We are coming up on three or four weeks of no school, limited social interaction, and lots of family time. I’m sure that this is starting to get really hard for most of us. But, however difficult this time is for your family, don’t let Christian life become the thing that you cut out of your family time.
So here are a few ideas on how to leverage the time we have for the glory of God and for the good of our families:
1) Set up a time each day to read the Bible and pray with your entire family. – It’s important to make sure your kids are getting school done, but school isn’t the most important thing for them to do right now. Praying and reading the Bible together regularly will help them (and us) see God as the Sovereign God that He is.
2) Watch good movies and TV shows about Jesus or that you can relate back to scripture. – Last year I did a youth series on the Gospel According to Marvel, where we watched clips from different marvel movies and looked at how culture was crying out for Jesus through the movies. We had 3 questions we used to evaluate each film, we called them the 3H Glasses….(get it, 3H instead of 3D)….
Here are those questions that you can use to biblically evaluate the movies and TV shows that your family watches.
| What is the Hope? | What is the ultimate goal, or desired outcome for the individual characters and the movie as a whole? |
| What is the Heart? | What is the message or the meaning behind individual interactions and the movie as a whole? |
| Where is the Healing? | What is praiseworthy, excellent, good, pure, and/or lovely that we can focus on and take away from the movie? (Phil 4:8) |
— Christian movies I recommend: Run the Race, Woodlawn, Son of God, Risen, War Room, I Can Only Imagine, Breakthrough, Same Kind of Different as Me, Do You Believe, The Case for Christ, Paul: Apostle of Christ, The Passion of the Christ.
— Free Apps for Christian shows and Bible Studies – The Chosen App, and RightNow Media
3) Family Worship – Grab a guitar, piano, or device that can play songs from YouTube. Bring the family together and praise God.
4) Send letters to your neighbors to see if they need help with anything Some of our neighbors might be really struggling financially, emotionally, and physically during this time. Imagine how they would feel knowing they are prayed for and that they can reach out to you when they are in need.
During this time it is extremely important that our families and the world see us as the bearers of hope and goodness. If we emphasize school, right behavior or entertainment during this time we are communicating to everyone that those things are more important than our relationship with God. And if/when our families and the world see that we are emphasizing our relationship with God and they see how it impacts our relationship with each other and the community, how powerful will that be for long-term evangelism and discipleship?
Therefore, I encourage you to heed the words of Paul from Ephesians 5:15-16, ‘Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil.’
What are some other ways we can deepen our relationship with Christ and encourage others in their relationship with Christ?
REDEEM THE TIME 