y word to family Bible devotions is brevity. Children can’t be expected to comprehend and appreciate lengthy adult spiritual activities. Four or five minutes devoted to one or two Bible verses, followed by a short prayer, usually represents the limits of attention during the preschool years. To force young children to comprehend eternal truths in an eternal devotional can be eternally dangerous. Dobson, p37"In his book Dr. Dobson Answers Your Questions, Dr. James Dobson says the previous statement to get parents to realize that trying to keep a younger child’s attention can be harmful to their spiritual life. Fathers need to be in the home have family devotionals, but they do not need to be suffocating there kids. One would not think that he or she could get to much God, however at a young age it can be harmful. If a father forces his children to sit and be still for long periods of time then they will become bored and not want to do that. To often fathers can be found doing this with home devotionals. Instead of making it a fun time where everyone is enjoying themselves it becomes a time of hassle for the parents to try and keep their children quiet and still. If parents of younger children would approach the family devotional with a more open attitude that says fun instead of harsh learning then the kids would get more out of it and so would the parents. Also, if a child has a bad experience with family devotionals at a young age then they can possibly have spiritual problems at an older age. This is because they are associating something bad with God. Although this child may not realize it in the back of their mind every time God is brought it up it triggers the past and makes them think about the bad time whether they want to or not. So, to avoid that problem fathers need to make sure family devotional time is encouraging to the whole family. Another spiritual leadership role that a father should take is on...
