“As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua 24:15)
What does it mean for your family to serve the Lord? Serving God isn’t just going to church and reading your Bible regularly. It involves loyalty, devotion, and submission. It’s saying, “God, I will love whatever You love. What’s important to You will be important in this house.” That means knowing what matters to God—and being willing to do it.
A New Testament word that relates to this is follow. Jesus said, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me” (Luke 9:23). Think about it— following means traveling the same road and going where the leader goes. So if you truly want to follow Jesus, you’ll submit to His leadership and pattern your life after His. And if you’re following Jesus, your family should see that reflected in your words and actions.
Joshua didn’t just make God his priority; he made God his purpose. And because serving the Lord was Joshua’s purpose it was also the purpose of his family’s life. It’s the difference between asking God to bless your choices and intentionally making godly decisions. It means no longer charting your own course but following where God leads.
So if you say you follow Jesus, are you living like He matters? Does what matters to God matter to you? One way to know if your family is truly serving God is to look at what happens inside your home. Do the words and tone used in your conversations reflect godly love and kindness? Do the entertainment choices you make—and approve for your children—lead them to be more Christ-like?
Open the Bible and ask, “What matters to God?” Then do it. Serving the Lord isn’t simply making God your first priority over family, work, play, and everything else. It’s making God first in all areas of life. It’s a life of lordship. The greatest legacy you can leave your children is godliness—teaching them that what matters to God matters more than anything else.
