Thank you to Amanda Geeney at Christian Shelf Esteem for the opportunity to share the following article about family devotions with her readers as a guest author on her site. In it, I outline ideas for family devotions that you and your family can do together, including 6 ideas for your unique gifting!
Jane Austen’s Spiritual Heritage: The Importance of Family Devotions
In a time when the technology we use is continually pulling us toward isolation, we often feel starved for community. We were made for fellowship with God and others, and we long to connect with people in a real way. When we study the lives of Christians who came before us, we get wonderful glimpses into their daily lives and faith, and we glean from them lessons and practices that can enhance our own prayer and devotional lives.
As a student of Jane Austen’s prayers and faith, I’m struck by the communal nature of her own prayers and by her family’s spiritual life. Jane’s family gathered twice a day to read morning and evening prayers, along with a portion of the Psalms, from the Book of Common Prayer, the liturgy of the Church of England. It’s filled with fitting prayers and Scriptures for daily reading and special occasions. Jane grew up listening to it, and later reading it for herself, and she likely knew many of the prayers and Psalms by heart.
Jane’s own three prayers echo the cadence and language of the Book of Common Prayer and are filled with thanksgiving, confession, petition, and intercession. In her prayers, she uses [Read More]
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