Sammy called me up and seemed a bit discouraged.

She said, “I talked with our kids last night, and only half of them are doing daily quiet times.”

I asked her, “How many were doing them before?”

She said, “None.”

I said, “Praise the Lord! Half of the kids in your church are doing daily quiet times. That’s amazing!”

She thought momentarily and understood my excitement, which changed her perspective.

Sammy stepped out in faith and shifted a paradigm in her church.

She switched from Christian education to discipleship.

She taught children how to walk with Christ daily and equipped them for ministry.

Kids learned to pray, share their faith, and serve using their spiritual gifts.

She trained and equipped parents to be the spiritual leaders of their homes.

Her priority was to get kids in her church into the Word of God daily.

She wanted kids in her church to develop spiritual disciplines—spiritual habits.

It takes between 18 and 254 days to develop a habit for life.^[1]

You might ask why it is so crucial for a child to be in the Word of God daily.

LifeWay research found that the number one predictor of a young adult's spiritual health is based on them regularly reading the Word of God as a child while growing up.^[2]

While serving in a church in Fort Worth, TX, we had about 80 percent of our kids doing daily quiet times.

Some of these who are now adults have shared with me that the habits they learned at a young age have carried them into young adulthood.

A lot of them have their own kids now.

Here are six ways to get kids in your church into the Word of God daily:

1. Meet with parents and share with them the importance of their child spending time in the Word of God daily.
2. Keep it simple. Start with devotionals that only take between five and fifteen minutes to complete.
3. Provide accountability. Encourage leaders to call parents to encourage them to make their child’s daily quiet times a priority.
4. Celebrate with those who are faithful and those just getting started.
5. Do not become legalistic. The quickest way to kill the faith of a child is to become legalistic.
6. Celebrate the small victories. “Praise the Lord! You did two quiet times this week. I bet you can do three next week.”

Throughout the past 22 years, L.I.T. Ministries has developed practical daily quiet time devotionals for kids in 1^st-6^th grades that only take about five to fifteen minutes to complete. Check out our free samples.

^[1] https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-long-does-it-really-take-to-form-a-habit/#:~:text=A%20hallmark%202009%20study%20on,running%20for%2015%20minutes%20before

^[2] Jana Magruder, Nothing Less: Engaging Kids in a Lifetime of Faith, (Nashville, Lifeway Christian Resources: 2017), 50.