This has resulted in my eating habits getting out of hand, occasional bouts of drunkeness and pornography peeping. Shameful for a so-called man of God. Perhaps worse than all this, though, I have not spent regular time engaging my family in Bible study, even at my wife's and children's requests.
I would look around and see them doing different things, and even when God's Spirit prompted me, I excused myself from having them stop what they were doing, as well as me stopping what I was doing, to sit and dive into God's word.
I had bouts of occasional study, but nothing consistent. After last night, this will change.
Last night, I called a Bible study. I started off tense and kind of chaotic. We began doing sword drills: calling out random verses to see who could find them first and then read them. While that was going on, our old, broken camcorder began making weird noises, my daughter had to use the bathroom, my youngest son kept talking about Legos and Star Wars, my wife and I had a disagreement about the flow of the Bible study, and my oldest son got fed up and walked out of the room.
We almost gave up. Then God showed up. After having a heart to heart about what we wanted from our Bible study, and how we talk to each other, it became clear to me that my wife and I had not communicated clearly about what we wanted for our children, so we decided as a family how we wanted to do our Bible study.
We would start with sword drills, just for fun, but then focus on a verse or lesson from the Bible. Well that's what we did. I had a verse that I wanted everyone in the family to memorize:
1 Peter 2:15 "For it is God's will that by doing good you should silence the ignorance of foolish men."
That's a foundational verse, but the most powerful verse came from my youngest son, who was the last to share.
God led him to : Isaiah 49:15 "Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you!"
We then talked about times we feel all alone, even in a family. The Spirit then led me to an activity. We each took turns telling each member of the family what we appreciated about them. IT WAS POWERFUL! Hearing words of encouragement, love, and honor from each other melted a lot of hostility, irritation, and distance that had built up between us.
My wife cried, my daughter cried, my youngest son laughed and cried, my oldest son and myself BARELY made it tear-free.
The lesson is MEN, lead your families in the word. You don't have to be ordained, trained, or perfect, you just have to be willing to call for it, pray about it, and lead it.
Posts
