Joshua 24:15 - by Elizabeth Reynolds

As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Joshua 24:15

I love this scripture and I wish I could remember to proclaim it every day on behalf of my household. I proclaim it now in Jesus’ name! No matter what’s going on around me, no matter what my friends decide, what my extended family do, where the leaders of this nation take us or what the neighbours around us do. As for me, and my house – we will serve the Lord! Amen!

But I recently read about another, deeper dimension to this scripture, which makes me a little less confident in whether I’m actually doing this or not. The writer Jack Hayford said in a devotional he wrote, “What I am at home is what I really am.”

At home is where I do things and act in private. And if there is anyone around, it is just my closest, most intimate family, (who I am so familiar with, there are no longer any false niceties going on if you know what I mean). It’s been said before that how we act when no one is watching is what we are really like.

  • The way I speak and act

  • The material that I read

  • The music that fills my dwelling

  • The table talk my family shares… or doesn’t

  • The moods I invite or tolerate

  • The language and verbal exchanges that I allow or tolerate

  • The entertainment I seek and foster

  • The media input I welcome

  • The M/m-aster I worship… and so on.

My house, my home, my most raw self. And in all of this, am I serving the Lord? Is everything in and about my household all about serving Him and is Jesus at the centre?

The Joshua passage holds more of a challenge than I ever thought before.

Can you relate? Can you reflect on your own household and your own ‘raw’ self when you’re alone in your home?

GrowthElizabeth ReynoldsGod, You, Answer