The following Heart to Heart is Jonathan Evans’ testimony in Raising Kingdom Kids
Eating God’s Word
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.
Deuteronomy 6:4-7
I remember vividly dinnertime in the Evans household: sitting down, getting ready to eat my mom’s awesome cooking, and feeling excited about all of the fun and laughter we would have at the table. However, dinnertime at the Evans table, which happened every evening without fail, was about much more than eating good food and having fun. I remember dinnertime being the setting where my father and mother would teach me God’s Word. My father would lead us in devotions and have each of us read a Scripture and talk about its meaning.
Every evening I remember being reminded that God’s Word is to be the centerpiece of our lives through which all decisions are to be made. I was taught that God’s Word is the only thing certain in an uncertain world. At the dinner table I learned how to live by the truth in a world full of lies, how to serve the true God in a world full of false gods.
Now that I’m older, i realize that the dinner table in the Evans household was the place where my siblings and I discovered the kingdom of God. I am now over thirty years old, with a wife and three kids of my own, and I find myself subconsciously repeating with my children what my parents started with me. Every evening without fail we eat dinner together, and my three little children are slowly but surely learning about the kingdom of God.
Jonathan Evans
Evans, Tony (2016) Raising Kingdom Kids: Giving Your Child Living Faith. Focus on the Family