Raising Little Worshippers
This morning my son announced with a yawn, “I’m still sleepy...”
After shunning my repeated suggestion that he return to bed (a mom has to try), I decided to turn on a short kids exercise video to help his troubled morning adjustment.
I set up our ipad with a 15-minute video right beside me in the kitchen and returned to doing my morning assortment of dishes when I heard, “Mom! They’re praying to Coco!”
Momentarily wondering where the time had gone (and who in the world was Coco?), I quickly offered my son an exaggerated look of surprise and declared, “Well, that’s weird! We only pray to God!” Then I proceeded to trip over myself to interrupt whatever modern paganism had entered my kitchen. Bye Coco.
But I continued thinking…humans do a lot of things but some things are for sure,
we will breathe
we will eat
we will sleep
and we will worship.
The need to worship something is written into our DNA. Too often, we refuse to direct it toward the one true God and decide instead to find a golden calf (or a tropical bird named Coco) of our own on which to pour out our praise. We see this in the way some worship self-knowledge, ambition, or self-indulgence. We see it in the worship of political leaders, political ideas, money, food, fashion, sex, our children, the universe, “positive energy”, etc. You name it, someone has their everything invested at its altar.
It’s not a matter of will we worship, but what?
If you’re a parent like me, this is something we must keep in mind as we shepherd our children through daily life. We’re raising little worshippers. If we’re not taking the time to tell them who they are, why they matter and then even more time to answer a thousand “whys” and “Oh yea, so what’s?” that follow, there is a line at your door (and behind your media screens) waiting to do the job.
Will you teach your children to worship the living God? Will you show them how? Will you teach them who God says they are? Will you show them God’s mission for their lives? Will you teach them to discern truthful messages from lies?
The Bible speaks clearly about the importance of a parent’s role in a child’s spiritual journey:
“And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.” Deuteronomy 6:6-7
“Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.” Proverbs 22:6
The most important thing we can do as parents is point our children to Christ as he has been revealed in scripture. There are a variety of resources that help summarize our faith for young minds. Some of these include: The Jesus Storybook Bible, Grace for the Moment 365 Day Devotional, the YouVersion Bible app for kids, The Westminster Shorter Catechism, The Heidelberg Catechism, and so many more.
After shunning my repeated suggestion that he return to bed (a mom has to try), I decided to turn on a short kids exercise video to help his troubled morning adjustment.
I set up our ipad with a 15-minute video right beside me in the kitchen and returned to doing my morning assortment of dishes when I heard, “Mom! They’re praying to Coco!”
Momentarily wondering where the time had gone (and who in the world was Coco?), I quickly offered my son an exaggerated look of surprise and declared, “Well, that’s weird! We only pray to God!” Then I proceeded to trip over myself to interrupt whatever modern paganism had entered my kitchen. Bye Coco.
But I continued thinking…humans do a lot of things but some things are for sure,
we will breathe
we will eat
we will sleep
and we will worship.
The need to worship something is written into our DNA. Too often, we refuse to direct it toward the one true God and decide instead to find a golden calf (or a tropical bird named Coco) of our own on which to pour out our praise. We see this in the way some worship self-knowledge, ambition, or self-indulgence. We see it in the worship of political leaders, political ideas, money, food, fashion, sex, our children, the universe, “positive energy”, etc. You name it, someone has their everything invested at its altar.
It’s not a matter of will we worship, but what?
If you’re a parent like me, this is something we must keep in mind as we shepherd our children through daily life. We’re raising little worshippers. If we’re not taking the time to tell them who they are, why they matter and then even more time to answer a thousand “whys” and “Oh yea, so what’s?” that follow, there is a line at your door (and behind your media screens) waiting to do the job.
Will you teach your children to worship the living God? Will you show them how? Will you teach them who God says they are? Will you show them God’s mission for their lives? Will you teach them to discern truthful messages from lies?
The Bible speaks clearly about the importance of a parent’s role in a child’s spiritual journey:
“And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.” Deuteronomy 6:6-7
“Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.” Proverbs 22:6
The most important thing we can do as parents is point our children to Christ as he has been revealed in scripture. There are a variety of resources that help summarize our faith for young minds. Some of these include: The Jesus Storybook Bible, Grace for the Moment 365 Day Devotional, the YouVersion Bible app for kids, The Westminster Shorter Catechism, The Heidelberg Catechism, and so many more.
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