These commandments that I give to you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.
–Deuteronomy 6:6-8
1 Invite the Lord into your home by reading His Word together.
2 Create a special place in your home to keep the Word. Involve family members in beautifying the space.
3 Say a blessing before dinner. Every topic on www.newchurchvineyard.org has a card of blessings that can be printed out.
4 Play uplifting music first thing in the morning on Sundays.
5 For one week, write down a blessing on a slip of paper every day and put it in a jar. Encourage everyone to get in the habit of looking for blessings, remembering that these can come directly from the Lord or through other people. See how the jar fills up over a week’s time!
6 Before reading a story to young children, tell the story in your own words to help them understand what they’re about to hear.
7 After reading a story from the Word, ask questions and give everyone in the family a chance to answer. Who are the characters? What is happening? When is it happening? Where does it happen? What is the Lord telling us?
8 As children learn to read, give them their own copies of the Word or Bible.
9 Help children to create a special place for the Word in their rooms.
10 Say the Lord’s Prayer together.
11 Every morning, say together: “This is the day which the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it.”
12 Read one or two verses from the Word aloud at breakfast.
13 Involve children in useful service. They can help deliver a meal to a family with a new baby, clean the church building, or do kind things for an elderly neighbor. Even a toddler can take great joy in carrying a newspaper to a neighbor’s doorstep!
14 Attend church as a family.
15 Have family worship, letting all family members participate in lighting candles, choosing passages to read, opening the Word, or putting out the candles.
16 In the evening, talk with your children about the choices they made to obey the Lord that day.
17 Encourage your children to talk to the Lord. Remind them that the Lord always knows what is going on with us.
18 When doing chores, remind children that they are serving the Lord. Encourage children to do tasks “honestly, justly, and faithfully” (Doctrine of Charity 158).
19 Read stories from the Word that illustrate angelic qualities such as kindness, courage, honesty, mercy, forgiveness, and obedience.
20 Read stories about heaven at bedtime like Where is Heaven? and other titles available.
21 Give each family member his or her own candle to light before reading the Word or worshipping.
22 Weekly, choose a quote from the Word for the family to learn.
23 Use Bible illustrations to help your children visualize the stories they read or hear.
24 Let your children see you praying and reading the Word.
25 Ask each family member to describe a purposeful Sunday activity. The Lord tells us that the Sabbath should include instruction about the Lord and His teachings, time to think about eternal life, rest and relaxation, and love to the neighbor. Choose one or two ideas to implement.
26 Sing songs about the Lord with your children. (See CD sales at store.newchurch.org.)
27 Involve children in tithing or charitable donations. Explain why they’re putting quarters in the offertory or giving money to a good cause.
28 Identify beautiful truths from the Word that point the way to joyful living. Create reminders (cards, stickers, or signs) to put up around your home.