If your children are in your home for 18 years, you have over 5,600 occasions (figuring a 6-day week) for family worship. If you learn a new psalm or hymn each month, they will be exposed to 216 in those 18 years. If you read a chapter a day, you will complete the Bible 4.5 times in 18 years. Every day they will affirm a creed or recite the law. Every day they will confess their sins and plead for mercy. Every day they will intercede on behalf of others. Think in terms of the long view. What is the cumulative impact of just 15 minutes of this each day, day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, for 18 years? At the rate of 6 days a week (excluding Sunday), one spends an hour and a half a week in family worship (about the length of a home Bible study), 78 hours a year (about the length of two weekend retreats), and 1,404 hours over the course of 18 years (about the length of eight week-long summer camps). When you establish your priorities, think in terms of the cumulative effect of this upon your children. Think of the cumulative effect of this upon you, after 40 or 60 or 80 years of daily family worship. All this without having to drive anywhere.
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Weary Mothers and the Way Everlasting
I feel like motherhood brought the curse nearer to me. I feel like it dropped me on the far side of the sea as I watched my body and my mind unravel into threads only to be wound back up with anxiety and worry. The suffering of a world so infected by Adam’s fall has […]
When Mother’s Day Misfires
I’ve rolled into church many a Mother’s Day morning with a heavy heart and deflated expectations. There were years of singleness, and then miscarriage, when I felt invisible in the pew, wondering if I would ever wear the title of “mother” myself. Then came holidays where I felt steamrolled by the demands of raising babies […]
March Madness: What Fandom Reveals about Kids in Worship
My wife, my kids, and I were on our feet—shouting, jumping, cheering like crazy—as Iowa State fan favorite Tamin Lipsey splashed a clutch three-pointer with 15 seconds left to tie the game. For a moment, it felt like pure joy. Then, just 15 seconds later, we were all equally devastated as Arizona hit an impossible […]
What Does it Mean to “Train Up a Child”? (Proverbs 22:6)
“Don’t ever use the sovereignty of God as an excuse for inaction as a parent. And at the same time, don’t assume that this is some kind of formula or Prosperity Gospel parenting that says, ‘if you plant your seed of good parenting, it’s going to yield a believing crop.'” Pastor Adriel Sanchez shares from Proverbs 22:6, Deuteronomy 6, and 2 Timothy 1 what fathers and parents can do to disciple their children.
