be such a family worship period is exactly what your family needs, to get such things straightened out with the help of the Lord. Read the Bible. Pray. Confess your sins to God and each other, and go on from there to have a God-centered home. “ Worship in the Home Is Old-Fashioned” Another hindrance to family worship is that many people think it’s too old-fashioned for our modern day. Kenneth J. Fore man gives a good answer to this objection. He says, and I’m quot ing, “ Yes, indeed, it’s old-fash ioned. At least one may hope it is. Family worship is old-fashioned, as old as Abraham at the very least. But so is sunshine, so is spring, so is love. When the sun rises, you do not sneer because it has risen before. There’s noth ing original about the spring, but when the breeze grows warm and flowers deck the hills, you do not turn up your nose and say, ‘Old stuff.’ Love is as ancient as the Garden of Eden, but when the right young man says to the right girl, ‘I love you,’ she doesn’t beg him to think of something more up-to-date. Prayer is old-fash ioned. So is family prayer, but as needful as the sunshine, as warm ing as the spring, as beautiful as true love. All the best things are old-fashioned.” Isn’t that good? “ We Don’t Know How to Start” The last objection that I’m go ing to discuss is that parents say, “ I just don’t know how to go about having worship.” Well, if you really want to start family prayers in the home, there are many people ready and anxious to help you. Almost every church denomination has books and ma terial that help parents to con duct family worship. Go to your minister for helps on the matter. Now I would like to leave you with this thought: a f a m i l y a l t a r WOULD ALTER M ANY A FAM ILY.
a little tot sit by her in church during communion Sunday, for instance, and had her ask, “Why are they eating bread? Why are they drinking the juice?” And you bend down and whisper “Mother will tell you when we get home.” And then when you go home you explain the meanings. Now going on with the idea of teaching children, I have given you verses from the Old Testa ment. Lest someone say, however, “Well, we aren’t under the Old Testament, w e ’ re under the New,” this same command is car ried over into the New Testa ment, for example in Ephesians 6:4, “ And you fathers, provoke not your children to anger, but bring them up in the nurture and admonition o f the Lord.” There you have the teaching, the nur turing program right in the home under the father, and I would say also, the mother. So it isn’t enough for children to receive instruction at Sunday school or church for one or two hours a week. Do you think that if your children heard poor gram mar all week at your house, and then they heard one or two hours of good grammar a week, that they would therefore speak good grammar? No, indeed. Neither is it enough for a child to have one or two hours of Christian teach ing and live the rest of the week in a pagan atmosphere. Right in the home there must be diligent Christian teaching. The church’s program of teaching is to supple ment this and not to substitute for it. “ I Am Too Conscious of My Failures” Another hindrance is this: The parent feels uncomfortable con ducting worship because of his own weaknesses, but if he can’t lead the devotions with a testi mony of Godly life, then he had better make family worship a time of confession. He should get right with the Lord and make things right with his family mem bers whom he has wronged. May
would take their share of the household chores. If you could know the differ ence family worship would make in your home, making it a hap pier and more peaceful place, making the family members more cooperative, you would never again say that you didn’t have time. Of course, our main motive should be to have devotions be cause we love God and want to learn more of His will for us, but greater harmony in the home will be one of the results. “ Isn’t It Enough for the Church to Teach Our Children?” What are some of the other hindrances to family worship? It seems pretty common for parents to think it is enough for the church to give their children reli gious instruction. But the Bible teaches that parents should have a strong religious teaching pro gram in their homes. Deuteron omy 6 :6, 7, speaking of the words of the Lord (and notice that par ents must have the words of the Lord in their own hearts first): “ And these words which I com mand you this day shall be in your heart, and you must teach them diligently to your children.” Notice the word diligently. It takes a real effort. Work at it faithfully. Plan. Strive. Manage. Change plans if necessary in your routine, so that you may teach the Word o f the Lord to your children diligently. I enjoyed another verse in this same chapter, Deuteronomy 6, in my Bible reading lately: “And when your son asks you in time to come saying, What mean the testimonies and the statutes and the judgments which the Lord our God has commanded you? Then you must say to your son, We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt, and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand.” Isn’t that a beautiful pic ture of parents answering the questions of the children, and ex plaining to them the way of sal vation? What parent hasn’t had
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