As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD

 

But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

Joshua 24:15

Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

Genesis 2:24

Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. 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 6:4-9

The wise woman builds her house,

But the foolish pulls it down with her hands.

Proverbs 14:1

The family is precious. It is a most important institution: ordained of God, defined by God, for the glory of God. God Himself has delineated the roles within the family. The wise follow after the pattern He has given. 

The family has been called a "little church".

"Every Christian family ought to be as it were a little church, consecrated to Christ, and wholly influenced and governed by His rules." - Jonathan Edwards

It is the primary place of nurturing and training children in the glorious ways of God their Maker. From the beginning, the family has been under satanic attack. The attack has consistently been aimed at creating doubt about the word of God: "Did God really say?" The attack has increased in ferocity, and the destruction of the veracity of the word of God is still the aim of the evil one. But the family that is founded on the God's word, and remains grounded on the true and eternal word, shall stand. 

Scripture furnishes us with numerous examples of Godly fathers – men who led their families in a way that we can learn from and emulate. Examples include:

Abraham, of whom God says:

For I have known him, in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the Lord, to do righteousness and justice, that the Lord may bring to Abraham what He has spoken to him.

Genesis 18:19

Noah, who heard these wonderful words from God as He was about to destroy the antediluvian world for its unrelenting unrighteousness:

Come into the ark, you and all your household, because I have seen that you are righteous before Me in this generation.

Genesis 7:1

Joshua, with his sublime resolution:

Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve... as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.

Joshua 24:15

For our admonition, we have among others, the failings of Eli, the high priest, to discipline and restrain his sons and the ensuing and terrible judgement it brought on his house. 

It is clear that in every true Christian family, Christ is pre-eminent, and the word of God is the foundation for and regulates all that takes place. The word of God must dwell richly in the hearts of members of the Christian family, and this comes through: discipline in studying and practising the word of God; prayer; and committed involvement in a biblically based church.

May the LORD pour out His manifold blessings on your family and fulfil His glorious purposes for you and your family.

Download Family Bible Quotes by a Christian father, Steven Sherwood, as an aid for strengthening your precious family in the word, in scripture memorisation and in family worship. Check out other free resources here.

All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

2 Timothy 3:16