No one responded and the speaker said, “Aha, you’re not so sure now, are you?”

“Well, how about now?” he asked as pulled out another pail and poured sand into the remaining space in the jar. Some said yes, but most were afraid to answer.

Finally, he took out a pail of water and poured it into the glass jar. “Is it full now?” he asked. This time there was no doubt, and the audience was united in its proclamation that the jar was indeed full.

“Well, you are quite right,” said the speaker. “Now, can anyone tell me what the point of this illustration is?”

From the center of the room an experienced homeschooler stood and confidently asserted, “If you are organized and plan well, you can always fit some more things into your day, no matter how full your schedule is.” Now the audience was abuzz with general agreement when the speaker brought them back to reality by saying, “While that might be a noble possibility, it is not the moral of this story.”

The speaker scanned the audience and said, “My dear friends, the moral of this story is this: if you don’t get the big rocks in first, you won’t get them in at all.” He continued by saying, “My challenge to you today is this: identify the big rocks in your life and make sure that you get them into the jar first each and every day.”

The Rock of the Word

For the Demme family, our daily Bible time was one of our big rocks, or major objectives. Our methods of conducting family worship changed over the years, but our objective did not. We believe reading, studying, and meditating on God’s Word to be of paramount importance. Over the years, Sandi and I read many good books aloud to our children, but in our family devotion time we chose to read only Scripture.

We can’t assume our children are going to receive a knowledge of God’s inspired Word anywhere else. It is up to us as parents to teach and train our children. Others may come alongside for a time to support us, but they can never supplant us. No special training is needed to read the Bible. God wrote the Bible to be read by all of His people.

Jesus was the Word made flesh. To know and believe in Jesus, we need to be familiar with His Words for they point to Him.

The Rock of Prayer

In my own Bible reading, I noticed that Job made a habit of praying for his children continually. After his children were celebrating in each other’s homes, the next day:

I have taken this same mantle upon myself and mention my children’s names before God almost daily. It is comforting that I am not alone in this pursuit, because Jesus, our faithful, kind, high priest, is sitting at the right hand of our Father, interceding for our family as well.

The Rock of Transparency

In our quest to model our faith, we will stumble. It is vital that when we do, we acknowledge our shortcomings and ask our children’s forgiveness. I do not have space to record the many times I have offended members of my family and have humbly asked their pardon.

I do recall one instance where one of my theological buttons was triggered during our morning time of reading the Bible together. I grew heated in my response and blew it. We dismissed and each of us went about our normal day, but I was under conviction. I had not responded in the Spirit and had wounded my son. Since I had sinned in front of the whole family, I called everyone together again, apologized for my sin and asked his forgiveness. Thankfully, we were restored.

I have thought much about what it means to discourage our children. I believe that when our walk does not match our talk, we exasperate them. The only antidote I am aware of is humbly acknowledging our own sins and asking for forgiveness.