The Original Dirt Ball

image courtesy of Penny Mathews at sxc.hu/profile/ZoofyTheJi

So, yesterday I mentioned that one of my goals this year was to start a family worship time in my home.  We’re off to a great start so far, and I thought I’d share some of the experience we’ve had so, including what is probably going to go down as the funniest moment at our dinner table in 2011. I’ve wanted to start a family worship time for years, ever since my Marriage and Family course in seminary where my professor taught me about it for the first time.  You see, I didn’t grow up in a church-going home and had never even heard of such a thing as worshiping with your family in your home.  The problem, then, was that I didn’t know how to do a family worship time, so it kinda fell by the wayside.  A few weeks ago, I was listening to a sermon on Mark Driscoll’s podcast and he referenced a book that could be downloaded to accompany his 1&2 Peter series that included questions for use during family devotions.  I downloaded it, and thankfully it included a how-to section starting on page 68.  It seemed like a good pattern, so we’re using it. Now, one major change we made is the reading plan.  Obviously, we don’t attend Mars Hill Church and don’t listen to the sermons as a family, so some of the punch is lost.  I opted instead to use Zondervan’s 180 Day Guided Tour of the Bible.  This gives us a plan to our reading so we don’t sit down to dinner and say “What do you wanna do tonight?” “Oh, I dunno, what do you wanna do tonight?”

I like this plan because it will take us through the highlights of the Bible in six months.  After that, I’ll consider where we want to head next as a family and create a new plan.

Today was day 2 of our new habit, and we’re off to an amazing start.  I started out today, like I’ve done every Sunday for the last year or so, by asking the kids what they learned in Sunday School.  This helps me to know what my boys are learning, review it to help them retain it, and clear up any misunderstandings they may have had.  Then, we moved into our Bible reading for the day, which was Genesis 2.

I read the passage, and then started asking basic questions.

• What did we read about? Adam and Eve
• Where did Adam come from? God created Adam
• What did God make Adam out of? Dust/dirt

Here’s where it got fun.

I made a quick little quip that Adam was a dirtball, and my 5-year old fell apart!  He started laughing one of those laughs that only he can do, and he only laughs this way when he’s been particularly amused.  He laughed like this for a good thirty seconds!  I looked at my wife, and she lost it!  I couldn’t take it anymore, and started laughing hysterically.  Our 4-year old, of course, was already laughing quite loudly.  We all laughed for a couple of minutes, and it was the best fun we’ve had in a long time.

Now, it took some doing to get back to the point, and I was careful not to force it.  In fact, I almost gave up on any more attempts to be serious, but it eventually came back around, with some snickering and smiles sprinkled throughout.  It was great, we had fun and had a lot of biblical conversation as well.  I made the comment to Keelie that this is exactly as it should be, enjoying each other.

What do you do for family worship?  Have you done anything that worked particularly well?  Anything that bombed?  Do you have a fun story to share?  Leave your feedback in the comments below.