Many people did not grow up in a Christian home, and many more do not consider their childhood experience a good model. Robert Wolgemuth presents this inspiring, practical book for people who want to have a Christian home. So, what's so great about a Christian home? There's redemption. There's forgiveness. There's hope. Laughter and genuine happiness. There's discipline and purpose there. And there's grace . . . lots of grace. The Most Important Place on Earth covers eight answers to the question "What does a Christian home look like?" It's filled with stories and practical ideas that will convince any reader that a Christian home is not an elusive stereotype. It's something that really can be achieved. And it's something worth having. You'll see. Robert Wolgemuth has been in the book publishing business for over forty years. A former president of Thomas Nelson Publishers, he is the founder of Wolgemuth & Associates, a literary agency representing the work of more than two hundred authors. The author of over twenty books, Robert is known as a relentless champion for the family, relationship building, and biblical truth. His favorite “audience” is one friend, a corner table in a small café, and a steaming cup of coffee (extra cream but no sugar) between them. A graduate of Taylor University, from which he received an honorary doctorate in May 2005, Robert has two grown daughters, two sons-in-law, five grandchildren, one grandson-in-law, and a great-grandson named Ezra. He and his wife, Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, live in Southwest Michigan. The Most Important Place on Earth What a Christian Home Looks Like and How to Build One By ROBERT WOLGEMUTH Nelson Books Copyright © 2007 Robert Wolgemuth All right reserved. ISBN: 978-0-7852-8032-3 Contents Introduction............................................................................................................ix1. Why a Christian Home? ... Different is a very good thing.............................................................12. A God Place ... God lives in your home. What does this mean?.........................................................243. The Most Important People in the Most Important Place ... What's it like to walk into your home?.....................484. Amazing Grace ... It's what sets your home apart.....................................................................715. The Power of Words ... Real bullets at home..........................................................................926. The Power of Words: Part II ... The Family Vitamins..................................................................1167. Just for Laughs ... The best medicine of all.........................................................................1348. Discipline Is Not a Dirty Word ... It's the stuff of champions.......................................................1549. Safe at Home ... The refuge you're looking for.......................................................................18110. Parents As Priests: Pulpits Optional ... "Mom and Dad, why the robes?"..............................................200Epilogue................................................................................................................224About the Author........................................................................................................227Acknowledgments.........................................................................................................229Appendix A: How to Lead Your Child to Christ............................................................................233Appendix B: Grace Wolgemuth's 26 Bible Verses...........................................................................243Notes...................................................................................................................245 Chapter One WHY A CHRISTIAN HOME? Different is a very good thing. Thunderstorms were standard fare in August. Like a huge charcoal-gray tarp being pulled across the sky from the plains to the west, you could see them approaching. A chill stung the air. Then the thunder. Deep rumblings that felt more as if they were coming from the ground than the sky. And like flashlights clicking off and on under a blanket in the distance, lightning would illuminate the spaces inside the darkened canopy. In 1974, television weathermen didn't spend as much time as they do now issuing "chances of rain" odds. But when we'd see the tarp and feel the chill and hear the rumblings and witness the lights, we knew that the chances were exactly 100 percent. On this particular Friday afternoon in Chicago's western suburbs, there was something unusual about the August storm. It wasn't the wind or the thunder or the lightning that screeched across the late afternoon sky that made it so dazzling. They were there, all right, but they weren't that peculiar. The singularity of this storm was the sheer volume of the unrel