WestHillsPres’ Weblog

Today was the first day of classes here in Knox County, so I wanted to talk to you for a moment about voshuns. The call for voshuns can be heard loud and clear in the Fikes family at about 9:15 every night. After Eli has been bathed, brushed and “pajamed” he runs down the stairs and announces to the rest of the family “time for ‘voshuns!” By now you know that voshuns are devotions, or “family worship.”

Now I’m bringing voshuns up for two reasons.

The first reason is this little thing called reality. The reality that most of us face is that the school year cycle is starting again (or for the first time). Whether your children are involved in preschool or highschool, this is the time of year when we start establishing patterns in our homes and reestablish those that we’ve let fall by the wayside. You have the perfect opportunity to start the practice of family devotions again (or for the first time).

The second reason for bringing this up is because it’s really important to God. God has called us to be parents to our children, not butlers, not a courier service, not an organic entertainment device. This is the job description for a parent that God has given us in the Bible (it’s in Deuteronomy 6).

And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 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.

This is our responsibility, not the responsibility of the schools (even Christian ones). It’s not the job of any of the staff of our church. It is our job.

Of course this also means that we need to seek out those moments where we are able to interpret life from God’s point of view. But at a bear minimum we need to pray with and for our children and read the Bible with them.

Grace and Peace to you,

Bill