“That was given to me by my parents. That was just sort of baked in,” said Piper. “So that’s one thing that stood out as unique because I’ve just found that most homes didn’t have that level of biblical emphasis.”
One way this biblical emphasis played out, Piper said, “was that very few conversations about anything difficult in our home were not directly informed by Scripture.”
“So if I asked for advice or if my parents were disciplining or if I was making big decisions or if we were talking about societal things or political things, the rubric of truth was, ‘Well, what does God’s Word say?’” he said. “And sometimes God’s Word doesn’t speak to something specifically, but it still gives wisdom in how to think about things.”
Another way the emphasis played out that Piper believes “is not the best for every home was the sort of rhythmic family devotional life that we had.”
The Piper family would have devotions twice a day typically, a shorter one in the morning and a longer one in the evening. “Those were pillars that we would do no matter what,” said Piper. “So I just remember as a teenager, you know, getting ready to head out the door for something and being called back to do this thing. And it harbored a fair amount of frustration and resentment.”
“And I know that wasn’t my parents’ intent,” he added. “I know that they just firmly believed that more Scripture is better. And you know, largely that’s true.”
However, Piper learned from a wise pastor that because pastors’ kids are so inundated with Christian life simply from their church experiences, it can be helpful “to lower the pressure at home a little bit.”
“I look back and kind of wish that had been the case,” Piper said. “But also, you know how it is…you start pulling on threads, and you unravel things that you don’t want to unravel. Like, I don’t want to unravel all of the scriptural blessing that I received from my parents.”
Another unique aspect of Piper’s upbringing was his “dad’s singular calling.”
“I’ve just learned as an adult and even in ministry now that it’s rare for somebody to have such a keen sense of what [it is] that the Lord has given them to do,” said Piper. This focus was “largely good” but did come with some challenges, and it was “so intensely focused” that “it pulled the home in that direction.”
Piper mentioned that his father’s “pastoral work, his writing work, his commitment to the church…absolutely shaped our home in terms of rhythms and priorities.”
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Heppner was curious about how Piper’s parents perceived the effect of implementing the family devotion time.
