Keeping Jesus at the Center of Your Family

I heard John Maxwell say many years ago that if he could follow someone around for just one whole day, even without having a conversation with them, he would be able to tell you exactly what their priorities are. I have thought about this many times over the years of my parenting and ministry, and it has helped me learn to examine my own day and helped me stay motivated to lead myself and my family well because there is nothing I want more than my life to reflect Jesus as the priority for my family.

I think all of us would agree that we want Jesus to be the center of our lives, but the reality is that desire and implementation are often far from each other. If there is anything worth doing, it will take effort, planning, and intentionality. The tendency in this fallen world is not to move toward things getting better, more organized, or more effective, but rather when left alone, they get messy, difficult, and fall apart. I know you only have to look around your home at the end of the day to see that this is the natural tendency of our lives in this world. We have to keep cleaning them, keep organizing, keep purging, and keep implementing better strategies of organization. This is true of our inner life, our Spiritual life, and our family life. We won’t ever master it and take our hands off it, but by God’s grace as we work on it daily, He has promised to help us, and He has promised to transform us as we focus our minds on Him.

1. Put God First with Your Time 

This planning and intentionality happen as we start our day. Matthew 6:33 says, “Seek the Kingdom of God first, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.” We keep Jesus at the center by putting Him first in our time. We prioritize time with Him by praying in solitude and as we go about our day and showing up weekly with His church to worship. He tells us to ask Him for what we need. We could ask for an easy day and a great parking spot but imagine asking Him instead for strength of character to choose what is right instead of what everyone else is doing. Ask Him for transformation in our churches and in our homes, ask Him for salvation for our region, ask Him for visions and passion for the work He has planned for us in advance to accomplish, and pray over the children in our home and in our church with fervency. There is so much greater joy and purpose in those faithful prayers than we can even imagine. Our prayers are powerful and effective, and we have to make sure we are praying like we believe that.

2. Put God First With Your Words and in His Word

We keep Jesus at the center by putting Him first in our language. This includes what we speak over our lives and over our children and also includes what we refrain from saying. Proverbs 17:27-28 tell us that a wise person keeps his mouth shut.  

We, as a family, also keep Jesus first by reading and listening to the words of the Bible and the wisdom of those who are teaching us His Word every day. We disciple our children and our Spiritual children by using resources and the Word of God to talk about Him, and we study and memorize His precious Words that He has given us in the Bible. Our family keeps Jesus first by having regular family time around reading a kids’ devotional and praying before putting the kids to bed. 

3. Put God First Through Your Worship

We put Jesus first by choosing praise and worship as the way to fight the battles of discouragement and frustration as we go to work, parent our children, and sit and relax in our homes. This is our ordinary everyday life lived out before our God. Look at your day and examine it. Pray what the Psalmists did in Psalms 139:23-24, “Search me O God and know my heart, try me and know my thoughts, see if there is any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.”

There are a million little ways to keep Jesus at the center of your family, but here is what I have found. The discipline to think about who He is, the commitment to be faithful to obey His commands, and the quietness in His presence to pray and listen just can’t be overstated. This isn’t a to-do list, but a mindset shift to fully and completely embrace this life as a believer in Jesus and this calling to lead our physical and spiritual families in a life full of courage, strength, and reliance on the one who is able to do more than we could ask or imagine.

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