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.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Monday, April 19, 2010
A Guest Blog from Bro. Bubba Crowder on Family Worship...
Bro. Bubba and his precious wife, Whitney should be in all of our daily prayers as they recently had a sweet baby girl (one of the only little girls in all of these boys being born at Trinity right now - so needless to say, Bro. Bubba will REALLY need your prayers as she grows up among all these boys!). We are blessed as a Church to have Bubba on staff not only for his obvious talent in the video and media side of things (as we have been seeing through the Freedom for Tomorrow...Today campaign) but also because of his devotion to the Lord. Bubba has a passion to see our Church be the Body as the Bible defines it.
As Bubba shares with you his family's time in worship each day, I am excited for you to see that family worship does NOT just begin when the children come along! Men, you are responsible for your wife's walk with God and wives, you must be the helpmate that makes it easier for your husband to walk with God! We begin FAMILY worship when we become FAMILY!!! That means husbands and wives are accountable to each other! Praise God that Bro. Bubba and Whitney demonstrate that in their marriage! I thank God for allowing Bubba to be a part of our Trinity family and a part of this Staff!
The Crowder's Family Worship – from the perspective of a couple without kids
Having just had our first-child recently, we’re obviously just beginning the journey towards learning how to lead our child in Family Worship. So, I wanted to take this opportunity to discuss more of how we’ve done this as a married couple (without kids) over the past few years. This could also apply to empty-nesters and senior adults who are home, without children.
No one ever seems to have enough time, and everyone seems to struggle to find where exactly to “fit in” Family Worship time. Even though children increase the chaos in a household, they also bring a sense of structure to most homes as well. They have school time and bedtime, and practice time - and even though these things add so much more to a schedule, it does at least create some sort of daily schedule. A lot of times, and this is the boat we found ourselves in, without kids each day can look so drastically different. One weekday schedule may be based on a book club you have weekly on that night and another night based on working late. Another night may even be based on what TV shows you want to watch. This creates a messy weekly schedule, which creates a problem in where exactly you’re to fit Family Worship. For example, most married couples without kids also don’t sit down to “family dinner” nearly as often as those with kids do.
So, what we’ve found is that for being a married couple without kids, flexibility was extremely important. Now, I must go ahead and say, flexibility is always a threat to consistency, but it doesn’t have to be. This is where discipline must step in. Consistency must always be in place because it makes it a natural desire for us to spend this time each day. With that being said, some of the things we do as Family Worship:
- Prayer. We keep up with our family, friends, and situation God has laid on our hearts to pray about. Instead of praying for the entire list, we try and split them up into specific days. This allows us to focus on praying specifics instead of “rushing to finish a list”. We also spend time praying for each other.
- Read. We have different books that we read, and then we discuss them with each other. Just recently, I was walking through The Trellis and the Vine and she was reading The Excellent Wife. Now, it’s not that Whitney was teaching me how to be a wife, but there’s great accountability and encouragement in sharing what you’re learning and bouncing that off your spouse.
- Bible. We try to stay together in reading through the Word. Both of us spend our own time studying and walking through Scripture, but we also take time to talk about it together and to challenge each other in God’s Word. Something that’s recently been on the forefront for us is walking through what the Bible says on anything related to raising children. There are times where it’s related to a subject that we’re dealing with, and there are also times where it’s just a chance for us to walk through a book of Scripture together. The important thing is that we’re on the same “page” in God’s Word.
Now, it’s important to share that we don’t do this as a list. There are times where we focus more on praying for each other and there are times where we focus more on reading through the Bible.
There are also times where we don’t do all of this together. We may discuss a book over dinner, and then pray together later at night before we get ready for bed.
The important thing is that it’s done, and that it’s done with the heart to lead your family in worship, not just to check it off your list of things.
Also, we’re not perfect. This doesn’t always fit neatly into our lives, but there’s a sacrifice that must be made to carve out this time. It’s probably never going to be convenient. It may never even be easy to do. It is however, necessary!
As Bubba shares with you his family's time in worship each day, I am excited for you to see that family worship does NOT just begin when the children come along! Men, you are responsible for your wife's walk with God and wives, you must be the helpmate that makes it easier for your husband to walk with God! We begin FAMILY worship when we become FAMILY!!! That means husbands and wives are accountable to each other! Praise God that Bro. Bubba and Whitney demonstrate that in their marriage! I thank God for allowing Bubba to be a part of our Trinity family and a part of this Staff!
The Crowder's Family Worship – from the perspective of a couple without kids
Having just had our first-child recently, we’re obviously just beginning the journey towards learning how to lead our child in Family Worship. So, I wanted to take this opportunity to discuss more of how we’ve done this as a married couple (without kids) over the past few years. This could also apply to empty-nesters and senior adults who are home, without children.
No one ever seems to have enough time, and everyone seems to struggle to find where exactly to “fit in” Family Worship time. Even though children increase the chaos in a household, they also bring a sense of structure to most homes as well. They have school time and bedtime, and practice time - and even though these things add so much more to a schedule, it does at least create some sort of daily schedule. A lot of times, and this is the boat we found ourselves in, without kids each day can look so drastically different. One weekday schedule may be based on a book club you have weekly on that night and another night based on working late. Another night may even be based on what TV shows you want to watch. This creates a messy weekly schedule, which creates a problem in where exactly you’re to fit Family Worship. For example, most married couples without kids also don’t sit down to “family dinner” nearly as often as those with kids do.
So, what we’ve found is that for being a married couple without kids, flexibility was extremely important. Now, I must go ahead and say, flexibility is always a threat to consistency, but it doesn’t have to be. This is where discipline must step in. Consistency must always be in place because it makes it a natural desire for us to spend this time each day. With that being said, some of the things we do as Family Worship:
- Prayer. We keep up with our family, friends, and situation God has laid on our hearts to pray about. Instead of praying for the entire list, we try and split them up into specific days. This allows us to focus on praying specifics instead of “rushing to finish a list”. We also spend time praying for each other.
- Read. We have different books that we read, and then we discuss them with each other. Just recently, I was walking through The Trellis and the Vine and she was reading The Excellent Wife. Now, it’s not that Whitney was teaching me how to be a wife, but there’s great accountability and encouragement in sharing what you’re learning and bouncing that off your spouse.
- Bible. We try to stay together in reading through the Word. Both of us spend our own time studying and walking through Scripture, but we also take time to talk about it together and to challenge each other in God’s Word. Something that’s recently been on the forefront for us is walking through what the Bible says on anything related to raising children. There are times where it’s related to a subject that we’re dealing with, and there are also times where it’s just a chance for us to walk through a book of Scripture together. The important thing is that we’re on the same “page” in God’s Word.
Now, it’s important to share that we don’t do this as a list. There are times where we focus more on praying for each other and there are times where we focus more on reading through the Bible.
There are also times where we don’t do all of this together. We may discuss a book over dinner, and then pray together later at night before we get ready for bed.
The important thing is that it’s done, and that it’s done with the heart to lead your family in worship, not just to check it off your list of things.
Also, we’re not perfect. This doesn’t always fit neatly into our lives, but there’s a sacrifice that must be made to carve out this time. It’s probably never going to be convenient. It may never even be easy to do. It is however, necessary!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)