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Worship Like a First-grader

Worship Like a First-grader

I spend part of Sunday mornings in a wig of some sorts, usually dressed up as my favorite kids’ church storytelling character, Grandma Eucalyptus. Though she’s over 100-fictional-years-old, this big-booty, white-haired, cat-loving grandma was birthed in my mind just a year ago to help kids enjoy hearing Bible stories told.

Sunday mornings are one of my favorite parts of the week. Instead of worshipping God in the somewhat introspective and selfish way my 22-year-old self usually worships Him, I cut loose and worship like I did 15 years ago. And something beautiful and refreshing happens every week when I let my “must be cool, calm and collected” guard down.

During the song segment of each service, the kids just go at it with sing-along actions and aren’t afraid of screaming at the top of their lungs. And neither are we leaders. Usually each service starts with that obligatory jumping and dancing just to get the kids excited, but I’ve found that somewhere along the way, we adults start spinning so fast and singing so loudly that we forget that we’re “dignified adults.” We worship God unabashedly like 7 year olds who don’t know any better.

The children encourage us to worship God in a new way. Have you ever noticed how pure and blameless the worship of children is? In Matthew 21:16, children were smarter than the so-called holy priests of that day. Children gathered around Jesus in the Temple, saying, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” while the priests became outraged at what they thought were blasphemies coming from the mouths of the little ones.

Unfortunately, some days I am more like a Pharisee than I am one of those innocent, joyful children shouting praise to my Savior. Some days I’m so concerned about impressing people in my pious living that I forget that it’s not about me at all.

But then there are the days when the unashamed 7-year-old breaks through the Pharisaical robes of my flesh. There are Sundays when I get so excited about God in “big church” that I just want to spin around in circles for Him. Sometimes I’ll think about how awesome He is while I’m walking through Wal-Mart that I just want to scream it at the top of my lungs.

Worship God like a first grader. You know what I mean—talking to your friends about Jesus without any shame or any fear of what they will think, singing Jesus songs like you’ve never heard any other genre, jumping up and down with joy for Him at random times. You are still His child and He longs to receive your pure praise.
Sunday mornings are one of my favorite parts of the week. Instead of worshipping God in the somewhat introspective and selfish way my 22-year-old self usually worships Him, I cut loose and worship like I did 15 years ago. And something beautiful and refreshing happens every week when I let my “must be cool, calm and collected” guard down.

During the song segment of each service, the kids just go at it with sing-along actions and aren’t afraid of screaming at the top of their lungs. And neither are we leaders. Usually each service starts with that obligatory jumping and dancing just to get the kids excited, but I’ve found that somewhere along the way, we adults start spinning so fast and singing so loudly that we forget that we’re “dignified adults.” We worship God unabashedly like 7 year olds who don’t know any better.

The children encourage us to worship God in a new way. Have you ever noticed how pure and blameless the worship of children is? In Matthew 21:16, children were smarter than the so-called holy priests of that day. Children gathered around Jesus in the Temple, saying, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” while the priests became outraged at what they thought were blasphemies coming from the mouths of the little ones.

Unfortunately, some days I am more like a Pharisee than I am one of those innocent, joyful children shouting praise to my Savior. Some days I’m so concerned about impressing people in my pious living that I forget that it’s not about me at all.

But then there are the days when the unashamed 7-year-old breaks through the Pharisaical robes of my flesh. There are Sundays when I get so excited about God in “big church” that I just want to spin around in circles for Him. Sometimes I’ll think about how awesome He is while I’m walking through Wal-Mart that I just want to scream it at the top of my lungs.

Worship God like a first grader. You know what I mean—talking to your friends about Jesus without any shame or any fear of what they will think, singing Jesus songs like you’ve never heard any other genre, jumping up and down with joy for Him at random times. You are still His child and He longs to receive your pure praise.

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