A little over a year ago, I was given a book by the Preschool Minister at my church. I am on the Preschool Committee, and she gave this book to all of the committee members as a challenge to read and consider applying what we learned to our families.
The book was called, "Family Worship In the Bible, In History, & In Your Home" by Donald S. Whitney. (
http://www.amazon.com/Family-Worship-Bible-History-Your/dp/0978523806/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1393726386&sr=8-1&keywords=Donald+S.+Whitney+%22Family+Worship%22)
It was a small book,with only 56 pages to read. I remember thinking, "Oh great... Homework" during the meeting when the books were handed out. However, it was a pretty small book so I figured I could handle it.
I am so glad I decided to give this book a chance! It absolutely gave me a renewed since of purpose in shepherding my children. Deuteronomy 6:4-9 says this,
Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 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. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on your doorframes of your houses and on your gates.
Ever since becoming a parent over six years ago, I have loved this verse. I feel that my parents did a beautiful job of impressing the gospel and a love for Jesus on me and each of my sisters. Talking about things of the Lord came very natural for us as we went about our days. As I grew older, that ease and confidence I had developed about talking about Christ was such a blessing as I developed friendships and eventually moved away to college. Certainly, my parents laid a strong foundation of faith on my life that I continue to carry with me long after my days of moving away from home. My desire is for me and my husband to do the same for my three children.
However, as much as I loved the verse above, as much as I loved the Lord, as much as I loved my children - I still thought to myself nearly every night as my head hit the pillow, "Wow, there was so much more I wanted to do with them today." Meaning, that while our days were full with tasks and activities, there was so much more that I wanted to teach them, but instead was so caught up with getting through the day that I lost sight of those "teachable moments." I did take every opportunity when I was at the park with the kids or even just driving down the road to point out things in nature that God had made. We talked about how they were unique and special because God had made them that way. However, at the end of the day I still felt that I could have taught them so much more. At the end of my children's lives, it is not going to matter how early I taught them to read, to tie their shoes, or potty trained them. All that will matter are things that have eternal worth. So while all of those other things are essential and good - what I really wanted to be more intentional about was teaching them more about God's Word and who He is, with the prayer that God would put a love for Him and a desire to follow Him in their hearts.
So, back to the "Family Worship" book. I read it and was blown away with how dated the content seemed. The author wrote with a perspective that sounded so "old fashioned" to me. I realized it's because the idea of family worship time is so different than our current culture! However, as I continued to read, I realized that while it may seem like a dated idea, it was actually quite relevant and exactly what I was looking for in my quest to being more intentional with my children in regards to teaching them about the gospel.
The book talks a lot about how in earlier generations, there was a lot less corporate worship like we have now. Families had worship services in their homes. Now most Christians attend churches and many parents seem to rely on the Sunday School teachers and other ministers within the church to be the sole teachers of the gospel to their children. I truly desire for me and my husband to be the first teachers of the things of Christ to our kids. The book breaks down different aspects of worship and encourages the readers to apply this in their own family worship time. Some of these aspects include:
- prayer
- scripture reading
- music
After I finished reading the book, I sat down with my husband and shared what I had learned. He agreed that we needed to be much more intentional with teaching the kids. So we decided to start having a family worship time. Friends, let me assure you that we started small. We decided to incorporate our worship time as the children were getting into bed each night. At first, we just started to say a nightly prayer with them. Most nights Don led the prayer time and began by asking them what they wanted to pray about. Don would pray and then we encouraged the children to say their own prayer. After we had consistently had prayers each night, we added in scripture readings. My kids were ages 5 and 3 at this time, so their attention spans were not very long! We found that the "Day by Day Bible" by Eira Reeves offered a good length and content for our children's attention spans and understanding. (
http://www.amazon.com/Day-Bible-Devotions-Reading-Children/dp/1565635213/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1393728746&sr=8-2&keywords=Day+by+Day+Bible+Eira+Reeves).
Our children absolutely embraced and came to expect and look forward to this time each evening! On nights that we were putting them down a little late we would think about skipping our family worship time, but the children would beg and not go to sleep without first "reading the Bible."
A few months after implementing our family worship time, we decided to add music. Friends, this is so simple! It can mean something as basic as singing "Jesus Loves Me" one time. I think this has become my children's favorite part of our worship time. For months, my three year old sang "The Lord's Army" every night for his song. His new favorite is "Awesome God" and he shouts out the chorus of the song several times in a row. It's precious!
Now, I know many of you reading this may be thinking, who has time for that at the end of the day??? Let me tell you, our family worship time typically only lasts about ten minutes each night. It is not something that has to be overwhelming and unattainable!
I encourage you to check out the "Family Worship" book and pray about starting a family worship time with your children if you have not done so already. I truly believe it is one of, if not the one, best investment you can make into the life of your children.
