Family · 14 days
Family on Purpose
Restore and strengthen your home.
Who it’s for
Readings and prayers to mend the bonds of your family.
- Couples — Care for your covenant, together or starting with you.
- For women — Healing, courage and closeness to God, day by day.
What you’ll grow in
How the journey is organized
Week 1 · A house well built
A home that begins in God, with its wounds and its stories.
- Day 1A household’s choiceJoshua 24:15
- Day 2Who builds the housePsalms 127:1Available in the app
- Day 3Staying by someone’s sideRuth 1:16Available in the app
- Day 4When bitterness speaksRuth 1:20Available in the app
- Day 5A restorer of lifeRuth 4:15Available in the app
- Day 6Forgiveness takes timeGenesis 45:4Available in the app
- Day 7Evil turned to goodGenesis 50:20Available in the app
Week 2 · Restoration
The love that forgives, starts over and comes home.
- Day 8Humility at homeEphesians 4:2Available in the app
- Day 9Before the sun goes downEphesians 4:26Available in the app
- Day 10Love is patient1 Corinthians 13:4Available in the app
- Day 11Love and truth1 Corinthians 13:6Available in the app
- Day 12Still far offLuke 15:20Available in the app
- Day 13The son who stayedLuke 15:31Available in the app
- Day 14The bond of loveColossians 3:14Available in the app
Day 1 · A household’s choice
Today’s reading: Joshua 24:14-28
14“Now therefore fear Yahweh, and serve him in sincerity and in truth. Put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the River, in Egypt; and serve Yahweh. 15If it seems evil to you to serve Yahweh, choose today whom you will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell; but as for me and my house, we will serve Yahweh.” 16The people answered, “Far be it from us that we should forsake Yahweh, to serve other gods; 17for it is Yahweh our God who brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, and who did those great signs in our sight, and preserved us in all the way in which we went, and among all the peoples through the middle of whom we passed. 18Yahweh drove out from before us all the peoples, even the Amorites who lived in the land. Therefore we also will serve Yahweh; for he is our God.” 19Joshua said to the people, “You can’t serve Yahweh, for he is a holy God. He is a jealous God. He will not forgive your disobedience nor your sins. 20If you forsake Yahweh, and serve foreign gods, then he will turn and do you evil, and consume you, after he has done you good.” 21The people said to Joshua, “No, but we will serve Yahweh.” 22Joshua said to the people, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen Yahweh yourselves, to serve him.” They said, “We are witnesses.” 23“Now therefore put away the foreign gods which are among you, and incline your heart to Yahweh, the God of Israel.” 24The people said to Joshua, “We will serve Yahweh our God, and we will listen to his voice.” 25So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and made for them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem. 26Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God; and he took a great stone, and set it up there under the oak that was by the sanctuary of Yahweh. 27Joshua said to all the people, “Behold, this stone shall be a witness against us, for it has heard all Yahweh’s words which he spoke to us. It shall be therefore a witness against you, lest you deny your God.” 28So Joshua sent the people away, each to his own inheritance.
Joshua 24:14-28 · World English Bible
as for me and my house, we will serve Yahweh.
Context
Joshua 24 takes place at Shechem, near the end of Joshua’s life, after Israel had settled in Canaan. Shechem was a place of memory: Abraham built an altar there when he first came into the land (Genesis 12:6-7), and Jacob buried his household’s idols there (Genesis 35:4). Joshua gathers the tribes, retells the story from Abraham to the entry into the land, and sets a choice before the people. The people answer that they will serve the Lord; Joshua records the covenant in the book of the law and sets up a large stone as a witness.
Joshua was already old when he gathered all the tribes at Shechem. He chose a place heavy with history: it was there that Abraham built an altar, and there that Jacob told his family to bury the idols they had carried with them. Before asking for anything, Joshua tells the whole story again — God called Abraham out of a family that served other gods, brought the people out of Egypt, sustained them in the wilderness and gave them the land. Only after remembering grace does he ask the question: whom will you serve?
The order matters. The choice comes after the memory. Serving God at home doesn’t begin as one more rule to keep or a weight to carry; it begins as a response to the One who has already been faithful. Maybe that is a good way to open this journey: remembering where God has already cared for your family, even on days you didn’t understand. A door that opened, an illness you came through, an unexpected reconciliation, bread that never ran out.
Then comes the sentence that has echoed through the centuries. Joshua doesn’t wait for the crowd to vote before deciding. He speaks first for himself and for his household. He couldn’t control the heart of every Israelite, nor guarantee what his children and grandchildren would choose after he died. But he could decide what kind of presence he would be under his own roof, and he decided.
That is freeing for anyone reading with a divided home. Maybe you are the only one in your family who prays. Maybe your spouse wants nothing to do with church, your children have drifted away, or you live alone and your “house” today is a single room, an aging mother, a child you are raising without help, a family put back together after a divorce. Joshua’s choice didn’t depend on everyone agreeing. It began with one person — and that person can be you, with your home just as it is.
Notice, too, what Joshua asks just before the famous line: “put away the gods.” Every home has its quiet gods. Work that swallows everything, the screen that takes over the table, the fear that runs every decision, the need to control every person, the pride that never apologizes. Choosing to serve God at home also means recognizing what has been taking his place — without despair and without accusation, one step at a time.
At the end of the gathering, Joshua set up a stone as a witness. It wasn’t a lucky charm; it was memory. You can mark this beginning too: a prayer said out loud, a sentence written on a note stuck to the fridge, a decision shared with someone you trust. The next fourteen days won’t fix everything that hurts. But they can begin with a simple, steady choice made before God: as for me and my house.
To reflect onWhat does it mean for you to say “as for me and my house” before God today?
To live it today
- Write “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” on a piece of paper and put it somewhere you will see it — not as decoration, but as a reminder of the choice you made today.
- Quietly list the “quiet gods” of your home (what takes up the most time, attention and conversation) and choose one to hand over to God this week.
- Pray by name for each person in your family, including those who no longer live with you and those you have lost touch with.
More questions
- What faithfulness of God in your family’s story can you remember today, the way Joshua remembered Israel’s story?
- What does it mean to serve God in your home as it actually is — not as you wish it were?
- If today you are the only one in your home seeking God, how does that change the way you live there?
Prayer
Adoration
Lord, you were faithful to Abraham, to Israel in the wilderness, and you are faithful today. Before anything I could do for you, you have already done so much for me and for my family.
Confession
I admit I have not always given you first place. There are things in my home taking up the space that belongs to you, and sometimes I take that place myself by trying to control everything. Forgive me.
Thanksgiving
Thank you for every person in my family, for the good days, and for the places where you cared for us without my even noticing.
Supplication
I choose to serve you. Receive my home as it is. In your time, reach those who don’t yet know you, and make me a presence of peace within these walls.
To memorize
If it seems evil to you to serve Yahweh, choose today whom you will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell; but as for me and my house, we will serve Yahweh.
Read also: Joshua 24:14 · Deuteronomy 6:6-7 · Psalms 101:2 · Acts 16:31
Continue in the app: days 2 to 14
Each day brings a reading, a devotional, a guided prayer, a journal question and a verse to memorize. Pick up where you left off.
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For your everyday
Scripture on this page: World English Bible (public domain). How we write the journeys