Worship is a way of saying 'I love you'

God did a beautiful thing in our house on Sunday evening when we had a little ‘worship time’. He taught me something incredible about worship. He showed me that it can be anything when it  is done for him out of love.

Most of the time when I think of worship, I think of singing songs.  But round the dinner table we brainstormed as to what worship really was. (Please note this was not an exhaustive theological study on worship) See the result below:

  

And at its heart I saw that worship is doing something for God because we love Him.  My daughter loves to draw pictures, but when she draws one and brings it to me and tells me it is for me, that makes it infinitely more special to me.   And so it is with God. He loves it when we do something for Him.

So we then brainstormed as to what things we could do that could be worship.  We started with the more ‘traditional’ and obvious ones and moved towards less conventional notions of making lego models and cooking.  

We realised that almost anything can be worship if it is done for God’s pleasure, to honour Him and express our love for Him.

So I said we were going to have 5 minutes worshipping God in any way that we wanted. (Just so you know we’re human and not super-spiritual, this was because I’d forgotten to put the pudding in the oven earlier and we needed to kill some time before it was ready.)  My little boy was delighted to choose making a lego model. My daughter decided to do loom bands. Our guest chose drawing, my husband chose praying and I chose writing (the result is below).

  

 What followed was one of the most beautiful five minutes I can remember.  There was a tangible peace and the presence of Jesus.  No one spoke.  Each of us was absorbed in our worship.  It was so lovely I let it stretch longer as I didn’t want it to end (which resulted in the pudding getting burnt because I forgot about it! J).

We then showed and shared what we’d done. I suggested to my little boy to lift up his model and say ‘Here’s my model God. I made it for you to say I love you.’  He did it so beautifully and honestly that I was very moved.  Likewise my daughter (more reluctantly) said ‘This is for you God’. 

I was struck by how limited I get by traditional ideas of what worship is. And I also realised that it had freed the children to worship God in a way that was much more accessible to them as they cannot read fluently yet.  It has really made me ponder being much wider and freer in what I call worship and the ways I enable the children to engage in worship.

I hope this will encourage you to think about what ways you could worship God that match your gifts and personality.  I also hope this will inspire parents to explore with their children how they can worship God in their own way.  Please do comment below if you have experiences to share on this topic.

Gracious Heavenly Father, Thank you for the beautiful way you blessed our family worship time with your peace and presence on Sunday. Thank you for the width and breadth of ways we can worship You. Set us free to worship You in more of the ways You have created us to, that You may be greatly glorified. May you be filled with delight as you see your children worship you joyfully in the ways that express all that you have uniquely put in their hearts.  Amen