My husband and I were recently  blessed to be able to  attend a Voddie Bauchum conference and hear him speak on multi-generational faithfulness. He taught us about  how family worship can help us to raise up Godly children who will grow and do the same for their children all for the glory and kingdom of God.  At church this past Sunday our Pastor also spoke about Family Worship.  He quoted from President Truman saying “The buck stops here” meaning that the dad should take the lead in this area.  I thought I’d share some of what we have done in our family and what we have learned.

*Family Worship Begins with the Head of the Household. This must be born of conviction, not of guilt or coercion.  However, this is not to say that the Mom should never lead family worship.

*Family Worship must be Scheduled in order to have it become a regular practice.

*Family Worship must be Simple. It does not need to be a big production but just a commitment to gather together with the Word of God.

*Family Worship must be Natural.  Just be you.  God sent your children to you and you are the perfect person to lead.

*Family Worship must be Mandatory.  No one gets to skip.

*Family Worship must be Participatory. Invite your children to join in singing, reading discussing and praying.

When we have our family worship time, it seems to unite us and makes us feel closer as a family.  I feel proud of my husband as he ministers to us all.  When he reads the Bible to us and we discuss it,  we learn, we laugh, and we grow.

Sometimes we begin with a hymn and other times we sing at the end.  It just depends.  My husband chooses what to read and he reads to us or has the boys take turns reading.  It may be one verse, it may be a chapter or more.

We talk about what the verses mean.  We pray.  We sing the Doxology sometimes.  We recite the Apostles Creed in order to remember what we believe.  We recite the 10 Commandments and sometimes the Lord’s Prayer.

We sing a hymn or two usually allowing the boys to choose from several hymns.  I made up family hymn books and chose some of our favorites. I found most of the lyrics and guitar chords to  hymns on this terrific site;  guitarhymns.com .  I copy them, paste them to my email,  enlarge the print (for my old eyes) and then print a copy for each of us.

I must confess that we do not always get to our family worship time as regularly as we should.  Sometimes we do this as a part of our homeschool in the mornings and my dear husband has a quiet time in the evenings being faithful to pray and read to the boys.  I think it must be natural and not contrived or fake.  It must be real and so it will look differently for each family.  For me the important thing is to carve out some time during your day…stop your regular activities…..slow down…. and praise the Lord together as a family.  Speak of his goodness, of his mercy and grace, just as the scriptures remind us in Duet 6:7  And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.  May the Lord bless you as you disciple, serve and love your children.  ~Anne