Nancy Guthrie - One Year of Dinner Table Devotions and Discussion Starters: 365 Opportunities to Grow Closer to God as a Family

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One Year of Dinner Table Devotions and Discussion Starters: 365 Opportunities to Grow Closer to God as a Family

Copyright 2008 by Nancy Guthrie. All rights reserved.

Cover photo copyright by Veer. All rights reserved.

Interior photos of plates, hot dog, fruits, and vegetables copyright by Shutterstock. All rights reserved.

Interior icons copyright by iStockphoto. All rights reserved.

Author photo copyright 2008 by MicaelRene. All rights reserved.

Designed by Jennifer Ghionzoli

Edited by Stephanie Rische

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, second edition, copyright 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. (Some quotations may be from the NLT, first edition, copyright 1996.) Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version,NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc. TM Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com.

Scripture quotations marked NASB are taken from the New American Standard Bible, copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked NKJV are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. NKJV is a trademark of Thomas Nelson, Inc.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the Holy Bible, King James Version.

Scripture quotations marked The Message are taken from The Message by Eugene H. Peterson, copyright 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group. All rights reserved.

Scripture verses marked Phillips are taken from The New Testament in Modern English by J. B. Phillips, copyright J. B. Phillips, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1972. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked ESV are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version (ESV), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Guthrie, Nancy.

One year of dinner table devotions and discussion starters : 365 opportunities to grow closer to God as a family / Nancy Guthrie.

p. cm.

ISBN 978-1-4143-1895-0 (sc)

1. Family Prayers and devotions. 2. Devotional calendars. I. Title.

BV255.G88 2008

249 dc22 2008020548

Build: 2021-09-07 08:39:17 EPUB 3.0

M ost modern Christian families live with a nagging sense of guilt that they dont have any kind of consistent family devotions. Or maybe I should say my husband and I have lived with a nagging sense of guilt that we have not had any kind of consistent family devotions! But I dont think were alone in this.

Getting the kids to turn off the TV and computer and gather to read the Bible, to have a meaningful discussion everybody participates in, and to pray over anything other than a meal seems like too much of a daily hurdle for most families. Besides, most of us dont feel like we are authorities on the Bible, so we hardly know where to start. But we want to do something. And we want more than a daily chore that our children dread and cant wait to be done with. Were looking for something that wont be resisted or rejected as totally lame. We want a meaningful and personal discussion about things that really matter, something everyone takes part in.

Thats why Ive written One Year of Dinner Table Devotions and Discussion Starters. Because we need it at our house, and Im guessing you might need it at your house too.

One Year of Dinner Table Devotions and Discussion Starters helps families start in a natural gathering place around the dinner table. As the meal comes to a close, family members can take turns reading the dinner table devotion for that day. Each days devotion includes readings on a specific theme from two or three Scripture passages out of the accessible New Living Translation, a brief devotional thought, and three discussion-starter questions all designed to be done together as a family in ten to fifteen minutes (before everybody helps with the kitchen cleanup!).

It is written for families with children in all stages from elementary schooto high school who long for a way to have spiritual input in their childrens lives and who want Scripture to be naturally woven into their family life and conversations.

Whereas most family devotionals focus on Bible stories or on practical moral lessons, Dinner Table Devotions and Discussion Starters focuses on biblical themes, concepts, and words, in ways that are understandable to children without talking down to adults or teens. It will help your family take a step back to look at the big picture of what God is doing in the world and his purposes and plans in creating and redeeming the world. Once you and your family have worked your way through this book, you will have discussed nearly every major attribute of God and a host of profound theological truths, such as justification, redemption, substitution, and sanctification without all those daunting words. You will have looked into important concepts from the Bible, such as covenant, adoption, judgment, and redemption, as well as spiritual realities, such as hell, angels, resurrection, and glorification. This is not dry theology for theologys sake, but living theology that makes a huge difference in how we do battle against temptation, deal with disappointment, and determine our futures.

Over the course of the next year, your family will go deeper into developing an understanding of who God is, what he is like, what he expects, and what he is doing. Together you can embark on a journey of understanding who we are, why we need a Savior, and what it means to place our faith solely in Jesus. Holy living flows out of that.

The format of a short devotion followed by three discussion questions is designed to turn the devotional time into a family-wide discussion rather than a one-person lecture or reading. This is not a continuation of the school day or Sunday school but an opportunity to apply biblical truths to the most important areas of life.

If youve rarely read and discussed Gods Word together as a family, it can be awkward at first. But that initial awkwardness fades as conversations are sparked and understanding deepens. We have a treasure to pass on to our children the Bible, which contains Gods message to us and the answers to lifes greatest questions. Because it is so important to us, we want to talk about it.