Hopefully Devoted to Jesus—

During much of my early adolescence, I was absolutely infatuated with Olivia Newton-John—for her Aussie accent as well as her music. It all began with the movie Grease, and one of her many hit songs from that musical: “Hopelessly Devoted to You.” In my foolish pre-teen mind, this song perfectly summed up my allegiance to a woman who was much too old for me (and way out of my league). I’m sure my parents hardly in favor of this heart devotion of mine!

As Christian parents and grandparents, we understand that our children, in their foolish immaturity, will become hopelessly devoted to all the wrong people and things. As human beings, we have all been created by God to be worshippers—designed to love and adore, praise and exalt, glorify and magnify. Our hearts are always drawn to glorious things, to beautiful things, which we naturally become devoted to—in a way that seems hopeless to escape.

There is much more that we desire for our children than silly, frivolous devotions. Above all, we long for them to come to saving faith in Jesus Christ. We want them to turn from their sin and bend the knee to King Jesus. We want them to reject the world and all of its evil, hungering and thirsting for righteousness instead. To sum it up: we want them to become DEVOTED TO JESUS! And, instead of being hopelessly devoted in some sort of immature emotional way, we want them to be devoted with the full hope that can only be found in Jesus.

Of course, all of these godly desires for our children can only be accomplished by the gracious power of God, by the work of the Spirit of God in their lives. Yet, as parents and grandparents, we are also responsible to point our children to Jesus, to teach them God’s Word, to train them and discipline them in God’s ways. This is the unending job and ministry of the parent, as well as all of the covenant parents in our children’s lives.

One essential resource to grow our children’s devotion to God is a Christ-centered, gospel-driven DAILY DEVOTIONAL. The reading of a daily devotional is a spiritual discipline that many Christian adults practice. How awesome it would be to have the youngest of our readers begin this devotional practice out of the desire to be hopefully devoted to Jesus! And then, as they learn to give themselves to the daily reading of and meditating on God’s Word, the hopeless devotions of this world will begin to fade away, by the grace and power of God.

Check out Dr. Kwasny’s newest book: “Learn it. Love it. Live it. Teach it!”, a 365-day in-depth devotional for children ages 8-13 to read on their own, or families to read and discuss together. This resource is published by CDM and available in the PCA Bookstore.