Parents and Kids Daily Devotional "First Things First"Sample

Always plan ahead, it wasn’t raining when Noah built the ark” - Richard C. Cushing.

God wants us to make good plans as we go through this life. Proverbs 21:5 (NIV) says, “The plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty.”

There was a conflict going on in the early church. In Acts 6, the Greek-speaking people expressed a strong protest against the Hebrew congregation. They felt that their widows were neglected in the daily process of distributing food. In this conflict, there were two choices that Jesus’ disciples could make. First, they could be indifferent and ignore the protests of their congregation. Or secondly, they could get together and devise a good plan to solve the problem.

Fortunately, they rushed to hold a meeting to think carefully about a solution to this problem. They decided to delegate the task of distributing food to seven people who were full of wisdom from the Holy Spirit. With this solution, Jesus’ disciples could return to focus on prayer services and God’s Word. The result of good planning is recorded in Acts 6:7 that the Word of God spread widely and the number of disciples in Jerusalem increased, also a large number of priests surrendered and believed.

The story in Acts 6 proves that good planning is according to God’s will and can help us to spread the Gospel more effectively. Good planning also helps us not waste our time and our future. Let’s use the beginning of this year to make good plans.

Devotion for Parents
What are your plans as parents this year?

Ponder this and discuss it during family devotion time.

Devotion for Kids
What plans do you have for this year?

Think about it. Write it on a piece of paper if necessary. Then discuss your ideas during family devotion time.

Family Devotion Time
Talk about your plans. What you want to do and how to achieve it.

Pray and surrender your plans to God.