Part three of my series on family focused faith continues with some discussion on idolatry in Christian families. As usual, I’ll share a couple excerpts from Voddie Baucham Jr.’s book, “Family Driven Faith”, mix in a few thoughts of my own, and conclude with a few questions to foster some discussion.

In “Family Driven Faith”, Voddie shares the story of a young man named Thomas. Thomas was an outstanding young man, who’s probably pretty representative of many of our “church kids”… growing up in church, involved in all sorts of children’s and youth ministries, etc. Upon graduation, it would have seemed he had done and become everything most parents could hope for of their kids… he was an excellent student, popular, was active in church, and was headed to a Christian college on a baseball scholarship. Yet somehow he went astray… by the end of his freshman year, he had stopped attending church, his grades were horrible, and he had been suspended from the team for steroid use.

As Voddie discussed the situation with the young man’s father, he heard a story that probably rings familiar to many of us… a gifted child, with parents going to great lengths to foster the growth of his abilities… with spiritual matters relegated to the back burner. Voddie shares:

Thomas’s father had never missed one of his son’s games. Moreover, it was his father who taught him how to throw a curve ball, how to put his body in front of a grounder, and how to turn a double play. In fact, Thomas’s father was the coach of his first T-ball team. However, when I asked whether or not he led his son (and his family) in worship, his only response was, “I never even thought about it.”

In other words, this man had spent countless hours and immeasurable amounts of energy teaching his son how to be a ballplayer but hadn’t done a thing to teach him how to be a Christian… when it came to spiritual matters, he passed the buck.

This family was worshipping a rival [of God], and their son’s life was the fruit of their idolatry. There were certain things for which they were willing to sacrifice all. Unfortunately, their son’s walk with the Lord was not one of those things.

Thomas’s lack of commitment to spiritual matters laid the groundwork for his moral compromise. Christianity was never the center of Thomas’s universe. It was always something on the periphery. Church, and more importantly Jesus Christ, always orbited around baseball, the bright, shining star at the center of his universe.

I apologize for the length of the above summary, but isn’t this story familiar?

It’s not too hard to come up with a long list of idols that well-meaning Christian families commonly allow to slip into our lives… the athletic development of our kids, the education of our children, climbing the corporate ladder, our kids and families (in general), our appearance, our homes, our hobbies… even church activities and ministry.

But at what expense? What impact do we have on our kids when we allow neutral things to become idols, distracting us from the one who deserves our entire focus and devotion?

A lot of rhetorical questions, I know.

The long, drawn-out point is simply this… there are a number of things that can become idols in our lives. WIth this in mind, I have some questions:

– How do we protect our fickle, adulterous hearts from straying, when our culture is filled with idols calling out to us?

– How do we recognize the idols we are already worshipping and take practical steps to refocus our worship where it belongs?

– How do we do all of the above without isolating ourselves from culture (the whole, “in the world, not of it” thing), becoming legalistic in our approach to faith, or the like?

– What works for you as you try to model a life of devotion to Christ to your families while keeping activities and interests that could become idols in check? (Put a bit differently, how do you keep life in balance so that Christ can always come first?)

Perhaps we’ve covered some of this in previous posts in this series, but I’m still interested in your thoughts. As I’ve looked at our busy life this week alone… school Parent Teacher Fellowship on Monday, gymnastics for my daughter tonight, Bible study on Wednesday, small group on Thursday… I can’t imagine how much busier life will be when my three children are older (they’re 1, 3, and 6 now). I can completely relate to how just keeping up with life’s activities can become something that can distract a family for a devoted focus on Christ!

Your thoughts?

Similarly Tagged Posts:

• Thoughts on Family Focused Faith (Part 2)
• Thoughts on Family Focused Faith (Part 1)
• The Discipleship Void
• Thoughts on Family Focused Faith (Part 6)
• Thoughts on Family Focused Faith (Part 5)
• Thoughts on Family Focused Faith (Part 4)