There’s a room in the front of our house that’s known as the “fancy office.” I can’t remember how it got that name or who coined it, but to this day that’s what it’s called although it is neither fancy nor an office.
But over the years, it became a sacred space where some of the most meaningful moments of discipleship happened in our family, and it played an important role in our school days as well.
Our general morning routine was to have breakfast together, where I always shared what God taught me in my morning devotions. As the kids got older, they started sharing their takeaways as well, which was an amazing development.
Then, we’d move to the fancy office for history, literature, science, and the other living subjects.
We’d cuddle on the couches, read aloud, and have the most incredible discussions together. I learned a lot about my kids in the fancy office.
In the evenings, it was also in the fancy office where we would gather for family devotions and prayer time together with David. We’d share prayer requests and praises, talk about our day, and often read a chapter of the Bible together.
When our children were much older, I realized that the fancy office was where a whole lot of the formal discipleship of our kiddos took place that supplemented the discipleship that was going on during all the in-between times of our day as Deuteronomy 6 teaches us.
The fancy office is indeed a special place!
Many people ask me about how we did things as the kids were growing up, and I was thinking recently about praying together as a family.
From the time the children were very young, David and I prioritized praying together as a family. We did it at mealtimes and bedtime, of course, but we wanted prayer to be a big part of our family culture.
One of the amazing gifts of having older kids and a “rear-view mirror” on parenting is that you can see more clearly how the smallest, most seemingly simple and insignificant things can make the biggest impact on your children and their faith.
No, really!
God in His great wisdom gave parents the opportunity to shepherd their children’s hearts through daily life and then He gave us the Holy Spirit to lead us to transformational ideas.
We incorporated prayer and praise into our family culture even when the kids were very young. I started a notebook filled with their prayer requests and praises. They prayed for their friends who got boo boos, their Sunday School teachers, etc. They gave praises for little things like not stepping on a caterpillar who was in the middle of the sidewalk.
At the time, it was sweet and simple. Looking at that notebook now that they’re grown is a treasure.
But all along the way, they were learning very practically that they can cast all their cares on the God Who loves them and Who is worthy of their trust because He cares so much for them as we see in I Peter 5:7.
We were whetting their appetite and setting their habits while they were young, so that it would be easier for them to cast their cares on Him as they got older as well.
What an opportunity!
As they got a little older, we kept a small steno pad (the cheap little ones you can get in the grocery store) in the fancy office. We would write a single prayer request on each page. Then when the Lord answered that prayer, we would fold the corner of the page up. Before our very eyes, we saw that notebook swell in size as the Lord faithfully answered our prayers.
They got to see a very clear object lesson that God does indeed hear and answer the prayers of His people like we learn in John 14:13-14.
They were also learning that God gives us the privilege of praying with others and enjoying the fellowship that comes as we watch Him answer prayers as we learn in Matthew 18:19-20.
That was preparing them to expect that God will answer prayers and getting them used to praying with others like we are called to do as the Body of Christ.
Both of those ideas were small and simple, but I can see how God used them beyond what I would have even imagined. He’s so good to His children.
Satan loves to derail Christian parents from discipling their children because they think it’s too complicated or they’re not equipped to do it, but as you seek His face and ask Him for wisdom to disciple your children, He will give it! It may even show up in a small, seemingly insignificant idea that you can put into action in your own fancy office.
However simple it may seem, don’t underestimate what God can do with your prayers, your time, and your tiny notebooks. Your “fancy office” moments may just shape a lifetime of faith.