Family Worship

From time to time, my family uses icebreaker questions at the table to engage our children in the conversation.  I have also noticed that when we use the icebreaker questions, my kids definitely are better behaved and there are less interruptions when we actually want to have a little time  for the adults to talk.  So back to the icebreaker question on this particular night- "what is a family tradition?" we quickly said family worship.  Well, yes and no.  Family worship can fall in that category but in all reality its the life of the family unit, because God needs to be in the center of everything.  Worship is something that we should teach our children from the moment they are born, we cannot wait until they are "old enough." We have to do it from the beginning because they are absorbing it all, whether we chose to believe it or not. They are little sponges.

Children need to see from the beginning that God is our everything.  He is not an addition to our lives when we go to church or when we say our prayers before we eat.  God is our Lord, Savior, Counselor, Everlasting Father, King, and Best Friend, and they will learn this through our own relationship with God.  We need to model what a Christian walk looks like.  Family worship is a great way to introduce our children to God and not to mention the closeness that it brings to the home.

Family Worship Ideas:

1. Sing (optional) or an icebreaker question for families with older kids to be able to connect with them.

2. Pray- opening prayer. At the beginning we would do it, now we take turns, even our 3 year old does it.

3. We Read a Bible story most of the time.  Occasionally, we will all say a memory verse instead or tell a missionary story.  Sometimes, we have worship in the car because it might be a late night, the memory verse option works great too.  (Now that my 7 year old reads, she also likes to take turns leading out in worship).  Engage them!

4. For older kids, the "Family Bible" is a good source, because it gives you background on the stories and it has some questions to go over.  I also recommend an age appropriate devotional but my number one choice would be the "Family Bible" so they can learn to read it on their own.  Make sure you talk about the relevancy of the Bible reading to their lives today.  Include a story of our own life journey will help bring the message home and our kids also get to know us more.

5. Closing prayer- we like to kneel most of the time and when not we stand in a circle and hold hands.

I hope the best as you find what will work for your own family worships. Like have a box with everyone's name on it and take name out and that person leads the next day, or have a calendar or object lessons, endless ideas on how we can teach our children to grow in a relationship with Jesus.