Faith At Home

Too often people rely on church to maintain their relationship with their Heavenly Father. We grab our Bible off the shelf on Sunday morning, bring it to ABF and "Big Church" to look up verses and follow along with the sermon, only to put it right back on that shelf for it to sit untouched until the following Sunday. Too often we cry out to God in worship and pray to Him and experience a closeness that is missing in our lives, and continue to reserve only Sundays for that kind of relationship. Too often parents rely on Sunday School teachers to teach their children about God. This is not the way God intended the Christian life to be lived.

Sunday, our pastor introduced us to a new initiative called "Faith at Home." It starts with the family unit, by praying and reading the Bible together, talking about the Lord in everyday situations, with weekly church meetings as a reinforcement to what is already going on at home. Our pastor and church staff is challenging each member to make their walk with the Lord a priority in this new year and change the perception of "church."

Jason and I have a checklist with some action items to help guide us in this challenge:

• Have a personal devotion with prayer and Bible reading at least 5 times/week.
• Pray with each other at least twice weekly.
• Read through the book Love and Respect together.

We have been to a Love and Respect marriage conference, but haven't actually read through the book and I imagine it will be sort of a refresher to what we already know. If you and your spouse have ever wanted to go to a marriage conference, but just don't know which one - I highly recommend Love and Respect. The concepts are very basic and easy to understand and apply. You will leave the conference knowing your spouse and where they are coming from so much more.

I'm excited to see where this Faith at Home journey takes us - it's coming at a great time for me and Jason as I'm sure our family will grow in the near future. We definitely want to have a strong Christian base to our family before we have children and I think this is a great way to get started.