Daily Devotions
Spend more time with your family
“When the Almighty was yet with me, when my children were around me.”
Job 29:5 NKJV
Here’s a true saying: “The family that prays together, stays together.” Here’s another true saying: “The family that eats together and communicates, raises well-adjusted children.” When the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center studied five hundred teenagers, here’s what they discovered: “Children whose parents ate dinner with them five times a week or more were the least likely to be on drugs, to be depressed, or to be in trouble with the law. They were also more likely to do well in school, and be surrounded by a supportive circle of friends. Even when families met together at a fast-food restaurant they got the same results. By contrast, the more poorly adjusted teens ate with their parents only three times a week or less. What do these findings mean? (1) You need to make time to be involved with your children on a daily basis, especially during the formative years. (2) When you give your children things you give them short-term pleasure and excitement, but when you give them time you give them self-worth. This may call for working fewer hours or eliminating certain activities, but it’s an investment you’ll never regret. Job was one of the wealthiest men in his generation. But after tragedy struck and all ten of his children died in a single day, he looked back and wrote, “The Almighty was yet with me, when my children were around me.” You need to ask yourself: “Am I spending enough time with my family?” If you don’t like the answer, start changing things.
