As a parent, I can’t think of anything more important than the privilege and responsibility of training my children in the way of God. The way my wife and I have chosen to do this is by having what we call Spirit Fire.

3x’s a week we gather together before bed time, turn everything off, and seek God. We invite Him to be with us and to surround us with His presence. We pray over our eyes, to see as He sees. We pray over our ears, to eagerly listen to His voice and to lead us to obedience. We pray over our mouths that they would speak His words. And we pray that the Spirit would surround our minds with His fire. All thoughts have to pass through the flame, if they are from Him they grow and bless us. If they are not, they burn up, turn to ash, and the wind blows them away. No trace of them is left behind.

Then we step into His presence with a request of some sort- asking for a word, or a vision. Sometimes we just spend time with Him giving thanks. Other times we give Him praise by celebrating highlights of the day. Whatever we choose to do, we do it to spend time with Him.

All this sounds very formal, and for a lot of people it may be, but I’ve tried to do what I can to engage my kids into desiring His presence. I usually wear a fancy robe that I got in Hong Kong, and I bought us all crowns to wear. And with antique keys that my wife got me years ago, I gave us all necklaces too.

Along with that time with Him, for the last couple years we have been going through the book of Proverbs. It was written to train kings and queens, hence the crowns. And to fill our treasuries with the blessings of wisdom, worth more than all the gold in the world, hence the keys. The robe? Just fun, kingly fun.

Back in February we started to add the book of Acts, the book of power. We switch between the two because I want my kids to know what we have been given in His kingdom. Wisdom and power. I then read a passage from either book, and then we talk about it.

After the talking, and trying to answer what questions I and my wife can, I close in prayer and then we get ready for bed. This is not an exhaustive description of what we do, but its a short quick sample. All together it takes us about 1/2 an hour. Just to add, the other nights we have a night show time which is usually whatever the kids want to see like Gummy Bears, Tom and Jerry, or Donald Duck.

I want to encourage parents to engage their family’s story with His in a fun way. Make it your own, make it awesome. The seeds cast from such a time will bring a harvest not just for your kids, but also for future generations.

-Brian Carter