Written on the Wall

When you walk into our living room you will be greeted by two hyper boys extremely excited that we have guests in our home, probably some dirty socks on the floor, a few dishes in the sink, and our media wall.

As you can see, there is a big TV, speakers, some books, photographs and a large quote burnished on the wall. It states "Ich aber und mein Hause wollen dem HERRN dienen." Literally translated it says "I but and my house we will the Lord serve." and the NIV version is "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."

There it is, fairly large, and right as you walk into our house, we display a proclamation of our family's mission statement.

Recently, some friends stopped by and noticed the writing on the wall. One of my friends understands a little Deutsch and stood there looking at the wall trying to translate the statement. After a few minutes she asked for help. I gave her both the literal and commonly understood translation and then there was a brief pause. I don't know what she was thinking, but my mind was filled with questions. Is this a surprise to her? Would she have known that we are followers of Christ if I didn't have it burnished on the wall? Does she think it is just a Christian thing to say but not something to really follow?

We took the statement from the German bible because we thought it would be cool to have Deutsch words on the wall since we are in Deutschland. It wasn't until I translated them out loud for the first time that I realized the gravity of putting the statement in Deutsch: each time someone comes into my house they will likely have to ask me what the quote means, and each time I will stand before them and say the words "as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."

A lot of people may say "I'm a Christian" or "I believe in God" but "I serve the Lord" doesn't come up in casual conversation very often, at least not in mine. Somehow putting these pretty words on my wall has challenged me to make sure that they are true. I hope anyone that comes into my house and sees these words will think to themselves "well obviously you do".

I realize it is just words on a wall, but it reminds me of someone getting a tattoo of a girlfriend's name and then they break up. Oops. How embarrassing would it be to walk around with the word "Shirley" all fancy on your left arm while your current girlfriend Tammy is walking on your right?

It is simple writing on the wall, but it is has become a reminder to me to ensure that it is also written on my heart and revealed in my life.