A House That Prays Together…Stays
Together
“Choose you this day as to whom you will serve; but for me and my
house, we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua
24:14)
After the 9/11 Tragedy, I was talking to
someone about it. He shared how it was amazing that the planes
were not able to knock over the buildings going 500 mph. The fires from the planes are what brought
the destruction. They consumed the
structures. Ultimately they fell to the
ground. The foundations of the buildings
were so strong that it took something else to bring them down. Families need to be a place of strong
foundations. Everyone will be hit with things. Fathers, mothers, and kids alike. The home can be a haven in a hurtful world.
One of the biggest ways that we begin to lay
a foundation is through establishing or re-establishing godliness in the home…which
begins with the parents. Thousands of years ago, God instructed
parents to be pro-active and persistent in their attempts to teach their
children about faith and character. Deuteronomy 6:5-7
In his book, “Why Johnny Can’t Tell Right
from Wrong,” William Kilpatrick describes the phenomenon that is occurring in
families today. Kilpatrick says that the shift from
character based education to value free education was done with the best of
intentions...the thought was that rather than telling students what was right
and wrong and modeling it and enforcing it in the schools, maybe it would be
better to just discuss certain moral issues with students and allow them to
come to their own convictions as to the appropriate course of moral action to
be taken in each situation. And it sounded good!... and liberating... and
sophisticated... but now, after years of the value free approach, Kilpatrick
and scores of others are
saying, "Time out... this isn't working at all... it's leaving students in
a moral vacuum." Have you ever heard parent’s say, “I don’t want to impose
my faith on my children…but I want them to decide for themselves.” You see,
millions of students were coming to schools from homes where they were never
rigorously taught faith and morality and character to begin with... and then
they were attending classes where key moral issues of the day were put on the
table for a discussion that most students were incapable of entering into meaningfully because they had no moral
history or context and they were never given a moral compass with which to
navigate these difficult moral issues. So,
it has become multiple guess morality these days, or worse, multiple option
morality... or worse yet, your morality versus my morality, versus his
morality, or her morality... your truth, my truth, who’s truth, everybody's
truth. So, Kilpatrick says now we have a whole generation of young people who
aren't very clear about what's right and what's wrong.
Joshua shared at the end of his days, “Choose you this day as to whom you will serve;
but for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua 24:14) He says, "You must choose for
yourself today." Yielding to
God is a choice…" He adds, “You may
serve the gods that your people worship or you may serve the gods of the Amorites."
Then he concludes,"As for me and my
family we will serve the Lord." I
encourage you to make that decision. When
you put God first by reading the Word, going to church…you put yourself in an
atmosphere to see things happen. Always
put yourself in places where God can work.
In
other words, all the time you are teaching and shaping and molding your
children’s lives. So do it intentionally and do it right. It’s important to teach them to love
God. There is a God who brought them
into the world and has a special plan for their lives. We aren’t a bunch of glorified gorillas who
happen to be able to make appointments.
We are God designed people whom He desires to reveal His plan through
our lives. You are uniquely created like
no one else on the planet. You were put
together by God for a purpose and you are far more complex than a wrist watch.
It’s important to teach them right from wrong. If you’re an adult, and you have
contact with young lives, help them get real clear on the difference between right
and wrong because they will not get it from our society. It’s important that it
becomes part of the DNA at home.
Terry Risser
Reflections:
1) What was the spiritual atmosphere of your
home growing up?
2) How can you replicate it or change it based
on what God is asking?
Consider reading the Word today:
Copyright
2014- Terry Risser
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