Scripture Guide

Family is formative. For most people, the first place we learned about love, authority, conflict, forgiveness, responsibility, joy, pain, and belonging was our family. We spend the first part of our lives being shaped by our households, and then, if we’re honest, we spend a lot of our lives processing what was formed in us there.

That’s why all throughout its pages, the Word of God speaks directly to the family. Because the home is meant to be the primary place where hearts are shaped and discipleship happens… not the only place, but the primary place. Before a child sits in a classroom, joins a small group, attends a church service, or hears a sermon, they’re already being formed by the rhythms, conversations, priorities, habits, and relationships in their home.

Deuteronomy 6 gives us this picture clearly. God’s command here wasn’t for the temple; it was for the home. The truth of who God is, what He’s done, His purposes, His plans, His Word, and His will are to be impressed on the next generation and talked about in the everyday flow of life: sitting at home, walking along the road, lying down, and getting up. In other words, discipleship was never meant to be reduced to a church program. It’s meant to be woven into the very fabric of family life.

But here’s the thing: that kind of family dynamic requires intentionality. That’s why, before entering the Promised Land, Joshua called the people of Israel to choose who they would worship, who they would follow, and what kind of people they would become. And he says, “But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

Friends, that statement is a declaration of spiritual direction. It doesn’t mean you’ll do everything perfectly or always have it all together. It simply means that your family’s desire will be to keep Jesus at the center.

But, the truth is not every family looks like this. For some, family is a place of love, safety, and encouragement. For others, it’s complicated. Maybe your home has been marked by conflict, distance, divorce, loss, addiction, abuse, or disappointment. Maybe the word “family” brings up more pain than joy. And if that’s your story, Scripture doesn’t ask you to pretend it didn’t hurt or act like everything was okay.

But it does remind us that Jesus meets us in the broken places and brings us into the family of God with brothers and sisters and spiritual parents. 

So whether you’re part of a healthy family, trying to repair a strained one, grieving what you didn’t receive, raising children, caring for aging parents, honoring parents from a distance, or learning how to be a spiritual mother or father to someone else, the invitation is the same: let Jesus form you. Choose this day to serve the Lord in whatever family you find yourself.