Family Worship Podcast Episodes

Welcome to Breaking Bread, Apostolic Christian Counseling and Family Services Podcast. This is Matt Kaufman, and today I’ve got Craig Stickling and Brian Sutter with me. We’re going to talk about family worship, a critical topic and I think we’re all invested in. But before we do that, Brian, I’d like to turn to you and ask you to define a little bit about what we mean by worship. 

Yeah, I guess what we’re going to be thinking about is just simply the opportunity of turning towards something, or in this case, someone to whom you are showing reverence. You are showing that someone is higher and bigger than you, and that person here is God and Jesus Christ, and just turning our hearts and reverencing him, acknowledging him as being bigger and greater than we are. 

So, we’re taking a very general view of worship here in the discussion. I’m sure there is a deep theological definition for worship that might include or not include certain things, but we’re just talking about a general family worship where we are training everybody’s hearts and minds towards Christ. 

That’s going to look maybe different in some homes, but there’s going to be some general pieces and Brian, as you mentioned, that concept of bringing our hearts in alignment to God and as we come together, that might look like just our time around the table. That might be a dad reading a Bible story or as we think of even going to bed at night and having our nightly prayers or in the car and we’re driving and hey, let’s sing a song that all the kids love, and we’re singing that song and leading that song and getting the kids ready for church. As we go to church and talk about how excited we are to go to church. Those are all pieces that flow out of worship. But even saying that we’re talking about family worship indicates to us that there are other avenues or places that we worship.  

So, we have family worship. To put family worship in context, what are some of those other worship places? Yeah, I think three big categories that you could think of would be corporate worship, which would be worshiping as a church congregation or with a larger group. And then family worship is going to be within the context of the family and then private worship. And I think those categories are helpful because you can see where they’re distinct, but also it can help you see that there is some crossover and some flow back and forth. 

And just being able to know which of those you’re in and helping you understand that there’s different values for each of those, and it requires evaluation of ourselves as saying, hmm, how am I doing in those? Or have I let one fall at the expense of another? And to be mindful of that. 

Each one of them has a unique connection with the next one. We’re all part of a family. We might have a spouse and children, or we might not, but we still have parents or maybe siblings or relatives that we’re connected to. And so, we’re woven into a family. We’re also woven into a church family, and we’re also individually responsible for our spiritual growth. 

And all of those fit together. That’s right Craig. I think it’s really important for us to be able to have an intimate personal relationship with Jesus that’s fundamental, but then also out of that to flow into worshiping with family. And out of that, then to also worship with a congregation and then even those can feed off of each other. 

They can help each other grow. Can we maybe even put our finger on our church worship service where these three avenues of worship are utilized? Well, I think corporate worship is a great place where you’re going to be able to see all of those in some context. So, for example, you’re going to be there with the congregation, so you’re engaging in corporate worship. 

But there’s also an aspect of being able to, if you’re sitting in the pew with your children, there’s an aspect that you’re also engaging in family worship, particularly with young kids. You may not be getting fed a lot personally if you’re trying to manage your young kids. 

So, it may not be as much private worship. But it could be family worship in the sense that you’re doing it in the pew. So sometimes when I feel frustrated because I’m not getting what I think I should be getting out of the service, I think maybe more individualistic, which might be true in terms of personal worship, but there’s still merit and value in the family worship of being there in terms of just proximity to my family. 

Is that right? Especially for that mom and dad to be reminded of that, sometimes on that Sunday afternoon, it’s a little tiring and the kids might be ready for their naps. But just to be able to think about that time that I have with them right there in God’s house, close to me in the Word of God and in song, what a powerful message that is for our kids. 

That breeds so much life into those at my age and stage of life. And I know sometimes I feel like it’s a game going into the afternoon church, how long can I remain and will I be able to keep the youngster through the first prayer or maybe even the second reading. That would be great. 

Yeah. Or how many times am I going to have to leave and come back and who gets the most, you know, I made it back into the service for the day. I’m sure there could be a rubric scoring method, and we could actually have a score on how that second service was done. Yeah, and I think the thing with that is it can be so discouraging if you don’t look at that through a lens of why we are here. 

If your only goal to be there is to get something out of the sermon that’s given. There’s not a lot of reason to stick around, but if we can look at it through a larger context of, like you’re talking about there, Craig, that there is meaning in being able to sit together as a family and show your kids that this is important and see it as a way to engage in family worship. 

It helps bring some purpose to those Sunday afternoons when it feels like, what are we doing here and why did we even stick around? Why not go home? What connections might a youngster sitting next to his dad while he’s singing in church be making, or why might that be good specifically for him? 

A couple different things Matt, come to mind. One is, we model what’s important to us and when our children have a chance to see there are a lot of places to go and to be but when our children see us being in church, we are modeling to them that this time is God’s time. This is an important time. And so just that element of where we are at during a certain timeframe is sending a message and just that verse, when we train up our children in the way that they should go. And so, we have a bigger picture of down the road that we want our children to desire to be in church on the Lord’s Day. And that’s just that piece of them seeing where we are at can speak volumes for our children. I think that’s interesting. You know, you have a youngster who sees his father and knows that he is important, knows that he runs a business, knows that he’s got a lot of people at his beck and call throughout the week. And to see him or mom sit there with rapt attention, I think it would be a powerful image. 

Yes, it would. And even too, to hear a dad sing. Throughout the week, not many kids are going to hear their fathers or their mothers singing, but to sit next to them and think about what is going on here and why dad is all of a sudden doing this strange thing and dad’s not a good singer. 

Yeah. I mean, typically, you don’t go fishing unless you’re good at it or we do those things that we’re good at. And so, what does it mean that dad or mom are participating in singing and they may not be a good singer. That’s got to really resonate. 

Especially when you see the fruit of that singing and the sense it’s not necessarily perfect. The Bible talks about making a joyful noise, but you look at the joy that comes in our hearts when we’re singing and to be able to notice that wow, dad’s joyful here. What a great picture for a kid to look up and see that. 

Yeah. I think it also can start to develop those fundamental understandings for kids where we don’t just do what we’re good at or we don’t just do what we like or what pleases us, but there are some things that are deeper and higher that we engage in because there is a God to be worshiped, and that we want to take that seriously and we want to engage in that. 

Whether or not we’re good at it, whether or not it’s convenient. We do it because of who God is, not because of what we want or what we get out of it. That’s it, guys. Next Sunday morning we’re in; Sunday afternoon we’re in church for the long haul. Well, you might have to speak for yourself there, Matt. 

That sounds good right now. But we’ll see when the second prayer is going on and if we can make it through or not. Well, I know that we appreciate, and even from a minister lens as well, we appreciate the young families that are there. And you know what, a noisy kid is really a beautiful sound for a church to know that there’s youth, there are kids, and just that afternoon rumble sometimes of kids in the pews is really a beautiful sound to have in a church and we appreciate the efforts that moms and dads make with that. 

I love that, Craig. You know, I think there’s something beautiful about a silent Wednesday night, a worship service, or a quiet Sunday morning. But Sunday afternoons can be quite a ruckus. And we’re trying to keep our kids quiet and it’s refreshing to hear the sounds they make and knowing that the children are present is a very important part. 

Yeah, and I think too, it’s a great reminder as we think about family worship within the context of corporate worship and just how those can flow together and build off of each other. And then as we go home, what does it look like to do family worship through the week and what does it look like to make sure that we are engaging in private worship that then hopefully can flow into family worship and corporate worship? 

I like how this started out. So, we started out with the first day of the week, right? And now I think in the next podcast, we’re going to spend some time unpacking a little bit about what family worship looks like day in and day out, because it’s not just on Sunday that we would do family worship, but we see the value of family worship on Sunday and we’re going to carry it through the week. 

Thanks brothers, for being with me here today. Again, stay tuned. We’ll talk a little bit more about how to and what family worship looks like Monday through Saturday, so to speak. So, thanks for being with me. If you’ve enjoyed what you’ve heard or want to hear more and get more resources, always feel free to visit our website at accounseling.org. 

Welcome back to Breaking Bread, the Apostolic Christian Counseling and Family Services Podcast. A time where we gather around the table and we break bread together, the bread of Christ and his Word as we talk about the issues of our life. Today, specifically, we’re talking about family worship. In the previous podcast, we talked about family worship and corporate worship, and individual worship, and we talked specifically about our Sunday worship service.  

Today, we’re going to move on into the week and talk about the how to and what it looks like. Craig and Brian, as we start this conversation, I think there are a lot of insecurities out there. I think a lot of listeners are thinking, oh boy, here we go. I know I need to listen to this, but really, I don’t want to because I don’t know if it’s going to make me feel bad or going to be too hard to do.  

So, Craig, can I turn to you first? Can you help us think through a framework or a foundation in which to consider family worship Monday through Saturday? I think it’s just a great reminder to know that our Heavenly Father loves that opportunity to connect with us, and he loves it when we take that step to be with him. And that in this picture for our families that he loves it is not a demanding thou shalt, thou must, but just to be reminded that he loves when we draw in communion with him. And a huge foundation to remember in this is Jesus loved his disciples, didn’t he? Oh, he loved them so much and how much patience he had with them, and his goal was to teach them to have his heart and his mind. And then bring this picture together as we look at family worship and with our children, that a heart’s goal is in that disciple mind shift that we want them to not just hear, but to also have a heart to want to be obedient and desire to do what they hear.  

So, the image that you’re painting here is the image of Christ and his disciples, and we know the 12 disciples and we can picture their lives through the gospels and their interaction with Christ and that day in and day out contact. As you even think back to a lot of how things were taught and passed on during Christ’s time where the disciples would follow closely behind the rabbi to see not only what he teaches and what he believes, but how he lives. And that had a very powerful impact and was a very powerful teaching tool used to pass on from the rabbi to the disciples. 

And that’s what we’re talking about. So, Brian, what you’re saying is it’s not necessarily a student who attends a classroom every day and gets a certain amount of teaching for a certain amount of time and then moves on. But this is a more dynamic relationship. Absolutely. Both of those are important. It’s important to have the, the classroom, the structured, formal, let’s sit down and talk about this particular topic, but more importantly, I think a lot more learning is going to be going on during the day-to-day interactions. How does dad handle this situation? What does mom do when this rises up? And just walking through those real-life situations. 

I’m going back to some of the classes where you sat in the classroom and learned about things, but then you had a lab class, you got to go out and put into practice what you learned in the class. And we look at these two pieces of worship and family worship. Some more structured, maybe some a little more just open-ended during the day but how the two of them come together and support one another. Okay. So, we’ve chosen a direction here, I think, for this conversation. And that is in echoing the words in Deuteronomy as Moses instructed the people to train and teach your children when you rise up and when you sit down and when you go to bed. 

Thus, we recognize both the concept of laboratory dynamics and the framework of classroom structure.  And we’ll leave the structure for another conversation. Let’s focus and talk a little bit about what family worship looks like in the way. Well, I think one simple example that comes to mind for me is I start off my day a lot of times on the couch reading my Bible and my two kids are awake with me. But with them being young kids and liking to climb around, a lot of my reading is done on my phone. So, I want to purposefully tell them, hey, dad is reading his Bible right now and not playing angry boots. 

Yes, it’s so easy. They might be thinking I’m goofing around and a lot of times I am goofing around on my phone, but for them to know that dad is engaging in worshiping the Lord right now, and they can be a part of that even if they’re not reading with me, and that brings vivid memories of myself as I reflect and remember my father very frequently, having the Scriptures open there on the dinner table in the mornings reading. Yeah. And that’s part of where times have changed in the sense where I would’ve woken up in the morning and saw my dad’s bible open and recognized, oh wow, he was reading this morning. And now where I’m not opening the Bible, but I have my phone just being purposeful in that so that my kids can have that same sort of memory, but it does require us to be aware of family worship beyond a very structured setting. 

I’m sure my father didn’t realize that family worship was being done by my observation of him. Yes, exactly. That’s the picture we want to paint that they are always watching and that they are participating in some way, even as they’re observing. This is good. So, what are the other things that they should be observing? What are some other things that will bring acknowledgement to parts of our lives and say, oh, I need to be more intentional about that. I want my kids to be into this part of my life so they can see that. Let’s take reading the Bible just another step and the application piece of when I read something, or maybe I’ve been reading something this week, do I come back later and do I talk to my kids about maybe an event or a situation or a conversation or maybe something that went well or went wrong at work and it connects back to the word that God gave me in that day or that week. 

Do I connect that dot back to my kids? They might see me reading the Word, but do I ever come back to them and say, I’m so excited. Let me tell you what happened today because this is what I read this morning, and to really connect the Word of God to everyday life and how that message can be presented to our kids. 

I know personally, sometimes I don’t necessarily remember to connect that dot, so it’s not just academic. Dad is not just feeding the information into his head to make him great at Bible trivia the next time we play, but it is going to play out in his life. Yeah. And we need to allow them into our lives when that’s played out. 

Yeah. Another great example is prayer. You know, whether that’s sitting around the supper table, praying and maybe the kids hear you praying for the neighbor, or kids might hear you praying for this thing happening at work or so on and so forth. Or a big challenge comes up and they see you and your spouse go into the kitchen and just say, I think we need to just pause and pray. And they’re just observing that and soaking that up and seeing that when mom and dad get in a pinch or they’re not sure where to turn, they turn to Christ, they turn to prayer. And they might go over to the couch or over some place, kneel down, have a prayer together, maybe an out loud prayer where the kids happen on the scene and they hear the issue being shared and the concern being taken to the Lord. 

That’s great. Brings up a thought to my mind. Brian, you talked about sometimes getting in a pinch. What do we do when our children get into a pinch? And they get caught up in a situation, maybe from little to even teenagers. You know, what do we get to do in that element of prayer with our kids in that way? 

Yeah. It makes me laugh a little bit in the sense that right now with young kids our pinches are, don’t hit and listen to mom or don’t run away when you’re in the store. And a lot of times on the way to the store, we’ll have that prayer together so. What do you want Jesus to help you with when we go into Aldi’s?  

I don’t want to run away from mom and yeah, let’s not overthink this, everyone. Yeah. But for the kids to understand then that, oh, we need Jesus for everything. Yeah. We need Jesus moment by moment. I need Jesus so that I don’t hit. I need Jesus so that I can say no to myself. Yeah. And as they get older, I think, you know that those pinches are going to be bigger. 

Like you’re talking about, Craig, an 18-year-old’s pinches are going to be bigger than running away from mom in the store. But to have that training and that ongoing vision of when I’m struggling, this is where I turn and what it’s looked like, and I’ve lived that out and I’ve witnessed that for many years. 

What does this look like in terms of praying with your kids in the way? Can you paint that a little bit? What might that look like? And I’m sure it can take on a thousand forms but help us out. Help us see that and say, okay, I can do it. Having the opportunity to be in tune to where our children are at, even in their stages of life. 

And even knowing maybe in their week what they have coming up. Sometimes there might be something at school or something in connection to something where maybe they’re just a little bit worried, their worry level’s a little bit higher. And for us to be in tune with that and to know that. We’ll just use an example of my daughter trying out or auditioning for something in the school choir and she just has a little bit of apprehension, and I know that is today. To be able to take a moment with her in the morning or the night before and just to come and to kneel close to her and to hold her and say, let’s pray about this and just use that moment to connect to them in prayer. 

I look back at my life and see many opportunities that I missed in that, but as the Lord has worked to be able to look for those even more. What joys they are and then that gives mom and dad a set of glasses. We want to be looking for that with purpose, to bring the worship element back to our kids. 

One thing you made me think of, Craig, when you mentioned that is God loves our children and when we do that, when you painted that picture, Craig, I saw God reach out and hug that child. And isn’t that a part of family worship? Right? Being the arms and hands of God and allowing him to reach down to our children and around our family and allow him to embrace them. And so, when we embrace and say, God cares about this too, let’s take it to him. We’ve been talking about this issue for a long time now. Let’s include God in this conversation because he intimately cares about it. And how beautiful. 

Sometimes in the eyes of prayer, I can be guilty of that, but even more with children, they see prayer sometimes as God’s a vending machine. Well, if I pray for this, then this is automatically going to happen. Well, why? Because I pray to God. And that as we pray with them, sometimes hardships will still happen. Maybe she’s not going to make that audition or maybe something else. She’s not going to get the best grade. He’s not going to get that piece that he wanted in whatever. But to be able to talk about that, we prayed for that, but that doesn’t change God’s love for them, and we get to model that young, so they don’t have to struggle with it so much like some of us adults have.  

Neat. That’s great. Yeah, and I think praying with our kids is a great time to start forming up their picture of who God is and pray into them the truths about who God is and thank God for being our rock. Thank you, God, for being our shelter in the storm and just helping them frame up that God isn’t just this vending machine we go to, but the truths of who he is and being able to plant those seeds in their heart, whether they’re three or 13 or 18, that’s a powerful opportunity.  

As we look at this unstructured time, I love the role that singing and song has in just expressing God on a moment-to-moment basis and how that can be woven into this family worship time. Yeah, there’s no doubt that singing and praising the Lord in that sense can be a great way to engage in family worship. Whether that’s driving somewhere or just at home while you’re making supper. And again, it’s a great opportunity for the kids to get a window into your heart of where your mind goes. What’s important to you? And reflecting that turning to Christ as a place to worship. God is somebody who is worthy of our praise and worship is a good thing.  

You know, that brings back images from long ago. I’d be at my grandma and grandpa’s house on Sunday morning. My grandfather, who was a very quiet man, was not very outward. He would be up before the rest of us, and he would go and sit down at the piano and play hymns with two fingers. Soprano and tenor, and he would play through the hymns. And I saw grandpa worship, and I don’t think he ever thought that this is family worship. Sure. But I saw faith in grandpa that he didn’t express through words, but he expressed through those two notes on a Sunday morning. 

And so, do we let our kids observe our worship? Yeah. And I think that’s the thing. It doesn’t have to be huge. It doesn’t have to be big. It’s just about doing life and being quick to turn our hearts to the Lord and recognizing that in doing so, our kids get to see us worship and they’re participating in it by just watching that in us. 

And that’s exciting. And this is a nice blend from the last conversation we had with individual worship, corporate worship, family worship. We showed how they all intertwine, and here we see them intertwine again, don’t we? In the way when we individually worship but allow our family to worship with us. I guess both are happening at the same time. 

It really expands the role of the priest in the home sense that there’s worship happening there. We don’t just go to church for worship. That’s an extension of worship and a beautiful time to come together with others, but we want our home to be a place of worship as well.  

Let’s talk a little bit about purpose. Craig, what made me think of this is your comment about priests in the home. And I think of Moses, for example, who stood in the gap for his family before a God who was very angry at their transgression and sin, and he appealed to the nature of God when he made that appeal to God on their behalf. 

And then we also have Job doing the same thing for his children. He would bring petitions to God on their behalf. Speak to that in terms of family worship. We are given this opportunity, we are given this role, this season of time with our kids, and it’s not to be wasted. It’s not about getting to that later. Or I’ll stand up and hold the sword and we’re going to go to battle when everything’s right. I’ll be ready for that moment. But to just be able to appreciate that those moments are right now, every day. Why look for them in the way that my children are desiring? And I think for us as parents, to realize and remember that our kids come into this world with desperately wicked hearts like we all do. And that part of the task is to be able to reorient their heart for them to understand that they are not God. 

I think that’s a challenge for all of us as they see us model and show that we understand we are not God and the way that we interact with life. Hopefully that then grabs a hold of them and helps them as they shift from what do I want and what’s important to me, to being able to shift to a place of what is important to God and how do I follow that regardless of what I want or what’s important to me. 

But saying no, what God wants is most important and that’s what I’m going to do. Worship is required there. I’m just thinking about God and the Trinity and how he has formed a husband and wife and their unity, and then children come out of that unity. It just seems as though there’s something deep there that I can’t get my mind around. Yeah. It seems to me that God has created us to worship. That is just part of who we all are and therefore we will worship something. And absolutely the family has to figure out what they are going to worship. Because if it’s not God, if it’s not the Lord Jesus Christ, in turning our hearts there, we will worship something. We will turn to something. And I think as believers, it’s a fundamental thing for us to make sure that our family is worshiping the Lord.  

Matt, you spoke a little bit about Deuteronomy 6 and about teaching and being intentional in that. Then another verse talks about writing these things that are important on the door post and on the gates. And I love those two words because when I think of posts, and I think of the intentionality here in our home, like you said, Brian, if we aren’t intentionally worshiping God, there will be other things to worship. And so, we look at those two words of post and gates, and I want to think of the post, those things that are important in my home and my family. 

If I ask my kids, what is important to dad, to mom, would they say, the way they live for God, that is important. Well, they recognize that as one of the posts in our homes and those things that we think of as a gate for protection around our property, what we let in and what we let out. And having that mindset of intentionality, a desire and a purpose to say, this is important. And in my house and in my home, I want this home to be set up for God. And certainly, the account of Joshua says it so well, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. And it’s that resolve that you get a sense that his family wanted to and largely by his example. 

Yeah, and Joshua is one of those examples. If you look at the broader life that he lived and his faithfulness throughout and the example that he lived and how people got a hold of that because of who he was. And it should be an encouragement to parents to say we have been given the opportunity to lead. And where we step into leadership and purposefully rally the troops, it grabs a hold of our kids’ hearts, and we can really have an opportunity to have a powerful influence there.  

Well, this conversation was great as we’ve thought about family worship and we’ve thought about it in the routine, in every day, the in-between times. We know that dads are going to work, and kids are going to school. It’s a lot in passing, but what’s been shared here today is that family worship is done in passing. And that’s a great deal of hope. And so as we look at our next conversation, we’re going to talk a little bit more about the structured training, because we’ve talked about the lab, Craig, as you mentioned it, and the classroom setting. 

There’s some importance and significance there. So, brothers, thanks and we look forward to that conversation on the structure of family worship. Hopefully you’ve been blessed by the conversation that we’ve had here today. Feel free to visit our website at accounseling.org for helpful resources. 

Thanks. 

Welcome to Breaking Bread, the Apostolic Christian Counseling and Family Services Podcast. A time where we acknowledge a common need in a common and abundant Savior where we hopefully offer help to the hurting, nurturing hope for the believer, and encouraging growth. Today we’re going to continue with a conversation that we’ve begun on family worship. 

I’ve got with me Craig Stickling and Brian Sitter. And I am Matt Kaufman. And we’re going to talk about the more structured approach to family worship. We spent a little bit of time unpacking what family worship looks like when it’s done in the way or in passing and now let’s look at times for classroom instruction, so to speak. 

Is that fair to say? Where we’re more structured and more intentional with our family worship. So that’s what we want to talk about today. What does that look like? Well, I think what that looks like in general is the family as a whole getting together for the specific reason of worshiping. And that could include a few different things, but I think in general that’s going to include sitting down reading Scripture. That might be a Bible story, it might be a resource book, a devotional, or the Bible itself and thinking it through and in a general sense, that’s what we’re talking about, that specific time set aside for that. 

Is it important that the family is together for this in the sense that it is done as an entire family? Is that an important piece? I think so. I think the expectation should be that everyone would be there. Now, that being said, exceptions should be allowed. For example, if someone has something come up at the last minute and they’re not able to go, or even for us the other day in our family, Allison is part of a prayer group that meets on Monday evenings. It comes up once a month, and this particular night it was just going to work best for me to do family worship during the time that she was gone. Now, I don’t want that to be a habit. I want her to be a part of it, but on that particular night, it’s either do it with the three of us or not do it at all. 

Is family worship, family devotion? Is that the first piece of time that gets cut away or is that the one that we hold on to until the last? And so that’s a challenge for families and I know that there’s so much offered for kids to do, so many things going on that’s a challenge that we have to be aware of. 

So that’s something that as a family, we need to look at our schedules and decide when is that best time. There’s probably no one best time for all, but it would be unique for every family. Yeah, that’s exactly right. Matt, we’ve got to figure out what’s going to work for your family most consistently. You know, is it in the morning? Is it sometime through the day? Is it in the evening? Is it around supper? There’s not a right answer necessarily for that, but there is probably a time that’s going to work best for your family, and you have to find that time, and then make sure you guard that time. So, we’ve talked about the family coming together and that is important, and we’ve talked about setting that time aside and I would imagine some sort of regularity is a part of this equation. 

Is that true? Consistency? Certainly. Especially as our kids are younger, as we’re trying to instill this principle in them, having some consistency is going to greatly help them look forward to this and to know that every Tuesday night or whatever, we are going to have this time as a family. Plus, what’s nice is when they get it on their schedule, then they’re usually pretty good at reminding mom and dad, we’ve got this tonight. We’re not going to miss it.  

So, I love it when they help guide our behavior as well. Brian, you mentioned last night, so evidently you must do it in the evening. Is that true? Yeah. That works best for our family right now. Mornings don’t really work. Mealtime or supper time when dad gets home tends to be a time that’s pretty crazy with young kids. 

And by the end of that, dad can be pretty frustrated and needs to focus more on some personal worship time. Exactly, calming my heart down. You know, I think family worship at that time would look a little bit like sitting down and hearing a sermon on what it means to be obedient. Yeah. So, that doesn’t really work. But time in the evening, after supper, after dad’s had some time to cool down, and the kids are in that playful mode, not really tired, not ready to go to bed yet, is what works for us. And it doesn’t necessarily mean that everybody’s happy or that it goes well. Right? 

Sure. That’s funny and it makes me chuckle because going to bed is not the time in our family. The bedtime routine is too long as it is. It’s far too long, you know, I don’t know why it takes so long to get from here to there and to sleep. Dad’s job is riling up the kids before bed. Yeah. So that’s what we have to accomplish. Yeah. So, we try to do it in the morning. Okay. So, we work it out so dad can be there, and the kids get up before dad’s gone and everything. But as much as we try to be consistent, there’ll be times when one sleeps in, one of the children doesn’t get up, somebody’s in a funk, and we can go without, and sometimes we’ll go days or maybe even a week without it. 

And so now I’m going to brace myself as I have two counselors here. Tell me what my problem is. Well, I don’t know if we have time for that, Matt. We only have 15 minutes. Yeah. But I think that’s universal. That’s a normal thing that it’s hard to be consistent. That should be the goal. But parents should not be discouraged when they miss a night, or they even miss a week. That’s going to be part of the journey and don’t give up too quickly when you miss that night. The challenge is the righteous man keeps getting up, right? You just keep getting up. You keep trying, you keep working. And I think for me, another thing to think about is who in my life is going to be asking me how family worship is going? You know, is it the brother at church over the noon hour? So, there’s an accountability piece to help. Yeah, I think that’s helpful. 

There’s a great picture of love that just unwraps out of this. Because sometimes in the struggles and in those challenges of, oh, it’s been two days and now four days and now we’re at a week. And just to be reminded that sometimes in those situations, the two spouses might be starting place blame and just to recognize, that is not going to be helpful. 

Right. For us both just to come together and say, oh, honey, we have been really busy lately, haven’t we? Yeah. And then to be able to have this conversation to say, how do we get back on track because that’s really important. And I love you and I want to be part of this. So, what can we do now? Okay, so how should we evaluate our family worship structure? 

Because I’ll be honest, sometimes in my mind I’ve got glowing, euphoric views of what this is going to be. And, oh, I’m going to share this story with the kids and I’m going to bring this Scripture and maybe we’ll memorize this and this, and I get everybody, and it seems like the only happy ones at the table are mom and dad. 

Yeah. And all of a sudden, I launch into the story and they’re not paying attention. And all of a sudden, I’m flicking ears. And by the time it’s all said and done, everybody’s upset. And remember, this is the beginning of our day. So, how should I view that? I just did it. Was that good or was that bad, or what? 

Yeah. Well, I think you want to be willing to learn as you go and that some days are going to be better than others. But I think ultimately the thing is to be faithful to the role that we’ve been given. That’s really the key. It’s not about what fruit comes from it as much as it is about just being faithful to engaging in the role of being leaders in our homes, as moms and dads. 

So, as Paul wrote, one plants, one waters, God gives the increase feeds into this discussion. And we can praise the Lord that we are not the ones that add the increase. Because it would be very sparse or non-existent. Yeah. Right. For sure. You mentioned, Matt, the word evaluation and that just brings a couple thoughts to mind here. 

One is, do we ever stop a moment sometimes and ask our kids. Hey, this is what we’re trying to do on Monday nights or Saturday mornings. How do you think it’s going? What could we do? What could we add? And sometimes we’re able to glean some great encouragement, and sometimes they have ideas that when they have some ownership and they get to bring some of that into it helps. 

And the kids are showing up for duty to listen and we can move past or in addition to that. And so sometimes asking our kids, how do we think it’s going? What can we add or what could we do? And sometimes we get some good insight. And that’s a very child-centered view as you think about the needs of the child. 

So, you work with children all the time, you understand developmental stages. Speak to that. How we as parents should process that. We’ve got an 11, a nine and a seven or a 15-year-old. As our kids transition and move from toddlers to young kids, to an adolescent, to an older teen, their needs are going to change. 

And how we’re able to bring the love for the Word and this time together. To have significance to them to speak to where their heart is at. My kids are developing at different stages, and I want to be at the front end of providing devotion and study and that encouragement time that meets where they’re at as well along with that. So, the one question we get often is how long should it be? And I think that’s going to be determined largely by where your kids are at developmentally. And if they’re young, it’s going to be pretty short. You might be talking about five minutes. Now as they get older and maybe they’re converted you might be able to do family worship for 20 minutes, but again, you can’t judge where you’re at based on the neighbor next door. It’s about where your family is. How do you meet them where they’re at and grow from there.  

What type of materials? One thing that we think we need to have is some materials. And then we might go to the bookstore and walk around and just be glassy eyed. You know, it’s like, I don’t know. So, do you have suggestions on that or can you sketch that out for us a little bit of what that might look like? Well, I think one thing I would point people to is our website. One of the things we’ve done over the last couple years is reviewed lots of different devotionals. 

And so, in our family devotion portion of our website, there are lots of resources there. A couple that I really appreciate are long story short. And old story new. Those are just great resources for parents to go through. The structure’s there and you can walk through it and it brings a lot of discussion and opportunity to learn and grow together as a family. 

That sounds great. I think probably one of the greatest resources in the world is the baby room at church. Just go in and say, hey, who’s using what or what do you do? I want to learn. And just learn from those that have been there. 

I love that. And another thing I would encourage people with, I know for my own generation, I’ll speak for us, I think sometimes we get too worried about having the right resource or the best resource, and then you get stuck. And if you just start with the Bible. Don’t wait until you make sure you’ve got the best resource and oh, is this really the one I want to use? Use it as a resource, but don’t get bogged down there either. Can we take encouragement from the Scripture where God says my Word will not return void. I mean, that’s very disarming to think, okay, I do have the Scriptures, and we have a good understanding of the Scriptures, right? 

And to share those Scriptures and entrust that to God. Yeah. I think moms and dads know so much more about Scripture than what they even realize. It’s packed in there. And if they can just recognize that and unpack that for their kids and walk through and open up the Scripture, walk through it together and the Word is faithful to do what only the Word can do. 

And that’s why I think a primary part of our family worship needs to be the Word of God. Which leads us to the next point of maybe memorization. We know that our children are just set up to memorize. Their minds are growing and they’re able to retain and to do better than us. Is that a part of family worship or should that be a component we think about? 

Think about that element of thy Word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee. Boy, what a champion call for their child to say, oh, I would love that. Just the thought that they have the Word of God in their hearts and it’s just like this suit of armor upon them like, okay, I’m ready for whatever happens today. 

And just to bring that in with that intentional piece and that might just look at saying, okay, in our family, we’re going to have five family verses. Or 10 family verses that when we think of the Stickling household or our family, that this is going to be important to our home. These Scriptures are just going to hold us, strengthen us. Start with just a few and just saturate your family with that handful of verses and just start with that. 

And you know what? The Lord adds the increase. And just to be able to remember we start with one. I love the optimism of that. Craig, as you think of choosing a verse, what verse would you want exemplary in your family? Go with that verse. And it also speaks to that evaluation part where we sometimes get discouraged knowing that these seeds are planted to be harvested maybe years down the road. 

And we might not get the good feeling right away that this is going well, but a verse memorized in a youngster is powerful stuff. And when we’re able to pull in even our kids’ ownership of the Word of God, the Word is a gift to all mankind. And even for children to want to learn about the Word, and even as you progress in some of your Scripture memory opportunities that each kid maybe gets to bring a verse to the family every year to say, I want our family to memorize this verse. 

And what a neat thing that all the family then gets to of the different kids. They each had a verse that they brought to the table this year, and what a great picture for the family that just weaves. Everyone has a part in this, and I think that’s a great picture too, that speaks to the mindset or maybe the disposition of family worship. 

That is really a time for the family to come together and to see this as a family activity. This isn’t just about dad ruling. It’s about how do we get everybody excited about this and be willing participants and invited to offer ideas or maybe at times lead or so on and so forth. 

And if that can be the atmosphere of family worship, what a rich thing that I know is not always possible, but what a great thing to shoot for. How about music? Certainly, when you think of worship, music comes to mind. Is that attainable in the average household? Yeah, and I would say it goes back a bit to the developmental phases of life, and I would say right now with young kids, singing is a large part of our family worship. 

Because for them to sit and read a story for too long isn’t all that workable and to kneel by the coffee table and have a long prayer isn’t all that that workable. But they love to get up and sing. And so, I think it should be a part of it. Our culture just is saturated in music and so there’s a great desire and appreciation from a natural sense as well. But then maybe not just necessarily focus on whether we sing this or not, you can have your older child say, hey, you know what, pick out a song and come and tell me what you appreciate about that song. What’s the message in that song? 

So, they’re able to share about music, they’re able to share about that piece of worship through song, and the emphasis maybe isn’t necessarily on whether it’s played correctly on the right tune at the piano or violin, but can you just come and talk about a song that you really connected with this week? 

Music is contagious. In my youth, my dad would frequently sit down at the piano and start playing and singing and he didn’t have to announce to us that everybody was invited. You just got a sense that he wanted some more people and you it tended to be a place where we would find ourselves there singing with him. 

So, there is a culture that can be created. Not long ago, a sister from our church had sent a prayer request over email, and in that prayer request she specifically cited the need and then said, ask your children to pray. And it really struck me because I think she was wise on a couple of accounts. 

One, it has been a good opportunity for us parents to inspire prayer in our children. Second, that our children might actually have faith in getting this thing done. Yeah, prayer is a wonderful part of family worship. You know, prayer is spontaneous, and you just pray as a family. But there is also benefit in having some structure even if it looks different. 

For example, right now part of our family worship ends with everyone going around and saying, Jesus, help me with whatever, and then we go around the next time with Jesus, thank you for whatever. And that’s a way that we structure it now, but there’s lots of different ways to do it. You might on different days of the week say, okay, tonight we pray individuals in the church. 

Or on Tuesday nights we pray for neighbors and Wednesday night be someone else, and it’s a great way for them to be able to part of that to hear and put their ideas on the table as you connect as a family. A great way to do structured prayer. What can we pray for tonight or what can we pray for this week? And to be able to engage their heart and their need, and then to bring that to God in prayer, what a model, such a powerful picture for them that we care enough to know what their needs are and then to say, let’s pray about this.  

I think another thing that I’ve heard you talk about Craig, which I think is really good, is just this idea of journalling the things that we’ve been praying for and then recalling the Lord’s faithfulness to meet those, whether that’s exactly the way we thought or in a different way, but it’s a great way to teach our kids that we want to keep account of the things we’re bringing before the Lord and seeing how the Lord works those things out. 

But when we start looking for ways to pray for others’ needs, what do we train our children’s eyes to look for? Don’t we train them to look for the needs of other people? That takes the lens off of themselves always, but also then it helps them to look for the needs of others. And boy, isn’t that a beautiful picture of Jesus. 

And I think what a great opportunity to engage in discussion, deep theological discussion on what it means when we pray for this person who’s sick. And they don’t get healed. And hopefully we can have discussion about that and start to stir up our minds in helping our children understand what prayer is, what it’s meant to do, and how we think through suffering and challenges and prayers that are answered where we can rejoice and prayers that don’t seem to be answered the way that we want it. 

And what a great opportunity to help stir up children’s minds and help them build this foundation of theology. That reminds me of a story that my wife tells. Actually, my father-in-law tells when they were in Japan and they had a little canary, and that canary got out of the cage and flew out the window, and my wife and her sisters prayed fervently. 

But that canary wouldn’t come back. Well, you know how moms are, and they were doing just that, Brian, working the theological angle about not being disappointed on how God has his ways and wouldn’t, you know the next day that little bird came back on that window? And what a powerful lesson for parents. 

And I have a feeling if we engage in this, while we might think we have a lot to teach our kids about prayer, we might be the beneficiaries of it. Yeah, no doubt there is mutual learning. Isn’t there always. And that is so good. Thanks Craig and Brian for being with me here today, helping us understand what family worship looks like in a structured sense. 

If you found the conversation to be enlightening or want more resources that have been mentioned, feel free to visit accounseling.org and follow the links to receive that help. Until next time, have a great day. 

Welcome back. This is Breaking Bread, the Apostolic Christian Counseling and Family Services Podcast. Today I have Craig Stickling and Brian Sutter with me. And I’m Matt Kaufman. And, and we’re going to talk about the fourth and final conversation regarding family worship. In previous podcasts we’ve talked about family worship and is it corporate or family or individual? 

We’ve looked at the how-to of it in terms of structured and non-structured family worship. And today we’re going to talk a little bit about the barriers. I think if we were all encouraging one another towards being more intentional about dessert after supper time. You got my attention now, Matt, also. 

Craig has all of a sudden perked up and how to serve out ice cream and great additions and toppings that we could put on it. And then if we were to poll families, I think we would have raving reviews and high marks of success and of consistency and of families getting together, right? 

All of that to say there is no resistance to that, but with family worship, a great deal of resistance, a great deal of friction, an uphill battle. All families are common in saying, we struggle with this. Why is that? Why do we struggle with this? The picture comes to mind right now if you’re on the African plain and there in the distance you see this lion just standing on a hill and he’s just surveying out the prairie and he’s looking for this opportunity to devour something. And boy, as you look at the barriers there, Matt. It’s so significant to remember that Satan hates families coming together and worshiping. So, this is a very spiritual issue, and I think we all know that, but just to have an understanding that Satan wants to snuff this out.  

He’s okay with ice cream after supper. He won’t be after that. But this, he will. Why does Satan hate this so much? Because he sees the importance of it and the value of it, and that where fathers and mothers are leading their children in worship, that is very dangerous for Satan and therefore he wants to squash that. 

And I can imagine he wants to squash it also for the reason of the blessing that God must get out of family worship as Satan hates God. Yeah. And hates everybody who contributes to God’s glory. And I would wonder if that’s even part of what festers in him regarding family worship. He is filled with hate, isn’t he? 

And so, he will bring that reign of hate anywhere he can go and where’s a more perfect place to start than in the home, separating mom and dad from each other, separating children from their parents. He loves to live there, and he loves to destroy a dad’s heart who says, no, this is my family. This is our time. 

This is what we are going to do, and he loves to destroy that in every home that he can. I think one of the things that we struggle with as we carry out family worship is, I’m not quite qualified or I’m not quite good enough, or I don’t quite know how to do it. Do I need to get a degree at some university or is there some schooling that I need or what? 

What are the qualifications here? Well, I think the good news in Scripture is that if you are a mom or a dad, you are qualified by being in that role. God equips you to engage in family worship and you don’t have to know so many verses. You don’t have to have a degree; you don’t have to be able to speak Greek or any of those sorts of things. 

If you are a mom or a dad, you are qualified and it is your role to be able to step into, and that’s tremendous news and a great deal of hope. Let’s start to look more narrowly then at some of the issues. What are some of the specific barriers? And maybe as we look at them one at a time, and we’re not going to cover them all, but as we look at some of the difficulties and some of the barriers, we might find some hope in some of these areas that first we thought were desperate. 

Yeah, I think one that jumps off the table at me is just time. I mean, you hear that all the time from parents, from families is how do we carve out this time? We’re all so busy and we’re running about, and so I think that’s a huge barrier that almost every family runs into. It’s a challenge. 

And even with best purpose and best intent, we’re going to sometimes run into issues that are vying for our time. Oh, we have a visitation to go to tonight. You know what? Those things happen and those things need to also be part of what we need to accomplish. But how do we continue to recognize though, that I want this time to be for my family and that we become protectors of that time.  

I think that’s a great point, Craig, that we have to be able to protect our time, that we have to be able to build margin into our schedule, so to speak, so that they’re not so crammed that anything that comes up just foils the whole thing. As we look at dance class or we think of soccer and as we think of piano lessons, as we have that discussion, part of that discussion is to say, okay, now where is family time? Where is worship time going to be? Or how are we going to connect as a family so that’s not forsaken? What a great conversation to have with your kids, you know? And to be able to know that’s a priority in our family. And we have to consider that when we think about engaging in soccer or doing dance, that it’s not just a matter of can we do this in the evenings? 

It’s a matter of whether we’ve already got family worship scheduled into our day, and then if we add this, is that workable? Can we do all of that together? And asking that question and talking with our kids about it. What about maybe the dad who says I will take my family to church on Sunday? That’s my family devotion. That’s my family time. Well, I would say, well done dad. I think that’s a good thing. That’s a valiant thing to be able to get your family to church. And I think we are called to do more than that. We want to grow from that. That’s a good thing to do. It’s a good starting place and we also want to expand that to say, how do we keep elevating worship and the Lord’s place in our home and hearts as being higher and higher and more important and more important, and therefore being able to grab more time of our week?  

How do we encourage the family or the home here who says, you know what? Maybe too much time has gone by. We’re not in a routine; we’re not in a habit. How do I even start now? Maybe I can’t. I think what Satan loves to do is to heap onto families and moms and dads wherever you’re at. Not good enough. So, you may as well not try, but I think the message from Scripture and from the Lord is, yeah, acknowledge where you’re at. But then try to take one step forward in a direction that you feel is going to be wise for your family. Just one step, what does that look like? And then taking it and finding out it’s interesting how easy I compare myself to someone else and to think, well, oh, this other brother or this other dad, oh, he just seems to do it always so well and so, ugh, there’s no way I can be at that level. 

I just sometimes am discouraged before I even start. So, let’s talk about some encouraging points. How can we encourage the discouraged in their family worship? What are some of the ways we can speak into their life and say, you know, you are gifted to do this? Because I think sometimes, we look and say, no, really, I’m not. 

Yeah, I think that can be a common struggle for lots of moms and dads. And I think going back to just the reality that if he’s put you in this role, he has gifted you, and I think specifically for fathers to know that within men is this desire and this hunger to be able to conquer, to be able to build, to accomplish. And a lot of times there are areas in life where you do that really well. It may not be in family worship, but to think about where you do that. Well, maybe it’s at work. Maybe you’re really good at work and you work long hours, or you’re really good at helping build a business and so on, and figuring out where you do those things well, and then how can that translate into doing family worship? 

I think that’s powerful, Brian. So what we’ve done is we’ve just put our finger on an issue here where we have lots of men who work very hard, but at the root of it, there is a gift there for a man to deny himself, to put others before himself, to be focused and trained on a goal, and to work valiantly towards that goal. Those all sound to me like somebody God wants in his army. They have that desire that strength, if you want to call it, to say, let’s get this done, and what can we do and what do we need to have? And as you said, those natural characteristics that just seem to flow easy out of being a man. 

But to bring those two, this picture of the family worship piece and so how do I get to use that and maximize that on behalf of my family? Yeah. And I think with that, for dads to be encouraged and also acknowledge that moms can play a significant role in this and what they can do. 

One of the reasons I think sometimes that men dive so much into their work is because they can get a lot of praise or they can receive a lot of well done, well done. And that is something that really speaks to a man’s heart, and that sometimes you as wives get to play that role for us and encouraging us and saying, you know what, you tried it sweetie, and I know it didn’t go quite the way you wanted it to, but I really appreciate that and how much that can just encourage the man’s heart. We get a lot of either internal critic voices or even the fiery darts of Satan telling us that we’re not doing a good job. And so, when we’re able to get that encouragement and maybe it did flop, but just to be able to say you gave it a good tryout and the support that a wife can give and speak life into her husband as she looks at some of these attributes and says, you know what, I don’t see these as vices. I see these as great virtues that God has given us.  

So, let’s look at one more. I think we as men can do a pretty good job making disciples of our sons and our daughters in terms of our hobbies, right? A hunter passes on the love of hunting, and it seems like it happens so naturally. Can I process this issue in our lives as a possible hidden virtue? Yeah. Well, I think there is something really neat about kids’ desires to be like mom or dad. You know, I think of when I brush my teeth in the morning, there’s something about my son, Cash, a 2-year-old who’s watching me, and all of a sudden now he’s starting to pull himself up on the counter and take a drink of water when I’m kind of rinsing my mouth out he wants to do and be just like dad. 

You’re exactly right. He wants to do the hobbies. I like to hunt. And it’s amazing how fascinated he is right now with deer, and they just catch that. And if we can think of that even in family worship and them being able to catch our passion and fire for serving the Lord. It can just naturally come. Some of us, as dads, we might struggle with thinking of a structured lesson or leading out this intellectual discussion on a Bible story, but to be able to say, you know what, next Saturday there’s a widow who lives down the street and we’re packing up our rakes, and you know what family, we’re going to go get her lawn done and leading them in service and having an opportunity to model that worship of Christ, but in action. But to be able to engage our kids in that, and dad, that’s a powerful way that we get to stand up to this leadership plate and do something that just can resonate with us for our children.  

Appreciate you saying that, Craig. Because sometimes I think as fathers, we do things like that without our kids actually even being invited. Right? Yeah. And it definitely is going to take more time and it’s going to be more painful to have your kids in on those sorts of things. But I think that is great encouragement for moms and dads to help your kids see when you’re doing that and be invited into that. And then also to explicitly tell them, you know what? The reason why we went down here and raked this yard, or the reason why we decided to make a meal for this family is because we love Jesus. And Jesus asks us to minister to people, to encourage people, and this is a way to actively live out our faith and what great opportunities to do family worship and teaching there. 

It’s a great blend, isn’t it, Brian? It brings together obedience to the Word. That reaching out, that looking, that caring for our neighbor, loving our neighbor, connecting with our family, with our kids, presenting to them the truth, but then not just speaking to them, not just being hearers of the Word, but then being doers of the Word, and then being able to bring that back together in reflection with our kids. 

There’s so much that can be packed into what looks like a little action, doesn’t it? Here’s another one I’d like you two to dialogue about, and that is storytelling. And we can wax eloquent about a story and get kids’ attentions and tell that story. And, there again, is that a virtue that we have been given by God for a greater purpose than maybe what we use it for? 

I think you’re right. It is being able. To tell stories and bring to life our own lives, our own situations, or even the Scripture through story is something that I think a lot of people and a lot of dads and moms can really relate to and resonate to and it feels a lot more disarming to be able to sit down and tell a story with your kid than feeling like what am I going to do when I get this question? Or how do I unpack this deep theological situation, or I read this verse, and I don’t even know what it means. And to be able to move it into a story can be very workable for a lot of people. We think that it was modeled through the Old Testament, wasn’t it? God gave us a story, and there are stories within the stories that God said, I’m going to give you this story because there’s just a lot packed into that. It’s just about people and how they’re living and they’re making mistakes, and they find a truth in me. But it’s a story, and I want you to read that. I want you to know that, and just as you shared, what a great opportunity for us to be able to think about. 

What can I say to my child? What story can I tell them? And certainly, the story of our own personal salvation. We’ve all very carefully thought that through because we’ve had a moment in our life when we needed to give it and to kind of rehearse those points. And certainly, that’s a story we should be able to tell. 

Oh, I think that’s a great example of being able to let our children into our experiences with God. And that’s a, you know, a great one would be just how he grabbed a hold of our heart and brought salvation to us, or being able to share with them how the Lord brought you and your spouse together, or the time that you were going through this really dark, difficult time and, and how the Lord used that to bring this about. 

Telling those accounts and stories of our lives and what a great thing for the kids to be able to see our understanding that God was working there and recalling those things. But there’s something so powerful for a little son or a little daughter to say, this is a story from my dad. This is a story from my mom and just that personal hunger that they have to be connected to us. 

Well, and I think throughout the Scriptures is the story of the Israelite Nation and the Hebrews. It was very personal to them. It was dad, it was Grandpa Abraham, and it was great grandpa. Right. And to us, we’re a little bit third party in those stories, and so we take them a little bit differently. But yes, how powerful it is that this is great grandpa’s story, and this is grandma’s story. These are bloodlines that come into my family and some of those stories are coming to my mind now about my ancestry. And of the Kauffman’s and Hoffmans. Right. And they all feed in. 

We all have those stories and how important those stories are to build a compelling life for Christ. Yeah, and I think you look at the Scripture there’s this concept of, remember that’s a theme throughout the Bible that it is important to remember, to recall those things and the value and how encouraging that can be to the young heart. 

The world is offering that you pursue your own. Be your own. Don’t be concerned about where others are or the needs of others. It’s really about how much you can get, how much you can accomplish, and how Satan loves to separate and to divide. You don’t have to care about your family. You don’t have to be connected to them. You don’t have to be connected to being part of a church. 

You can do this all on your own. You know, Satan is just presenting this opposite message of promote yourself to the point of isolation. And then you turn around and no one is there. That just reminds me too, Craig, one of Satan’s attacks right now in our world is the reliability and authority of Scripture, and we want to be able to help our kids recognize Satan’s attack there and be able to elevate Scripture as something that is real. 

That is authoritative and what it talks about and what it teaches is what we need to follow, not necessarily what we like, what the culture tells us or any other thing. What does the Word of God say and how does that capture what we do and think Boy, doesn’t this really drive back to that individual growth and worship? 

How am I doing in my individual growth, my relationship with my Lord, and letting that then produce a fruit? And so, I would say if we’re struggling on the far end here, or maybe struggling with how do I lead my family? Is that a great place to do a heart check here, examine my heart myself, maybe reach out to a brother in church that I can bounce some ideas and some questions off and say, okay, brother, encourage me how to get back on this train. Because I want to be there for my kids. Before we conclude the conversation here today, brothers, let’s consider that family where maybe there’s an unbelieving husband. Maybe the wife feels like the burden of responsibility falls on her shoulders. 

Is there hope in that situation? A lot of grandparents that are raising kids of divorced or single parents and single parents are trying to juggle all of these hats and wear these hats. And I think that’s a great thing for us to consider here for a moment. And I think for anybody in those situations to know, we acknowledge that those are hard, and I think there’s great hope that there’s still opportunity for you to step into the role of leading your family and family worship. 

It may look a bit different, but you can do it. And God will bless that, and God can use that to plant seeds, nurture those young hearts. And certainly, history has bowed them well for their success in raising godly men and women. Paul’s mentee, Timothy had a believing grandmother and mother but a non-believing father. 

St. Augustine comes to mind. Another one, Dietrich Bonhoeffer. And the list goes on of men, and I’m sure women who have had mothers who were pillars in the faith. Yeah. Whether they would be grandmothers or mothers. You know, the love of God is just even being magnified to those homes that have special circumstances and special hurts, and that grace will be provided in any situation that we are in. 

Yeah. And even specifically to the situation you mentioned earlier, Matt, where there’s one believing spouse and an unbelieving one that the Word tells us that the believing spouse sanctifies that family. Just by being a believer there has an impact on your family and yeah, you’ve got to figure out what it looks like if I’m a wife in that situation to be able to show reverence to my husband, but also to do that. And to be able to engage family worship, and you can do both. It’s just going to look a little different and you may need some encouragement. It’s a great time to come alongside the church family and let people encourage you and help you think through what that maybe would look like in your situation. 

The church family is an extension of Christ and to be a blessing in that way and that it is very much okay to make your request known. Brothers, a great deal of help, hope, and encouragement has been offered in the way of family worship in these discussions. Thank you for your thoughts and expertise. 

I hope this has been a help to you. It’s certainly not been exhaustive in terms of capturing all that could be said about family worship, but we believe that the Holy Spirit will work in your own heart and your own life to bring completion. So, feel free to visit our website at accounseling.org. Follow the tabs there to find important resources that you might find to be helpful. Thanks so much for being with us.