If you do not already have a family night selected for each week, please sit down with your spouse and pick a day that you will devote to building your family unit. Having a regular family night offers two main benefits. For starters, by having a regular family night we are creating a strong family bond. Secondly, it offers opportunities for us as parents to spend quality time getting to know our children and teaching our children more about the bible.
The bible instructs parents to teach their children Godly principals as often as they can in Deuteronomy 6:6-7, “And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today. Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up.”
Family night will be great just because you made your family a priority! However, there are five ingredients that will help to make family night a success. You may choose to use only one at a time or you can try to incorporate all of them for each family night.
1. Special meal – try not to spend more than 30 minutes on eating the meal
- Keep it simple
- Change the location, maybe have a picnic on a blanket in the living room or in the backyard.
- Allow the kids to help make the meal or set the utensils out for the meal, you may also choose to use good China or ” You are Special” plates for special occasions like their birthday.
2. Devotional or Sharing Time– young children can listen for about 5 minutes, teenagers for 15 minutes
- the amount of time you spend on this category depends on the age and attention span of the children
- Try not to use this time as a lecture
- Get your children involved, ask questions that require them to say more than yes or no
- If your child seems like they are not into devotions don’t let that bother you. Kids listen to what you are saying to them even when they are acting as though they are not. Just try to remind for yourself why you are having family night.
3. Activities or Games– Plan for 15-20 minutes
- Playing games with your children helps to teach them about real life, how to win and lose, concentrate, and compete while maintaining self- control
- Craft projects may be a good idea especially for younger kids
- Action games may work best for older kids
4. Dessert or Snack– You will probably only need about 10 minutes or so to eat your sweets!
- try different desserts- fruits, cakes, ice cream etc.
- Allow your kids to eat as much as they want! Having a little extra food or desserts once a week will not hurt your them.
5. Prayer– Plan for 10 minutes
- alternate who prays at the end of family night, give each child a chance to pray
- You can also keep a prayer journal for when a family members has a specific prayer request, this will allow you to remember to pray and will show when or how God answered the prayer.
- You may choose to pray in the beginning of family night or during the meal, it doesn’t have to be the same time each time. It’s more important that you are having family night not so much of how it is being conducted. Have fun!