The One Year Book of Josh McDowell's Family Devotions

I like to give my kids "spiritual breakfast" before they run out of the hosue for school. This is something my preteens can read for themselves and look up their verse for the day. That doesn't mean they'll memorize it but it's a small investment. If we have time to read it together we can discuss it for 5 minutes; again, this doesn't take long but sets a good tone for the day. It gets my seal of approval!

The questions at the end of each days devotion has helped our family to be open and discuss issues that may not have come up otherwise.

I looked around for another devotional book to use with my children. I took a chance on this one and have been very pleased. I like the 'real to life' examples they give with each spiritual lesson.

I really like this devotional.The application is good for everyday life of kids in school. I would recommend it for older elementary and middle school. Some of them are a little too old for 1st and 2nd grade children.

The tempo of this devotional is great. It is short enough to keep my teenage son engaged throughout our after-dinner devotions, but not so short that it becomes a pointless reading of words, primarily because of one key feature that I have found in (sadly) few (read: no) other family devotional: The "To Discuss" questions. I learned recently that my son didn't like our family dinners because they weren't meaningful for him. I didn't understand that until I finally learned that teens don't see questions like "how was school" and "how was your day" to be meaningful questions, even though I thought so since I was interested in his life. No, they want to discuss issues. This devotional sets those discussions up for you by including discussion questions at the end of each day's devotion that are based on the Bible reading for the day and on the story (or case) for that day. Without the discussion, the devotional probably takes no more than 5 minutes, but my family has sat for up to a half hour after dinner discussing the lessons in this devotional. And for those who aren't prayer warriors, the prayer after discussion is very short. Have a longer one if you want, but I don't usually. All in all, an exceptional devotional for talking to your family!