Teaching Freedom in Worship

Yesterday at church, God chose to use one of the teenage boys to minister to others in the congregation. The power of God was on him so strong and whoever wanted prayer was invited to come and he prayed for them. It was so awesome!

Daniel approached me and said he wanted to go up for prayer but was scared. See, my kids have been around the presence of God for the past 3 1/2 years so they know what it looks like to an observer for God to touch someone. Sometimes they fall over, sometimes they laugh uncontrollably, sometimes they dance, sometimes they cry. And I'm sure they've been prayed for at least once or twice in a church setting. But it's all still a little foreign to them. Maybe I blame everything on them not being born to us and not having been here there whole lives when in reality the timidity is just something that every kid deals with at some point. I remember it a little bit, but I was also filled with the holy spirit and spoke in tongues at the age of 6 (I know, it's young and many people can't believe that). At that point (which was only a few months into my "Christian walk") I became a worshiper. I learned to feel God's presence on a daily basis. I learned to not really care what people thought and just to worship. Honestly, at my church, the ones who aren't worshiping, hands lifted, etc, are the ones who look out of place. I remember being scared to lift my hands during worship and I remember feeling like everyone was watching me. But at some point I had to decide whether I cared more about what the people were seeing or what God was seeing. I know you do not have to lift your hands to worship, but I also know that when you do, it helps you focus, or at least it helps me focus on what I am at church for any ways.

So both Haley and Daniel went up for prayer yesterday. Daniel said he would never be scared to go up for prayer again.

Last night when they were all doing there Bible time, I turned some worship music on my phone and gave them a few minutes to pray/worship after they were done reading. And they worshiped and it was nothing like I see at church from them.

I try to encourage my kids to worship at church. Not because it matters what other people think, but because it is a time set aside for just that purpose and it's easier to worship at church then to find time later at home. (Both are good so I'm not saying one replaces the other.) They say they are scared of what people will think. My kids, who are probably the craziest kids on the block, are scared to worship. I guess that just shows that they know church is a place of reverence for God.

This leads me to my real dilemma. How do you teach the difference between worshipping freely and putting on a show so people will look at you? I want my kids to respect and reverence God, but I also want them to feel free to worship but not turn worship into a performance. I think its a fine line even for adults, so I guess I will just show some grace and try to teach by example. Which is really hard to do from the piano with Bj in the sound booth.

And I'll keep praying that my kids will fall more in love with Jesus every day and that worship will overflow out of their hearts. That they'll be comfortable to worship and loving Jesus will be worth the risk of embarrassment.