Thursday, April 22, 2010

A Guest Blog from Bro. John Miller on Family Worship...

Bro. John Miller, our Minister to Senior Adults at Trinity, has been a faithful part of this body for many years...he has loved you and served you well! I thank God for having Bro. John at Trinity when I came on board - he has blessed me both with his support and assistance, but also with his devotion to this Church. He and his sweet wife, Mrs. Rosemary, have been precious friends to Michele and I during the first year of our ministry at Trinity. We have been privileged to go on several outings with our senior adults and Bro. John has always demonstrated great compassion and love for our seniors! I thank God for the ministry He has given Bro. John at Trinity and look forward to serving alongside him for many more years!


Family Worship...from Bro. John Miller:

As I think back to the time of our two children as preschoolers and in grade school, they were happy times but without a daily family worship time around the table.
I was raised in a family where one’s prayer life and personal Bible study was to be by one’s self. As a young 20-30 year old man, I worked two jobs most of the time, therefore did not take the time for family worship time. I know that sounds like excuses, but there are many young fathers who think they are too busy to have a family worship. I thought so, but how wrong I was.
We always talked with our children about God and His son, Jesus in private conversation and would have family discussions, but not on a daily basis. When our two children were growing up, we would say our prayers at the meal and pray when they went to bed as most parents do. We would answer questions they would ask concerning our Lord Jesus, giving them answers from the Bible.
We spent a lot of time doing things together as a family, camping in the mountains, spending time on the lake, hiking, going to ball games, etc. While doing these activities, we would point out how great God is and how merciful He is to us, but we still did not have a family worship time.
Family worship time can be a great time to be enjoyed and a time to “train up a child” according to Proverbs 22:6. A time for dad to instill wisdom to help keep them from sin and the snares of it. A time to teach them, as a father and mother, not in the way they would go, but the way they should go. Parents who are doing this will have the comfort of having done their best to train and used all available means to do it. How I wish I would have set this as a priority in our family.
We now have 8 Grandchildren; 5 live in Hernando, 3 in Oklahoma. All grandparents share a special relationship with their grandchildren; therefore we have a great reasonability to share the love of God. We have always shared the gospel with our grandchildren, prayed with them, read the Bible with them, brought them to church, and sent cards with Scriptures - always trying to point them to the love of Christ. I have tried to direct their parents to do what I did not do for family worship time.
We must remember that what we do with our lives will be passed on from generation to generation. My grandfather, my father, myself, my children… did not have a family worship time. I pray my grandchildren will not suffer the loss and enjoyment of this important family time with their children.

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