Visiting Family and Church Activities

When you're attending a recurring church activity, say like your small group, and hear that someone is not there because they have family in town, most folks go, "sure, yeah, that's understandable" and go about their activity.

I was thinking about it this morning (and this is just my thought/conviction)--I'm not sure that's a good thing. If the family is just staying overnight, or you haven't seen them in years, perhaps that's one thing. But what if they're there for a while, or you see them regularly? What are you communicating to your family by skipping God's means of grace for you (encouragement and nourishment through the study of the Word)?

Jesus wants us to put our love for Him and devotion for Him (things that assist in growing in the grace and knowledge of Christ) before all else--doing this equips us to love our family better! Neglecting such means can only cause us to falter from attending to His Word.

And in some cases, can't you take them with you to small group? Our small group brings their kids to it and they play in another room--what better way to show your visiting family the benefits you receive from your church by showing them first-hand?

This all came to my mind because we have my wife's brother and his family coming into town tonight, and they'll be staying until Sunday. The temptation would be to say to our small group leader (an elder) and our pastor, "well, we have family in town and we can't make small group or go to praise team practice." And they'd likely understand--and perhaps the visiting family would not see anything communicated to them by us NOT going to those activities. But what would they see if we did?