My friend, Amanda, vividly remembers the moment it all fell apart during a family Bible time. I’ll let her tell the story…
‘Halfway through, my 13-year-old daughter lay down on the kitchen bench to go to sleep, my 11-year-old son put his head on the table and closed his eyes, and my seven-year-old daughter decided it was the moment to practise her cartwheels. It all felt too hard, and tears started rolling down my face. That was the moment I was tempted to give up. Tempted to think it was all a waste of time. It was only God’s kindness that motivated me to keep going.’
The specifics are different in my family. We’ve never had cartwheels. We have had children lying down to sleep. We regularly have complaints; shouting is not uncommon and there is often silent sulking. What I have never had is: ‘Dad, please sit down with us and open the Bible because that is what we need.’
When the phone comes to church
We’ve been studying Romans 14 at church recently, and the teaching has covered "disputable matters" – issues where Christians, in …