Getting back to basics

During the course of 2010, we observed a disturbing trend in our home.  The busyness that came with many church and extra-curricular activities for the kids began to drag our family away from the pattern we had carefully established during our early years as a family, of sitting down to dinner as a family every evening, followed by scripture reading and prayers.  For the sake of convenience, our supper times, late by necessity, began to default into hanging out in the living room, watching a dvd.  We were still “together” — but you couldn’t really call it quality family time.  And yet, everyone was just too tired by 6:30 or 7:00 to put any effort into a sit down meal.  So it continued, though increasingly it felt out of sync and just plain wrong.

Today, being the first Monday of 2011, we purposefully began the new year aright, with dinner around the dining room table (the whole dining room needed a good cleaning first, in order to make the prospect more inviting).  Afterward, Paul read to us St. Peter’s second epistle, and we sang the Nicene Creed.

A portion of the reading this evening stood out for me, and I will end with this admonition without further comment:

2nd Peter 1:3-11

[3] His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence,
[4] by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, that through these you may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of passion, and become partakers of the divine nature.
[5] For this very reason make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge,
[6] and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness,
[7] and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.
[8] For if these things are yours and abound, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
[9] For whoever lacks these things is blind and shortsighted and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins.
[10] Therefore, brethren, be the more zealous to confirm your call and election, for if you do this you will never fall;
[11] so there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.