and a character trait highlight. Our family devotional time is about 30 minutes. We could easily fit everything in each day, as well as take a few minutes for reviewing previous weeks’ verses that we had memorized.

Here are the reasons we loved using Our 24 Family Ways:

It was engaging for children of all ages

We used this devotional when my oldest children were 5 and 7 years old and most of the content was perfectly suited for their age, but could absolutely be used for children older as well. We did skip over some questions and adjust the wording of some things to make it easier for them to grasp, but for the most part it was a great fit. 

It was easy to open and use with no preparation

Each morning my husband would open the book, glance over the topic and was able to jump in and lead without missing a beat. 

It set us up for life application and practical training

The verbiage of the ways gave my husband I language to use that my children knew from devotional time as we addressed situations in our home. I found this super helpful for training and discipline and plan to continue to use these ways in our home for years.

It encouraged the children to think and discuss

Each day’s devotional is based on scripture and the prompt questions get the children thinking and talking, rather than the parent reading long passages and telling the children what to think. I loved watching my children’s cognitive and language skills develop over the time we used this devotional.

It is designed to bring your family closer to God and each other

I loved the idea that each Family Way that we taught was empowering the children to take a step nearer to God and to us as a family unit as we talked about it being something that we all collectively do in our family.

Each week I wrote the Family Way and the passage for memorization on our chalkboard that hangs behind our dining room table. I would also write each person’s initial and 4 boxes for each person to check off as we recited the scripture we were memorizing that week. On Mondays we introduced the verse by reading and reciting it together a few times. The rest of the days we each got a chance to recite it from memory and check off a box if we were able to say it without looking. 

I saw the value of our children having these 24 foundational passages of scripture hidden deep in their hearts so much that I wanted a way to continue to reinforce them in our home. I tried to think of short activities that my children could do each day of the week to reinforce memorization and application of the passage. From that place, Light the Way was created. 

Light the Way is a daily scripture memory workbook along with easy-to-use scripture cards and display sheets for reinforcement. Children  recite, write, draw and interact with character-building scriptures as they commit them to memory. This can be used alongside the devotional book Our 24 Family Ways by Clay Clarkson or independently as an intentional scripture memory tool.

Here is what Light the Way includes:

Scripture Activity Book

The activity book includes hands-on educational activities for each passage of scripture. This is what you will find in the book:

• Print and cursive copywork sheets - Children will copy the week’s verse in either print, cursive, or both. This practice improves proper spacing, penmanship, grammar, spelling, and punctuation skills.
• Cut and paste scramble activity - Children will cut out each phrase or word and then paste them in the correct order on the lines. Along with another method to practice memorization, this hands-on activity improves fine motor skills.
• Fill in the blank activity - Children will fill in the missing words in the verses.
• Journal prompt sheet - Children will complete the sentence for scripture application and creative writing skills. After writing a sentence or more to complete the thought, they will illustrate. This will help solidify the scripture application to their minds and hearts.

Scripture Memory Cards

Each scripture includes a 3.5” X 5” card for quick reference. You may want to hole punch the corner of each week’s card and keep a key ring of all 24 verses. Another option is to file them away in an index card box for easy review of verses over time.

Scripture Display Sheets

Each scripture includes a full-page display sheet to hang in your home or classroom.

 

Whether or not your family uses Our 24 Family Ways, Light the Way is a great resource for children to memorize and apply key scriptures.