We stayed home from church today–slept in and had church at home. It is a struggle sometimes to engage the boys in worship. They’ll mumble the words and look bored while my wife and I try to connect with God.
I sometimes ignore them, but at other times try to engage them and rouse them out of their malaise with the Creator of the Universe.
I used to try to play the guitar, but that has bombed enough that I don’t even try anymore. Instead, I try to get them each to pick a worship song, and we sing that, so that they at least can participate at some level.
Today, after their half hearted efforts at the first song, I made everyone stand up and try to clap. But then after a little while we sat down again at the request of my wife. I didn’t try to fight it, and we soon finished up by praising God using the letters of our names. I’d say something like:
God, thank you for being Creator.
Lord, you are Righteous.
Thank you for being a God of Action.
Thank you Lord, for being Intimate.
Thank you God, that You are Good.
I always wonder if the boys get anything out of our time, but at least they practice at it, evenif it doesn’t reach their hearts.
I worry singing the right songs and doing the right things when we worship as a family. Am I pushing the boys too much? Or not enough? Are they engaged? Or just giving lip service? Am I expecting too much?
Later, my wife commented that she enjoyed the worship: “I like that you had everyone stand up, but then we got to sit down. I can always concentrate on God better that way. It was a good balance.”
And there you go. Sometimes I just make things too complicated when it is really quite simple: Stand up, but then sit down. And God takes care of the rest.
