Practical Benefits Part 4- Humility April 17, 2007
Posted by Joe in : Family Worship Series , trackbackErin,
That was a good practical post you made yesterday. It is always interesting to see how small disciplines can have great effects. I mentioned the 10 minute per day discipline last week (and again, 15 is probably better!) and have since implemented that for a few other things. The benefit has been wonderful! Too often we think that we don’t have the time to do certain things, but that is because we somehow think we are supposed to do it all at once! Memorizing Scripture for example, at only 10 minutes per day will lead you into some wonderful territory. I am seeing the fruit right now.
Anyhow, I am onto our final point for this section, namely, another practical benefit of daily gathering as a family to worship the Lord is growth in humility.
Now, under this heading, I could probably go numerous directions. My first inclination would be to talk about the way in which humbling yourself before the Lord each day through prayer and Bible reading is a means by which you truly grow in humility. That would be good. In fact, that is central and foundational, but that isn’t what we had in mind for this section. Because this is the ‘practical’ section, we were thinking about the humbling effects of reading Scripture in front of others and praying in front of others and memorizing Scripture (or a catechism) in front of (or with) others.
This might not seem like a big deal to some, but we all know plenty of people who have a hard time praying in front of others or reading or reciting or whatever. I know that that was the case with me for quite some time and also with you. What a freedom for a child to be secure enough on the Word and within his own home to willingly recite the Scriptures or pray in front of others. Surely, this begins at home. It doesn’t end there, but it most certainly begins there.
So maybe we would be better to describe this benefit as increased ‘transparency.’ That is, if a child learns to daily come before the Lord each day–under the Word, in prayer, and also in song (which I forgot to mention earlier)–when he leaves the home for sunday school or school or hanging out with friends in his teenage years, he will be much more apt to be transparent and secure. We all know that we are usually more secure and transparent with things that we are well acquainted with. How often do Christians shy away from conversations about the Bible, b/c deep down they know they don’t have the answers! They don’t know their Bibles well enough! They lack security and thus, transparency.
Let us labor to serve our children by making them very familiar with their Bibles and in prayer and in song. Doing so in the family setting will most certainly serve them in all of life!
Seeking Him with you,
Joe
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