Are you looking for some daily wisdom for yourself or your family members? Do you have tweens or teens in your home? Do you need a good way to guide them to receive wisdom from the Lord? Why not take a journey through Proverbs? The book of Proverbs is loaded with wisdom for living and choice-making for every stage of life.
Here’s what our family is currently doing – and, PTL, I can actually see some wisdom reaped in our teenagers from this daily exercise.
I printed the entire book of Proverbs from the Message Translation for each member of our family and stapled them together as booklets. You can get any translation you want at www.BibleGateway.com. Then I gave each child a new highlighter. Every day before breakfast, we all have some time alone in God’s Word and prayer, and we read the chapter in Proverbs that corresponds with the day. (If it is the 26th of the month, we all read Proverbs 26.) Then we choose the one verse from the chapter that stands out the most to us. We highlight the verse, and put the month and year beside it. Then we pray that wisdom into our lives, or respond to it accordingly. This is done individually.
Then, in the middle of the breakfast-brush-your-teeth-take-your-vitamins-rush of the morning, we each share what Proverb we highlighted and why. Sometimes our children won’t have understood parts of the chapter, so we explain what those portions mean or to what they refer.
James has been reading a Proverb-a-day for as long as I’ve known him, and he has God-given wisdom. I want that kind of wisdom too, and I want that for our teenagers. We’ve all been blessed by adding this exercise to our morning quiet times. (For our teens, they replaced their devotional books with this Proverb study this year.)
I’m seeing it pay dividends already – in my own life and in the lives of James, Nathan and Abigail. James and I look forward to what God will continue to build in all of our lives through His Word. 🙂
“Sanctify them [purify, consecrate, separate them for Yourself, make them holy] by the Truth; Your Word is Truth.”
John 17:17, Amp
LOVE this idea! We are studying Proverbs right now with our children but not in this way. You are such an encouragement!!
This is a great idea. I was thinking earlier today that it would be nice to do a quiet time together and this would be simple to implement!
Hi Jen! I love this idea. I had heard (and at times have done) reading a Proverbs a day as it correlates to the day of the month. BUT, I LOVE the idea of printing out Proverbs for each family member and giving the highlighter, etc. I am so doing this. Right now I read the daily devotion from Jesus Calling (the kids version) to the kiddos as they eat breakfast. I love that this allows them to have their own quiet times. PS ~ Have you published the “names of God” on your blog before? I was thinking about what a blessing that is to have each day….. perhaps a blog post idea? 🙂 I am praying for you right now Jen as I savor my coffee (which makes me think of you). Love you Friend!!!