"As For My House": Father's Guide for Family Worship

reviewed by Ian Pape

I have been using these notes to help with our family worship for several months. They are produced by Randall Greenwald, a conservative American Presbyterian pastor, and are published quarterly. I find them helpful because they give a structure to our family worship, so we can concentrate more on the content of the worship than on how to do it. Certainly, we need all the help we can get!

Every day there is a reading of a psalm to inspire us to praise the LORD; we usually read that at breakfast time, praying before and afterwards. Since these readings go through all the psalms in order, the items for praise in some cases are not always obvious. At breakfast we also practise the weekly Catechism question; the notes give you the choice of the Westminster Shorter Catechism or the Catechism for Young Children. We chose the latter as it seemed better suited to our girls (aged six, four and two).

At bedtime we read the discussion section. The first three months of this year took us through readings from Daniel and Mark. The reading is accompanied by some questions to ask, as well as some notes for the father by way of help. I find that I have to trim the questions for my girls as the material is broad enough for all ages. And it aims to get us all thinking; sometimes I don't know all the answers!

A weekly hymn is suggested and a hymnnal is also available to accompany the notes, in a format cheap enough for each member of the family to have their own. We did not buy these as we prefer to sing the psalms. If we do want to sing the hymns, we can find them in Christian Hymns.

We have found these notes very helpful as a practical basis for our family worship, and I would recommend them to other families. Details of ordering and sample material are available on the Web site below.

The publishers can be contacted as follows:

"As For My House" 2316 16th Avenue West BRADENTON Florida 34205 USA

Cost: $35 for annual subscription (outside USA) Email: MDFL33A@prodigy.com Web: http://www.computeradv.com/asformyhouse/