“Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Make them known to your children and your children’s children – how on the day that you stood before the LORD your God at Horeb, the LORD said to me, ‘Gather the people to me, that I may let them hear my words, so that they may learn to fear me all the days that they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children so.’” Deuteronomy 4:9-10
Those three words listed above in the title were some, simple, practical, application of a sermon about family worship that I listed to yesterday morning on my morning run. (You can listen to it here if interested. I do recommend the message:
Read. Sing. Pray. So simple and yet we often tend to make things so complex. We are prone to overthink things at times. We desire something great and spectacular and unfortunately we are not content with the simple everyday ebb and flow of life. I encourage you to press on in family worship if that is a habit that you are already doing. I encourage you to start it, if you are not in the habit of doing it. Don’t make it too complicated. Don’t think that it doesn’t apply to you because you are single or just a couple and do not have children at home. We all need to spend time in God’s Word. We all need to sing praises to Him. And we all need prayer. Simple means of grace.
As I look back over my years as a father, I can and do regret the things I did not do with my own children. The times when we as a family should have been in God’s Word more often or should have sang more or prayed more. We all have regrets. We all wish at times that we could turn back the clock. But we can’t go back in time. We can repent of those things that we did wrong. Sin that we have committed. But what about today and tomorrow? Can we refocus our lives and our schedules to make sure that we daily spend time with our God? Read. Sing. Pray.
Each day as we engage in these means of grace we can anticipate and should look forward to being one more day closer to the Lord’s Day when we can, Read. Sing. Pray. together.
I have regrets. I know I have, and I will make mistakes. You will too. And there is no perfect formula for family worship. But let us strive to create good habits for ourselves as individuals and for our families. We will never regret spending more time with the Lord. Relax and simply enjoy the time with your family that God has given to you and your time with the Lord.