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iQuestions Faculty, Joe White 
 
 
Question: 
 
How do you get your kids motivated to do devotionals by themselves? 
 
Answer:  
 
Getting kids motivated to do devotionals by themselves. It’s not only a 
great question, it is so important. My daddy was definitely my hero—
he’s in heaven now and I really miss him—but my daddy had a poem 
that was his favorite. It was the core issue to that question. It’s called, 
“I’d rather see a sermon, than hear one any day.” 
 
I’d rather see a sermon, than hear one any day  
I’d rather one would walk with me than merely show the way 
The eye’s a better pupil and more willing than the ear 
Fine counsel is confusing but example’s always clear 
 
You know what? I never remember my daddy one time talking to me 
about praying. But I’ll never forget walking down that hallway night 
after night and watching my daddy on his knees, praying humbly to 
his Heavenly Father, night after night after night. Now, that’s caught in 
my heart, and I was able to share that with my kids so that they 
caught it too. 
 
Things like that, mommies and daddies, are better caught than taught. 
And devotional life, first of all, comes from a dad or from a mom who 
are committed to devotional life ourselves. And you know what? When 
you enjoy—Howard Hendricks told me one time that the Word of God 
is a love letter—and when I enjoy the Word of God like a love letter 
and the kids see that I get great pleasure in going to the Word of God, 
in memorizing the Word of God, in meditating on the words of God, 
 
 
then that’s going to catch them like a fish on a hook. Demanding that 
kids do devotionals are literally going to repel kids from the Word of 
God. But, enjoying the Word of God together—and I’ve got to say that 
the most fun devotionals, even when our kids were eighteen, and we 
started when they were three, but even when they were eighteen, we 
did devotionals together.  
 
And now they’re doing devotionals—as college students, and as grown 
kids, and now they’re doing it with their own children. But, we did 
those together night after night. And one of the other things I caught 
from my daddy was at the breakfast table he would lead a short 
devotional. Very short. But he would do it morning after morning. And 
again, I caught that from him as a kid. 
 
And so when we would lead devotionals I would be the pancake cook 
at breakfast—whenever I was in town, in the middle of a chaotic 
house—we would do a short little devotional from Proverbs.  
 
So, showing kids the way, and allowing kids the example to follow you, 
is the way to get kids excited about their own Bible studies. They’ll 
take those Bible studies and they’ll do them the rest of their life. Love 
your devotionals and your kids will love them too! 
 
 
 
 
 
 
White -2- 
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