Worn-out Bibles

Over the Christmas holidays, my wife, six kids and I spent time in Chicago with my in-laws. When you walk into my in-laws’ house, one of the first things you notice is a large stack of worn-out family Bibles sitting on the counter.

In many homes, you would be pleased to find one Bible this worn from use. In my father-in-law’s home, however, there are nine. How did they get this way?

When my in-laws were raising their eight children, they ate together twice a day around a large table. Dad would pass out Bibles to everyone at the table, read for 10 to 20 minutes, and pray. They did this every day, twice a day, without fail. It’s just the two of them now, my in-laws. All their children are married. But they still read the Bible, twice a day, every day, without fail. The wear and tear on these Bibles is an amazing testament to their years of faithfulness in reading the Word of God.

When my wife and I were married, my father-in-law passed on to me a collection of his family’s beliefs. One of those convictions reads like this:

THE FAMILY EATS TOGETHER. (This is far more important than most people imagine.) The entire family sits down together for breakfast and supper. No one starts eating until all, including father, are there and seated. And before they eat, the father leads in thanks and prayer to God. When done eating, no one leaves the table until after the father has read from the Bible and prayed.

My father-in-law believed the Bible when it says, in Deuteronomy 11:18-19, “Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes. And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.”

Because my father-in-law believed and practiced what these verses taught, he now has a great heritage of faithful children and grandchildren – 46 grandchildren at last count! He would take no credit for any of it, but the Bible tells what results from our faithfulness in teaching our children the Scripture: “That your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children, in the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers to give them, as the days of heaven upon the earth.” (Deuteronomy 11: 21)

My wife and I have endeavored to make this a habit in our home as well. Some days it is not easy; we all understand the obstacles to eating two meals together every day. Dark forces work to destroy this discipline. But I want my children and their children to enjoy the benefits of this faith legacy my father-in-law passed down to his family.

All of us want our families to be strengthened and protected by the power of God’s Word in their hearts. God has given us, as father, the privilege and responsibility of rearing our children “in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” (Ephesians 6:4)

Fathers, we have a New Year before us – a time of new beginnings and fresh starts. Can we resolve together to make the Bible the center of our homes? Let our children hear the words of God through the mouths of their fathers!