And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. Deuteronomy 6:6-9
Well if Deuteronomy 6:6-9 doesn't state it clearly enough, the following quote from a 17th century minister breaks it down a little bit further.
"You are not like to see any general reformation, till you procure family reformation. Some little religion there may be, here and there; but while it is confined to single persons, and is not promoted in families, it will not prosper, nor promise much future increase."
"We must have a special eye upon families, to see that they are well ordered, and the duties of each relation performed. The life of religion, and the welfare and glory of both the Church and the State, depend much on family government and duty. If we suffer the neglect of this, we shall undo all. What are we like to do ourselves to the reforming of a congregation, if all the work be cast on us alone; and masters of families neglect that necessary duty of their own, by which they are bound to help us? If any good be begun by the ministry in any soul, a careless, prayer-less, worldly family is like to stifle it, or very much hinder it; whereas, if you could but get the rulers of families to do their duty, to take up the work where you left it, and help it on, what abundance of good might be done! I beseech you, therefore, if you desire the reformation and welfare of your people, do all you can to promote family religion."Richard Baxter, 1656
In the month of March, we slowly went through the book of James and also started on the book of Exodus. I have always really appreciated the book of James. It is a short book that can be easily read through in a relatively short amount of time. We chose to read through it about 1/2 a chapter at a time and it still went very quickly. I was amazed as we read through James as a family as to how rich it is with quotable scriptures; Definiitely a good book to find memorization scriptures that have deep and wise meaning.
We are currently going through the book of Genesis. We are trying to make it through a chapter a night. We are also memorizing a new scripture a week (or so) and we recently started going over the Catechisms by Charles Spurgeon, circa 1855
Angel chose this memory verse to help everyone in our family to remember that yelling and responding to anything in anger does not produce the righteousness of God.
Listen to Bradyn quoting James 1:19 and 20 from memory
I chose this memory verse to help everyone in our family remember that what you say is very important. Choosing your words wisely and speaking at appropriate times is an important lesson. When words are spoken they cannot be taken back and this scripture reminds us that EVERY idle word is important enough to justify us or condemn us.
This was the first scripture that we memorized together as a family in October 2007, immediately after Bradyn and I attended a Father/Son Retreat at Scott Brown's Farm in Wake Forest, NC. While attending the Father/Son retreat, Scott Brown opened each session with all the fathers and sons repeating a chosen verse in small phrases until we could recite the whole verse. I was so inspired by the method that I wanted this incorporated into our family devotions. I wasn't sure how it was going to go so I chose this verse and started out ... "And I say to you" ... and my family repeated "And I say to you" ... I was happy to hear my 3 year old repeating along, and finding it fun to do so. After 2 nights of working on this scripture Declan was walking up to everyone reciting what we had been learning as a family.
Listen to Declan quoting Mathew 12:36 and 37 from memory