Dear friends,
While most of us find ourselves with more time on our hands and at home, let’s not waste this opportunity to make the most of the time we have. I want to encourage the heads of household in particular to seize this moment to grow in the area of family worship and discipleship. We have an opportunity right now to instill in our kids a deeper awareness of eternity than they have ever known.
Toward that end, we have included some practical suggestions and resources below. Please get back to me with ideas based on what you are doing and seeing fruit! I’d love to hear from you.
1. Make a simple plan with 3 basic goals to 1) read, 2) pray, and 3) sing. Jon sent out a list of scriptures to meditate on in this season (more below as well), why not take that list and work through them as a family. If family worship is a new category for you, or if it’s just been hard for you in the past, set a small goal of 10 minute family devotions. Read the text, ask your family members what applying that text might look like for each of them, and then pray a simple prayer. For the singing portion, pull up the lyrics to a familiar hymn (suggestions listed below) and sing it together as a family. That’s it! If you do this on a regular basis, you will be amazed at how you see the Lord at work.
2. Here is a list of resources to serve you in family worship and discipleship:
a. 7 Biblical truths to teach children about disease and disasters
b. Download the Dwell app for your devices for personal or family Scripture reading.
c. Listen to good, theologically rich music at home like music produced by Sovereign Grace Music. If you have young children at home, Seeds Family Worship is making their music available for free to stream right now.
d. Ligonier Ministries (created by R. C. Sproul) has made all of their teaching series available for free online to stream. What a gift! You and your kids can sit at home and listen to teaching from a wonderful pastor-theologian on a variety of topics from philosophy, suffering, theology, etc.
e. Scriptures to meditate on:
i. Psalm 23
ii. Psalm 46
iii. Psalm 112
iv. Isaiah 25-25
v. Matthew 6
vi. Matthew 14:22-36
vii. Mark 4:35-41
viii. Romans 8
ix. Philippians 4:6-7
x. 1 Peter 5:7
xi. Revelation 21-22
f. Songs to sing together:
i. A Mighty Fortress
ii. Be Still My Soul
iii. Be Thou My Vision
iv. Behold Our God
v. Blessed Assurance
vi. How Firm a Foundation
vii. It Is Well
viii. Rock of Ages
ix. Solid Rock
x. ‘Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus
xi. What a Friend We Have in Jesus
xii. When Trials Come