How recognizing God's presence can change everything

I’d like to suggest a motto for Christian family life: “God is in the room.” 

While God is always there, so often we act and think and speak as if he were not. We argue, we laugh, we play games, watch movies, make love and do just about everything without even thinking about the implications that God is in the room.

Even though we pray before our common meals, it amazes me how quickly I can slip back into thinking and acting as if the word "amen" is a kind of curtain that I pull down in front of heaven. I’ve said my obligatory piece, and now I can carry on as if God has passed over us rather than taken up residence among us.

Think of how your marriage might change if you argued with the awareness that you are carrying on while God is in the room. If you could see him, would you use the same words? Would you carry the same tone?

Think of how differently we might treat our children in those frustrating moments if we responded to them with the knowledge that God is in the room. Might we be a little more patient, a little more understanding? Our casual compliance with sin is often as much a forgetfulness of God as it is rebellion against God.

It’s such a simple notion, but it can be so revolutionary, and it makes life an ongoing adventure: what is God going to do today? How will he make his presence known in our family? What lessons does he have in store for us?

Tell it to yourself and your family, every morning, every noontime, every evening: God is in the room.

Let’s keep telling it to ourselves and to each other until we practice it and live it, until we live and breathe with the blessed remembrance: God is in the room.