I remember the first time I realized I get a limited amount of time with my kids. I’m sure I always knew that to be the case, but when my kids were two, four, and six, it occurred to me that if I get 18 summers with them before they graduate high school, I had already spent one-third of those summers with my daughter, Gracie.

Suddenly everything seemed to be moving so fast. Just 12 more summers, 12 more Christmas mornings, 12 more birthday parties with her and her friends. It made my heart hurt a bit. I felt like Steve Martin’s character in the 1991 movie, Father of the Bride. As Steve Martin’s character, George Banks, walks his daughter, Annie, down the aisle to give her away at her wedding, George begins a monologue:

Who presents this woman? This woman? But she’s not a woman. She’s just a kid. And she’s leaving us. I realized at that moment that I was never going to come home again and see Annie at the top of the stairs. Never going to see her again at our breakfast table in her nightgown and socks. I suddenly realized what was happening. Annie was all grown up and was leaving us, and something inside began to hurt. 

Every parent faces this reality at some point. Our time with our children is a gift and it is limited. Therefore, let us steward it well. As Paul wrote, "Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil” (Eph. 5:15-16). 

We are to make the best use of our time, steward every summer, every Christmas, every year, every month and week and day in a way that blesses our family, points them closer to Christ, and brings God glory.

I believe family worship is one of the best ways we can do this. We steward our time well and make the most of our moments with our families when we commit to disciple our children, spiritually lead our wives, share testimonies with them that teaches them who God is and what he’s done, pray with and for them, teach them the Word of God, help them see their circumstances and hearts and relationships and world through the lens of Scripture, lead them in songs of praise, and simply weave encouraging faith talks and the “One Anothers” into the normal rhythms of our days.  

In order to create space for family worship, however, most of us would admit our daily habits and family rhythms need a radical overhaul. 

Renewed family habits will find parents pursuing Jesus and one another as they disciple their children, praying for them to be formed in the image of Christ. As Justin Earley wrote, let us “reconsider our habits of the household…so we can produce something other than the typical anxiety-ridden, depression-prone, lonely, confused, and screen-addicted teenager. So we can form children in God’s love.”[1]

[1] Justin Whitmel Earley, Habits of the Household: Practicing the Story of God in Everyday Family Rhythms (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Books, 2021), 16.

Jonathan Williams, Ph.D. (Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary) is the founder and executive director of Gospel Family Ministries. This ministry focuses on strengthening family ministry in the local church and cultivating family worship in the Christian home. Jonathan is the author of “A Practical Theology of Family Worship” and “Gospel Family.” He also teaches as an adjunct professor at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, TX, and is the managing editor of the Southwestern D6 Family Ministry Journal. Previously, Jonathan served for 10 years as the senior pastor of Wilcrest Baptist Church, a multi-ethnic church of more than 50 nations. He lives in Texas with his wife and three children.