Each week we want to share a word of encouragement and offer some resources from like-minded believers for your profit. These articles are available in print upon request.
Regular Family Worship
One of my favorite memories growing up was spending Sunday afternoons at my cousin’s house. We would almost always have roast beast with carrots and onions and potatoes. We would have some kind of dessert; sometimes a pie, sometimes an Oreo. Both are my favorite. But every time I was there my uncle would read us a Keys-for-Kids story and read from the Bible and ask us questions. Like in my home, they also did this on Tuesdays and Thursdays and Saturdays and Mondays. Deuteronomy 6:4-9 tells us the central theme of our life is a holistic and regular love for God in our homes:
“Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one! “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. “These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. “You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. “You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. “You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
Since becoming a husband 9 years ago and a dad 5 years ago, I’ve seen how the busyness of our life can too easily dictate what we do or don’t do with our time together as a family. So I sympathize with those who have a hard time making a consistent and regular practice of family worship. It’s right near the top of my list of things I want to do well with my family. But I want to encourage you to make this time at the dinner table, in the living room, or at bedtime, to pray with your family.
Have a short Bible time, open up a discussion time where everyone says something the know and asks a question they don’t know, share Highs and Lows, and ask each other how to pray for each other. Read a verse at breakfast. Sing a few songs before bedtime. Pray before you leave for work in the morning. Share a Wretched TV clip and talk about it. Family worship isn’t a replacement for personal worship or a church service, and it’s not a time to fix each other, and it’s definitely not a formula or guarantee for success. But it is a joyful responsibility, an opportunity for Biblical discipleship of those who matter most to you, and offers a consistent example for your family to follow.
Worship happens when we leave each other on Sunday mornings and continues throughout the week. Let us worship the Lord on Tuesday nights as well as Sunday afternoons.
-Kurt Bekins, Pastor of Family Ministries and Outreach
Resources on Family Worship:
- Simple Guide to Family Worship. David Platt’s church in Burmingham, Alabama provides this helpful resource on the why and what of worship.
- 11 Reasons to Worship with Your Family and Part 2. “We are sinners living under the same roof in tight quarters.” We must be unified together in the grace and peace of God.
- Book Review: A Neglected Grace, Family Worship in the Christian Home, by Jason Helopoulos.
Other Helpful Resources:
- How does Proverbs point to Christ? Dan Phillips briefly explains the Wisdom of our God.
- 3 Truths for the Tired Mother. Elisha Galotti on the exhaustion and satisfaction of young mothers.
- No Grey Area– Kevin DeYoung. 50 Shades of Shame– Al Mohler. Free book for throwing out the trash. 50 Shades of Nay– Marshall Segal.