A friend of mine and I have traded many battle stories about trying (unsuccessfully) to lead family devotions. Too often than not, we exchanged remorse over not leading well enough to have order and not chaos. I remember the defining moment when we simply accepted and acknowledged the fact that we weren’t being called to lead gestapo-style family devotion, but to be as faithful and sincere as possible. The real challenge was to trust that God would work in the things that are beyond our control (namely, the squirreliness of our short attention span-ridden kids).
I found this article to be a welcome support for our cause.