Mornings at the Baldwin house are fairly routine. They start with my 3 year old son, Bear, waking up first and proclaiming, “I woke up!” Then twenty minutes later my 4 year old daughter, Ellie, gets out of her bed and walks in our room, and before you know it the whole family is in Mom and Dad’s bed. Eventually we all get up and head to the kitchen where my wife makes breakfast and I make coffee. After breakfast I take a shower, get dressed, hug the family, and drive to work.
One morning a year or so ago I had my guitar with me to take along to work. I was leaning down to say bye to my daughter when she noticed me holding my guitar and said, “Daddy, are you going to lead worship today?” I chuckled a bit and told her, “No sweetie, not today.” As I drove to work I started to think more about what my daughter said. She was so used to seeing me play guitar while leading worship that she just assumed that if I was taking my guitar with me then that’s what I was going to be doing that day. There is a huge part of me that really loved that, but the more I thought about it the more I realized that I do not just want my kids to only associate music or singing with worship. I also do not want them to think that worship is Dad’s job. I want to teach them that worship is our lives. It’s how we are called to live. It’s turning our hearts towards him and having a posture of adoration and thankfulness for him daily.
I love what our pastor, Bill Johnson, says about worship. “Worship is much more than music. It is a heartfelt surrender to God where we choose to become a living sacrifice.” Part of cultivating a heart of worship in our family starts with us cultivating a heart of gratitude and thankfulness towards the Lord and acknowledging that every good thing comes from Him.
Sheila and I listen to worship in our home every day. For us, it sets the atmosphere for adoration and gratitude. It stirs our heart, and puts the focus on Him. When we are having a struggle with one or both of the kids we pray out loud, invite the Holy Spirit, and ask him to help us. This is showing our kids how we rely on our Father, how we desire for him to guide us in every day situations. We pray with our kids, not just before bed but throughout the day whether we are just telling him thank you or asking for his help through a tough time. We don’t do all these things perfect every single day, but these are a few of our goals to keep our Father the head of our home.
One of the many things I have learned while being a parent is that our children are always watching how we respond. They are learning and picking up on everything they see us doing and saying, so the best way for us to teach our kids how to walk with a posture of worship is for us to walk in this ourselves. My father would often say, “Somethings are caught more than taught.” I know my children will “catch” these truths if they are seeing them displayed in mine and Sheila’s daily lives. Worship is not just singing, dancing and playing music during that allotted time on Sunday morning.
I want them to know in their heart that worship also involves being completely surrendered to the Lord, and when you are it will be displayed in every part of your life. For us, the goal is not for our kids to just have a heart FOR worship; I want to see them have a heart OF worship.