Werner A. Lind
David, good question! As I see it, every moment of every day should be devoted to God and to His service, not just time spent in specifically "religious" observances; because I want everything I do to be a part of His plan and order. Some observances in the day, though, are religious; but they aren't confined to one single scheduled time.
Daily prayer is important to me; I begin every day with prayer before I get out of bed, because God deserves my sacrifice of praise before I do anything else, and it's imperative to petition for His guidance, enabling grace and protection at the very outset of the day's activities, not just for me but for my family. Through the day, my "set" time for prayer is grace at meals and normally the time I spend walking to and from work. But I also pray at other times as needs or occasion of thanks and praise arise. My wife and I normally close the day by praying together before bed time; if for some reason we can't, I pray by myself before retiring, but I value the common prayer as an expression and furtherance of our bondedness to God and to each other as a couple.
Before praying together, we read a chapter in the Bible, going progressively from Genesis to Revelation; in that way, we've read the whole Bible together a number of times in our married life. To me, the Bible is the guide and touchstone for my entire life, so I read it to constantly let my life be formed and judged by the will of God. When our girls were at home, we would read a Bible story to them before bedtime (not necessarily from the Bible itself when they were younger; we liked Concordia Publishing's Arch series as an age-appropriate substitute) and pray with them; and when our grandkids are at our home, we keep up that practice with them.
That might be a longer answer than you wanted; but I hope it helps!
Daily prayer is important to me; I begin every day with prayer before I get out of bed, because God deserves my sacrifice of praise before I do anything else, and it's imperative to petition for His guidance, enabling grace and protection at the very outset of the day's activities, not just for me but for my family. Through the day, my "set" time for prayer is grace at meals and normally the time I spend walking to and from work. But I also pray at other times as needs or occasion of thanks and praise arise. My wife and I normally close the day by praying together before bed time; if for some reason we can't, I pray by myself before retiring, but I value the common prayer as an expression and furtherance of our bondedness to God and to each other as a couple.
Before praying together, we read a chapter in the Bible, going progressively from Genesis to Revelation; in that way, we've read the whole Bible together a number of times in our married life. To me, the Bible is the guide and touchstone for my entire life, so I read it to constantly let my life be formed and judged by the will of God. When our girls were at home, we would read a Bible story to them before bedtime (not necessarily from the Bible itself when they were younger; we liked Concordia Publishing's Arch series as an age-appropriate substitute) and pray with them; and when our grandkids are at our home, we keep up that practice with them.
That might be a longer answer than you wanted; but I hope it helps!
More Answered Questions
Laura-Lee
asked
Werner A. Lind:
This might sound a little bit materialistic but "where is the best place for us to order your books from?" when you consider all things like, promotion and cutting out the middle man so you get a bigger piece of the money pie? (Think of it as me just being practical and not about the "love of money" which as we all know is a big "NO NO".) ;-) Sincerely, (wanting to do the right thing) Laura-Lee
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