Spiritual Disciplines for Parents: Worship, Generosity, and SabbathSample

DAY 2: WORSHIP

What do you worship?

Not the “eyes closed, arms lifted, heartfelt praise through song” kind of worship — although that might be your exact response to your first cup of coffee every morning.

No, we’re talking about prioritizing and pursuing. What’s important to you? What has your mind’s attention and your heart’s affection? Is it your job or finances? Your kids? Your social life? Your kids’ social life?

Christians, like everyone else, prioritize and pursue things like security, happiness, and purpose, to name a few. But above all those, in the top spot, should be God.

It can be hard, especially as parents, to worship God alone. After all, who doesn’t want security, happiness, and purpose for their kids? But we forget we don’t have to choose because every good thing comes from Him (James 1:17).

We can worship God in so many ways — through songs, prayer, and even reading the Bible. Hebrews 13:15 gives us another method of worship, saying we should “never stop” offering Him our praise and “talk openly about our faith in Him.” (NIRV)

The NIV puts it another way: “Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess His name.”

As strange as it sounds, worship is sacrifice. It’s putting aside our selfish desires and self-centeredness to recognize God’s authority and work in our lives… even if we don’t always feel like it.

Sometimes, we don’t want to worship God. Sometimes, like the kids we’re raising (and, let’s be honest, the kids we still are at heart), we just want to sit and wallow in the middle of our messes.

This is where discipline comes in: Worship is the “fruit” or product of people who “openly profess His name” — Christians! And worshiping “continually” means thanking God even when things aren’t going our way: when the bills keep climbing, when our kids get in trouble at school or have a bad day, or when that “constructive criticism” at work feels more critical than constructive.

Even in the worst of times, we can worship God. We can worship Him by sharing our faith — and struggles — with others. We can worship Him by putting Him first in our finances. We can worship Him by pointing our kids to Him in what we say and do.

When we put God first and worship Him in every circumstance, we’re not just giving Him the credit He deserves, we’re also showing our kids who they should pursue and prioritize with their whole life.

Put it into practice. Spend 15 minutes in intentional worship of God. You can take a walk outside and thank Him for creation, listen to your favorite praise songs at work, talk about Him with your kids at dinner, etc. Find ways to keep Him at the forefront of your mind today.