Kids are all alive. It's the end of a long day... but they all survived. Some of them even ate food. The dog still has hair. All-in-all... not a bad day! But you are exhausted. You know you need to start incorporating some spiritual activities and rhythms, and doing a devotional before bedtime maybe makes the most sense, but it just seems like so much work... maybe tomorrow?
This is where Lamp Lighters comes in. Lamp Lighters is a family devotional program whose sole purpose is to bring your family into God's story by Reading, Singing, and Praying together. We designed each section to assist the overloaded parent with devoting time consistently to our God. Let's look inside to see what you could be bringing to your family each night.
Read
God’s word shapes and molds us. At every age and skill level the Bible imparts wisdom and understanding. The authors of the Bible wrote it to speak to the youngest babe, to the wizened scholar, and everyone in between.
Families with very young children will probably be most comfortable reading from an illustrated children's Bible until your children are ready for longer readings from the text.
We hope that our resources will enable you to create a sustainable plan that allows your family to begin reading, thinking, and talking about God's word every day of your lives. Our hope is that this will continue until they leave your home and one day to start talking about these things with their own families.
Recite
The next portion of Lamp Lighters is the most challenging; it is facts, figures, structural details, and memory verses pulled from sections of the Bible for review. At Springbrook, we are moving through the entire Bible over the course of 3 years, so we have divided the factual material up by quarter. Every three months we take a deep dive into different books and topics. At the time of this writing, we have just started our third quarter, which is examining the books of Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.
We believe that disciples of God's word not only read the Bible, but commit parts of it to memory, try to understand the narrative structure, and how it is all pointing to Jesus.
We have divided these sections into easy (green), medium (yellow), and hard (red) difficulty questions. Families are encouraged to challenge their kids and work daily to help them memorize and internalize these important ideas, concepts, and facts. Each Sunday morning we encourage kids of all ages to come forward and review these challenging concepts in front of the church.
Sing
Almost a third of the Bible is poetry. Much of this poetry was meant to be sung as worship to God. Singing as a family will allow you to encourage one another and remind each other of the truths found in scripture.
We recommend a mix of hymns, Psalms, devotional, contemporary and children's songs (if you have children). This variation will allow your family to not get into a rut and continue to learn new songs and perfect old ones. A family harmonizing in song serves as an excellent metaphor for the type of unity and effort God calls the Christian family to in his Kingdom.
Your digital copy of Lamp Lighters has links to youtube versions of songs, most of which have lyrics available in the video.
Pray
Praying as a family is vital to keeping open communication to God and between one another. Jesus spends many early mornings and late nights speaking to his father.
We have use the Psalms, prayers of Jews and Christians in the Bible, and traditional prayers of the church. We hope that you can make prayer a habit within the spiritual foundation of your family.
Get Started
Now you are ready to get your family started in their devotional practices. Click on the links below to view each section of Lamp Lighters online.
Digital copies of this material is available through our support page. We also have options for obtaining physical copies of our material as well as local congregational and ministry support and troubleshooting.