Main Thought
Building Christ-centered lives and families can be a little like setting a table for a meal. You can’t eat until you set the table with things like food, plates, and utensils. Our priorities are like setting the table. The things we prioritize will probably be repeated by ourselves, our families, Life Groups, and more. We also want to “watch our portions.” Children often learn to eat balanced meals, or unbalanced meals, based on what they see the adults around them do. Food choices are often learned behaviors. A lot of other things can be learned behaviors too: what we do with our time, how we serve, the way we talk about and treat others, etc. We should model behaviors and attitudes that we want to multiply. Finally, when it’s time to eat, things that don’t belong on the table need to be removed. Sometimes, there are things in our lives and families that don’t belong there. They make it hard for us to love God and love others. We can identify those things and remove them from our lives.
Main Passages
4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
- Deuteronomy 6:4-9, ESV
What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.
- Philippians 4:9
15 And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
- Joshua 24:15
Discussion Questions
What is a priority in your personal life, home, or family that you would like to see repeated and/or multiplied?
How are you currently modeling the priorities, beliefs, behaviors, etc. that you would like to see multiplied?
Do a quick internal review of things that are present in your life and your home. Is there anything that makes it hard for you, or those close to you, to love God with your all? Is there anything that should not belong? (This could be anything: music, movies, social media, crude language, excessive busyness, horoscopes, etc.)