Fresh Start Devotionals

Family Worship Last summer we sat on a balcony of a lodge overlooking Lake Barkley near my parent’s home in Kentucky. It was Sunday morning and we’d decided to have our own family worship service. We rocked back and forth in the medal chairs as my Uncle Bobby, the pastor of Praise Assembly in Pueblo Colorado led us in a song or two. I glanced around as we sang and looked at my aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces and nephews praise the Lord together. I felt deep peace and great pride. After we finished singing, my uncle said, “I think it would be nice to hear from the younger generation, Jimmy why don’t you preach to us.” Earlier in the morning when he suggested I bring a sermon, I’d told him that I thought it would be better for him to do it after all, he is one of the finest preachers in the nation and I’d much rather hear him speak than to have the stage myself. Besides, since my father was sick and couldn’t be there, he was the eldest preacher present, I felt it was his place to preach. But humbly, he’d given me the honor and I preached to my own family. We didn’t sing long, and I didn’t preach long. Truth be told, we were only on that balcony for around 30 minutes in worship. But it made a powerful impact on me. Not because of anything I said. Please. I didn’t say anything that profound. I don’t preach that well with a week of preparation and I certainly don’t do that well when I’ve only had a ten minute head’s up. That worship service was profound because four generation from my family sat together, sang together and broke open the word together. We don’t go to churches from the same denomination and we don’t live near enough to one another that we can “drop in for dinner” but there is something that binds us together that we celebrated that beautiful Kentucky morning. We are all the recipients of a legacy of faith that we received from our parents, and we are all the givers of that same legacy to our children. One day it will be my turn. I’ll be the senior preacher in the family and I’ll call a family worship service to order and will say, “now let’s hear from someone form the younger generation … That’s a worship service I am looking forward to. Jim L. Wilson, Fresh Start Devotionals (Fresno, CA: Willow City Press, 2009).