RiverLife Weekly #21: Our Family Altar

I hope this brief sharing of my family’s journey in honouring our Lord by building a family altar will, in some way, encourage you in your journey of nurturing faith at home.

My wife, Beng Ho, and I are parents to 3 adult children, and grandparents to a grandchild. Beng Ho grew up in a big family, where her late father would gather family members for worship every evening.

During our courting days, I would join them from time to time. This experience impacted me greatly. Over time, in my personal journey, I grew in my devotion to the Lord and developed a deeper desire to worship.

I believe family worship time is a vital habit, and we make it our practice as often as possible when my family and extended family gather. During our children’s formative years, we found it a struggle to gather them for family devotion, but we persevered on.

As parents, we embrace this biblical principle in Proverbs 22:6. We tried to inculcate and impart godly values in each child when they were young – we would spend time reading the Bible and praying with them; we would teach them to fear and honour God in all that they do. However, it was not easy as the demands of school on the children coupled with the demands of work on us as parents posed a lot of challenges to keep at it.

Presently, two of our children are married and stay on their own. When we meet at least once a week for family fellowship, we would pray for each other and worship together with our children and their spouses. In recent times, we have had the joy of having our granddaughter, Alethea, joining us.

At least once a year, when our extended family (my siblings, their spouses and children) gathers, we would have a simple thanksgiving service with worship, sharing and prayers.

Today, we see the fruit of nurturing faith at home during our children’s growing years. Dependency on God has become a part of how they live. We truly thank God that all our children and their spouses are serving the Lord in RiverLife. It is also such a joy to see this being passed on to the next generation as our daughter, Michelle, and son-in-law, Marvin, read the Bible and pray with Alethea before her bedtime daily.

All glory and praise to God.

Elder Ricky Ng (pictured with his wife, Beng Ho)