HOME a n d how to secure i t
your
by Merv Rose 1
life.” As a small boy visiting my grand parents in a Minnesota village, I often wondered that they had so little and yet they seemed to have so much. Without electricity, with out running water, without tele phone service, certainly without radio and so many of the modem conveniences, I found them with serenity, peace and security. As I sat between them on Sunday morn ing and heard Grandfather softly whisper his prayer and watched Grandmother’s gentle tears during the service, I knew they understood something th a t many modern homes today know little about. Now every time I pass the little village, I think again on the words that so aptly describe them and their fellowship with God. “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” Recently I went to my knees in a vital hour of decision to find words and phrases in which to sim ply delineate a plan from God for the key issues of life in the home. I found five fortresses of faith against failure in the American home. The fundamental facts are timeless, but the phrases felt fresh in my hands as I thumbed them over and “hand-tested” them for counseling the thousands who come with broken hearts and homes. I have found that no home can fail that gives God 1) the first hour of each day, 2) the first day of each week, 3) the first portion of its in come, 4) the first consideration in all decisions and 5) the first place
in each heart. Give God the first hour of your day. The family altar time ought to be, if at all possible, in the morn ing. Follow the blessed plan of Christ according to Mark 1:35, “And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.” I have often recommended to in dividuals that their basic prayer time be in the morning rather than at night. Surely we could easily come to the conclusion that at night most of our praying is special, whereas in the morning much of it can be commitment unto God, and anyway, as I tell young people, we get into very little trouble while we are sleeping! We ought to plan our prayer life to prepare for the battle of the day ahead. This sim ple fundamental has saved many a youth from pitfalls, simply be cause day by day the victory can be had by placing that 24-hour period in God’s holy hands. Likewise, and in the same mea sure, the family unit can begin its day together with God. The cus tom is old and must needs be re vised in many instances, but sure ly when our governors and our great statesmen are calling for it, it is high time any believer in Christ should follow the plan of the Bible. Probing deeply into the tragic facts of sin and corruption across the United States of America, the late Senator Charles W. Tobey, out spoken member of the Senate’s Crime Investiga tion Committee, called for a return to family wor ship in American homes as a para-
(Aod has planned the entire social structure and spiritual success of all of the nations of the world around the simple family unit. Not the church, not the school, not the recreational center, but the home! I am concerned that our young sters have every recreational facil ity for clean, athletic, daily living. 1 am convinced that they ought to have the very finest education. I am deeply convicted that the church ought to share largely in the time life of all Americans. Certainly we ought to be in the hour of worship Sunday morning, the evangelistic hour of inspiration Sunday night, and the hour of prayer and devo tion in the midst of the week— but even the church is not a sub stitute for the God-planned Chris tian home. Our esteemed Christian friend, Federal Judge Luther W. Young- dahl, when he was Governor of Minnesota, offered this answer to man’s problems of the hour: “I can testify to the value of the family altar on the basis of my own exper ience. I had Christian parents who believed their most sacred obliga tion was that of teaching their chil dren to know and worship God. The training and Christian fellowship in the home in my earliest years has been an essential aid to me through out the years. I am most grateful to my parents for this careful guid ance. My wife and I have always endeavored to rear our children in Christian surroundings. Unity of parents and children in prayer, the singing of favorite hymns and the reading of the Word of God have been the richest phase of our home
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