There are 168 Hours in a week
A typical child watches 28 hours of television in a week
(My boys only watch maybe 6 hours a week)
A typical child is in school for 40 hours a week
(Zeke is in school for 5 hours a week)
A typical child plays with his/her friends 25 hours a week
(We are less at this point due to age, but if I count play groups, MOPS and Bible Study days we are at 8 hours a week)
A typical child (age 1-12) sleep about 77 hours a week
(My boys get about 80 hours a week of sleep, that is between naps and night time)
A church service lasts 1.5 hours
What are we as parents doing about our children's spiritual development with those remaining hours? Dropping them off at church once a week for 1.5 hours is not going to cut it.
A sickening statistic that of the children that grew up in the church (going on a weekly basis) once they have the choice to come or not 85% choose not.
Pretty startling numbers I thought, so I took some time this evening to actually look up the statistics and I found the same numbers that the guy quoted.
Here are some of the verses that the Family Time guy quoted:
Philippians 2:12 "For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose."
Deuteronomy 6:7 "These commandments that I give 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."
Psalm 78:5 "The Lord commanded our forefathers to teach their children the law, so the next generation would know them, even the children yet to be born, and they in turn would tell their children."
Now the question is what am I going to do with the information that I have been given. To be honest I am not sure, I pray that I begin making strides to bring about changes in the time that we as a family devote to spiritual things. I know the tools are out there for me so it is now a matter of me taking them, implementing them and then continuing to use them even when life gets busy and other things crowd my 168 hours a week.
