Family worship
I was wondering if you could talk about family worship. We would like to incorporate this into our family life, but no one we know does it! Do you have family worship? What does it look like? -Kristy
One way that we facilitate this teaching and training is through family worship. Since I am blessed to have a husband who is the spiritual leader of our home, he is in charge of our family worship times. I read the Bible to the girls, pray with them, and sing with them during the day, but he is completely in charge of our evening family worship times.
We have currently found evenings to be the best times for family worship. We all gather together after dinner, right before the girls go to bed. We start by praying and singing our "hymn of the month." We're going through a little hymn book my mom gave to Kathrynne and are learning a new hymn each month. Last month, it was Whiter Than Snow. This month, it's All Things Bright and Beautiful.
After we sing, we normally read a chapter or two from Scripture. Jesse chooses which chapter we read and we usually read through a book of the Bible at a time. He often stops and explains it as we go along. We then close with either our hymn of the month again, or we sing a hymn we learned from a previous month (Kathrynne especially enjoys doing this!).
And that's that! We try to keep it simple and short and to engage the girls in the process. It's not just "Mommy and Daddy's time to talk about the Bible," it's a time for our whole family to be spending time praising the Lord, bringing our needs before Him, and getting to know the Lord and His Word better - which is truly the essence of family worship, I believe.
For those of you who also have family worship, we'd love to have you share what yours looks like. It will look different for each family, but we can all glean insights and ideas from others!
Related: One book which I highly recommend concerning family worship is Family Driven Faith, by Voddie Baucham. You can read my review here.
Graphic from Art.com
posted by Crystal Paine at 9:17 AM
23 Comments:
what we have done is for the children to get a scripture, either on thier own or with help, even just a line, and sing it! then when we gather everybody has something to share, my Hannah sang Psalm 121 for the longest time, everyday, adding a line every few days, she must have been around 4, that was 9 years ago, imagine her suprise when the casting crowns song, "I will serve you in the storm" had the same thing! My hubby teaches this to the guys in the county jail when he preaches there too, they love it,
blessings, Penny Raine
coming Oct 22, "Save the Farm, Bless the Preacher, Drought Sale!"
http://www.pennyraine.com
When I was a young girl, we would have "church at home" when more than one of us kids were sick on a Sunday.
My father would read scripture and we would sing and pray together. It is one of my fondest memories of childhood! Especially becuase my father felt that just because we were sick and couldn't go to church, didn't mean we didn't need the fellowship that comes with church!
Jamala Wade
I am a single parent of two beautuful daughters ages 8 and 6 and at this point I am the Spiritual Leader of the home and what I do with my girls is we gather together and first open with prayer, give our testimonies of victory for the day, sing a hymn and then we read a passage of Scripture and I went online and found childrens bible study stories and topics, (I read them the story last night was about the Tower of Babel and how God confused the language because the people put themselves first and not Him) then we close with prayer request and prayer. They especially look forward to testimony and prayer request because they are excited to share their blessings and as always looking for ways to pray for friends and teachers ect... I also have friends who sometimes we will get together and have a extended family devotion and all come together on a night either before congregational bible study or after.
Dear Crystal,
My family starts with a hymn(we go through our hymnal and sing the ones that we know) then my dad prays and them we divide the reading of the passage between the family and then we discuss it. At the end either all of us pray or one person does depending on how much time we have.
Our family worship is similar to Crystal's. We usually read, pray, sing a hymn, and then work on memorizing Bible verses. My children enjoy having a turn to read the scripture. The smallest even get to "read" by repeating after Daddy.
Sometimes as we are having family worship, I just pray that my whole family will be together in heaven worshipping the Lord!
Jenny
I don't have children yet but look forward to being able to do these things in the future as a family. I did want to comment on Voddie Baucham. I haven't read this book yet but he has come and spoke at our church 2x now and he is an amazing teacher and has truly expanded our ideas and thoughts regarding family.
It is important to my husband and I that we have scripture time before bed. We first pray...this is a time that we teach our children how to pray. After a prayer in which we have invited the spirit to be with us and to guide us. We read a chapter in the scriptures. This time also allows our children to ask questions. Also share experinces they may of had during the day. At times it is not easy as our oldest is 15 1/2 and our youngest 5. We have 5 children. I will testify that by having this time to be together has brought us together as a family. We feel a wonderful spirit in our home since we started doing this. It is never to late to start "Family Worship" in your home. We also don't like to send our children out the door in the morning with our family prayer. If needed I will pray with my son when he has to leave for cross country practices at 6 am. Giving the smaller children a chance to sleep a little, but will pray with them also. I see a difference when we miss.
We have found that family Bible time provides a great opportunity for teaching your little one to sit still! Since it's something we try to do everyday, it didn't take long before our little girl (starting around a year old, now she's two) knew exactly what was expected of her during that time: sitting still, no talking, etc. Church service on Sunday morning became simply a replay of what we'd already been practicing at home. We usually read the Proverb of the day. Since there are 31 they correspond with the days of the month exactly. Then we read one chapter from another book of the Bible, sing a hymn, and pray together.
I think that having family worship time is great, but I also know that there are many disgruntled wives out there who belittle their husbands because they don't lead in devotions. For those ladies whose husbands do not call the family together for worship, it may help to realize that your husband isn't violating any Biblical mandate, nor is he necessarily less spiritual than other men. Yes, he has a God-given responsibility to teach and train his children, but nowhere does the Scripture teach a specific time requirement or pattern for this. It is however a blatant disregard of Scriptural commands for a woman to nag her husband about it or belittle him to the children. Just an encouragement to those women whose men don't do this to keep focusing on the good and praise their men for the ways they do lead!
As a mother of young sons, ages 4 1/2 and nearly 3, and the wife of an unbeliever I am fully responsible (and by faith equipped by the Lord) for the calling of leading my kids in the ways and word of the Lord, just as Deut.6 tells me too.
I truly have struggled with this. I've thought I had to work up some toddler appropriate presentation and see instant results (the light going on over their heads) when spending this time with them. When that didn't happen I became frustrated and discouraged and for a time bought the lie that without a believing husband to spiritually lead this home my sons were destined to be confused and follow the ways of the world. But thank God His Spirit has brought me to my senses and given me encouragement to trust that God's word does not return void, especially when faithfully planted in the fertile hearts of little ones.
So what I do is try to be concious of including my sons in any spontaneous prayer, singing or quoting or reading of the word time I have out loud. I do this in the morning with a more organized and planned "worship" time and in the evening when I put them to bed, but I also do it several times throughout the day when I find myself wanting to "get away" and pray or study. Instead I just pray right in front of them and invite them to join me and the same goes with singing and studying the word.
This has been a tremendous challenge with my dear husband- who I long to win to the Lord all these 14 years- listening and watching and sometimes criticizing my instruction to the boys. Of course I never pray things around the boys which would cause them to loose respect for their father. I also always teach them in earshot of their dad the God says to honor your dad and mom.
God's promise is if I do these things in sincerity of heart and in true worship to the Lord, not trying to be "in your face" towards my husband or "religious" for acceptance by God then He will bless the obedience of teaching my kids His word and worshipping with them.
Even if your husband isn't interested in a formal "worship" time, as a mom you can take that role of being part of God's royal priesthood to your kids and worship, pray and teach God's word to them all day long.
This is the great freedom we have in this country. We of all people should fearlessly be worshiping with our kids everyday. Who knows how long this freedom without sacrifice will be ours. One day it may cost much more than the scowling looks of an unbelieving or critical husband, or impatient kids... it may cost us much more.
Crystal,
We do family worship, just about every night. Right after the kitchen is clean after dinner.
Hubby prays for us then we take turns choosing hymns. (We have 4 children. The youngest 2 just say a number when it's their turn. We all turn to it and try to sing it if we can.) We don't have a piano yet, so we just wing it. It does not sound very good sometimes, but it is a joyful noise. We usually sing 3-4.
Then he reads from The Word. We close in prayer and the Doxology. It is such a sweet time!
Emily
PS--Voddie is my pastor! I am loving the book, too. At our church, as a husband/father you are EXPECTED to have family worship. It's a great fellowship!
My husband is also in charge of our evening family worship. We start with everyone naming one thing that they are thankful for (even our 16mo, who just babbles something that we can't understand and gives us a big smile!). Then we pray, sing the doxology, sing our hymn of the month, read at least one chapter from the Bible, and memorize the catechism. Our family worship ends with Papa blessing all of us...usually a sung blessing, but sometimes spoken. On Saturday evenings we turn out all of the lights and worship by candlelight. It's a very special time that the children love and it helps us to get ready for the Sabbath. We've found that our family worship times are a great way to teach our children to sit quietly and reverently and to participate in worship. They all stay with us during our worship services at church, and they know how to behave and actively participate because of the practice they get at home. I'm so thankful for a husband that sees this as a priority!
I love "All Things Bright and Beautiful!" Have you heard it as arranged by John Rutter? We sang it several times with our civic chorale, and it's just lovely. Practically my favorite hymn. :-)
A sample is here: http://www.amazon.com/John-Rutter-Collection/dp/B00006LIEZ/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-8839364-5403842?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1192745896&sr=8-1
My husband reads and gives an illustration of the passage. The boys memorize too but that is done at a different time. We then begin our hymn time and are using Whiter Than Snow now. It is so precious to hear out kids sing those words! We close in prayer by each of us praying for another's request or needs.
Just read Family Driven Faith, and wanted to quote it to everyone I met, but I can't decide which parts to quote because it's
all
so
good.
I'm posting my review on my blog tonight!
To God be all glory,
Lisa of Longbourn
I think incorporating a set "worship" time into our families and homes is the way to go. I also believe that worship should be incorporated into every thing we do. Whatever we do, no matter how small, we do for the greater glory of God. We make the beds because we glorify God. We clean our homes because God wants us to take care of our families and in doing so we glorify Him. I love turning on Christian music during the day and sing as we work. Right now we are listening to and signing these words, " Lord, let me shine. Shine like the moon. Let me be a reflection of You. Let me be used to shine for You!" This should be our daily goal no matter how "trivial" the job is that we are doing.
Hi Crystal!
I love your blog and appreciate that you take the time to "coach" many of us who are striving to be the best wives and mommies that we can be.
I was just wondering ~ I've noticed that you have mentioned that your family listens to and sings hymns quite a bit. What do you think of Contemporary Christian music?
For family worship my husband starts by reading from "Training Hearts Teaching Minds" by Starr Meade. This book is set up as a devotional. On the first day of the week it asks a question (based on the Shorter Catechism) for the children to answer. It then leads you to the scripture to read a portion and a short explanation. We then do a section from "The Family Worship Book" by Terry L. Johnson. We then read a chapter of scripture, pray, and close in a hymn. My children are 13, 11, and 8 so we can have a longer family worship time. This time is a real blessing to our family.
Terri Shackleford
I read somewhere once that in days past if a family wasn't having regular family worship time, the deacons of the church would go to the father and rebuke him!
Anyway, family worship time is the highlight of our day. It is a time to reconnect, and tie heartstrings with one another as well as bring glory to God. Our worship is very similar to how Crystal described theirs. I have a link that gives an excellent overview of family worship that I have passed on to other families to encourage them in this. The link is:
http://www.middletownbiblechurch.org/homefam/family.htm
I didn't see prayer listed as a part of your evening devotional routine, but I'm sure that you do pray together. What does that look like for your family - does only Jesse pray aloud during worship, or do you and Kathrynne do it too? Just wondering what you have found to be most beneficial at this stage in Kathrynne's life.
Thanks!
Three days a week our family worship time is similar to yours, except ours is in the morning and we read a psalm along with our regular reading. We also sing one hymn a month and read the same psalm every day for a week. The other four days my husband is at school and work, leaving at 430 in the morning and getting home at 7 or later in the evening, so worship is led by me. Of course, we just have a four-month old so it really is just me participating. :)
We have "Bible Time" right after dinner is all cleaned up. Dh leads it and he starts off by letting one of a dc (they are 5&3) pick a song. This rotates each night as to who gets to pick. Then daddy picks a song. We usually repeat the same one for awhile. Then he asks the dc if anyone has a special. Someone will do a special. Dh then will teach a Bible story using flannelgraphs. The first time through he will put up the pieces and tell it using completely the Bible passage(they children and I have our Bibles open to the passage also). Then he will re-teach the lesson while one of the dc "tell the story" by putting up the flannelgraphs as he tells the story. When telling it the second time he will tell the story on his own (not reading the Bible word for word). I really like this and so do the dc. The dc always want to do more and more stories.
After the stories, we all kneel and dh takes prayer requests. Each child has some they always ask prayer for but are 5 yr. old is very aware of prayer request spoken around him so his will change when he knows someone has a need. We also pray for our missionaries at this time and talk about them too. That's pretty much it for us. It's such a blessing.
I know the Devil hates it becomes I'm so tired sometimes and my flesh just doesn't want to do it, but I'm so glad we've done it anyway.
Thank you so much for answering my question!
Your answer and the comments have helped us SO much!
Kristy
We started family worship when our girls were 4,3 and 1. At first they were shorter and revolved more around children's Bible stories and songs and a Children's catechism (questions and answers; not catholic). As the years passed and we grew wiser we realized that we don't have to water the Bible down. We can read the scripture as is and they will hear something they can relate to! We usually ask questions too! We are currently reading one story each night from Building on the Rock Series by Joel Beeke. Then we read related scripture and discuss it. Then daddy prays aloud. (Our girls are given opportunity to pray before school time and at meals.) Then we sing hymns out of the hymnal. I was wanting to learn to play piano. This was a great time to practice with singers the songs I had learned. After 2 months of family worship playing, I now play in evening service -not perfectly! :)
This has really helped our girls because they can now sing along with us in regular worship. This also gave them opportunity to practice sitting still for 15-30 minutes for story/ Bible time. They are now 7,6 and 4. My dh is the pastor so it really helps me to train them at home for church, so I they can stay with me and we all enjoy the service!
One stumbling block for some of my friends has been "what if I read it and they have a question I don't know the answer to." Be HONEST! Tell them you don't know and then search for it together in the Word, in other books, go to your pastor/ teachers!
I grew up in a "christian" home but I never saw my mother (dad wasn't a bleiver) read her Bible. She always waited until we were asleep so she could concentrate. Our girls remember from a young age seeing us reading first thing when they wake up and stumble into the living room and then curl up next to us. So when we say, "This is what God says, they know we are telling the truth!"
In Christ, Eva
www.homeschoolblogger.com/5atkins
Thanks for letting me share!
(If it is too long please feel free to edit/delete! )
Eva
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