HOME WORSHIP

My last post on worship set my mind to thinking about family or home worship.  I believe this is something that is extremely neglected by many who call themselves Christians.  There may be those who just don't think it matters (can they really be called Christians?).  I think more often there are many Christians who have become overcommitted and allowed their children to become overcommitted.  They just don't have enough time.

I have heard it said that every one of us has 24 hours every day.  We manage to make time for the things we really want to do.  Maybe the biggest problem is a lack of desire to worship.

We each have to evaluate our lives.  Do we make time to worship with our family every day?  Do we love God so much that worship is our natural response?  Do we need to make changes in our use of time?  

I have no idea where you stand.  I urge you to think and pray about this.  I have decided to use this post to help those who would really like to have home worship but just don't have any idea how to begin.

Let me tell you about our journey in this regard.  

I remember when we were first married we purchased an NIV New Testament (at that time the Old Testament had not yet been completed).  We read together from that most evenings before going to sleep.  As I recall after all these years, we were not very consistent in that.  

When we had two little children we had a Bible story book with short readings.  Each evening as we were putting the boys to bed we would sit with them and read one of those stories.  We always sang the song "All Things Bright and Beautiful" with them and then had a short prayer.  This was a special time for us but as we moved and our lives changed we had a difficult time keeping consistent with this as well.

Move ahead to when the boys were a little older and another little one joined the family.  We resumed those special times of worship.  We tried to keep things as simple as possible so the children could understand.  As the boys grew older we continued this practice and moved to reading directly from the Bible as they were more able to understand.  

When the boys learned to read we bought several copies of the Bible and several song books to keep in our living room.  Every evening we brought out the Bibles and song books.  After the reading each child was allowed to choose a song for us to sing.  We would end with prayer and then it was bedtime.  

This time was indeed a great blessing to our family.  When we had visitors they joined us in our worship.  As the children grew into adults and left home, we continued the practice and when the children and grandchildren visited they joined in.  

Now that we are back to just the two of us at home, we do things a little differently.  We are able to read scripture, sing and pray after our breakfast since we work from home.  That morning worship is a great blessing often leading to discussion of some aspect of the passage read or the meaning of a hymn.  

We still continue our evening worship.  We sometimes choose a basic commentary on a book of the Bible or some other helpful book to read through together.  Sometimes we read from the Psalms.  We still praise God in song and finish with prayer.

I share this with you to help you see that it doesn't have to be complicated.  We are commanded to teach our children.  Fathers are to bring up children in the Lord.  We have a responsibility and worship with our children and discussion of basic teachings is a large part of that.

However, family worship doesn't have to end when the children leave home.  It doesn't have to end when one spouse goes on ahead to the Savior.  Don't give up in discouragement when it doesn't immediately become a habit.  How can we not worship the One who has done everything for us?