The Importance Of Raising Your Children In The Heart Of Worship
I remember when I was a child, how I loved singing from my heart to God. I was about six years old at the time, and I remember pouring out my praise to God from my heart, crying because I loved Him. Then, there was an encounter at church one Saturday night, where they were discussing baptisms and missions. I knew in my heart that I wanted to be baptized and travel the world to share the gospel of God with everyone. There was also a vision that I had, which I later shared with a fellow brother in Christ during my college years, as I had met the person in my vision as a child. However, back to my childhood, I recall that after that Saturday service, I told my parents how I wanted to be baptized. They, of course, were happy for me, but I will never forget the next morning waking up to a horrific pain in my side that made me fearful, wondering if I was going to die. Yes, I know, I learned about death pretty early due to 911 and my great-grandmother’s death, so I was terrified. Then suddenly I remembered learning about prayer and my body being a temple that Jesus lived in, so I prayed from my heart in a fetal position rocking on my knees, asking Jesus to heal me because he lived inside my temple. IMMEDIATELY I WAS HEALED! From that moment on to this day, I have never questioned God in my life. I knew that He was real, which led me to continue worshiping Him at any time I could. I mean, I would go on Saturdays and Sundays to church and jump in worship, singing loud and proud. I would sing my heart out in the choir that I grew up in, and because I was told how I had a beautiful voice, I would sing with some pride and joy, knowing that I sounded beautiful to God.
After sometime of me growing and life happening all around me, I then suddenly caught myself limiting myself in worship embarrassed of the tears I would cry out for God, thinking my parents would think there was something wrong with me, and also fearful of catching the Holy Ghost (Spirit) and falling out in the pews like the elders in the church, so I withheld myself and worshipped in private in a closet or the side of my bed when no one was around to hear me.
At some point in high school, in my choir class, I kept on experiencing throat issues that had my parents debate on my tonsils being removed because I could not stop catching strep throat, and that made me insecure in singing because I did not sound the same anymore. I could not help but remember what my grandmother used to tell me,
“If you do not use God’s gift for Him, then He will take it away.”
What if she was right? So, I thought.
Either way, those years were difficult, but I tried to tough it out and still sing what I could from time to time. (It’s crazy because with secular music I could sing without an issue, but worship was such a strain on my voice, and I could not understand why.)
Anyway, in college, after my dad passed away, I went a while without singing music, especially gospel music, since it was our thing (he grew up in the choir in Ville Platte, Louisiana, so it was a joyous relationship we had with music). Still, because I could not sing with him being gone, my voice grew drastically weak from not being used in that way.
While attending my church in college, I remembered around the seventh month after my daddy had passed away that the Holy Spirit had been guiding me to a place where I could slowly but surely start opening up to worship again. I began to worship from the pews with my whole heart. It was incredible to feel that come out of me, until I was asked to join the worship team. Then I felt that my worship on stage would not be enough, compared to my voice in the old days when it was thriving and “beautiful”. Thankfully, during worship practice, a brother in Christ noticed that I was nervous and holding back, and he questioned why I was acting that way with my singing. So, I told him about my voice and my insecurities. He then told me,
“When you worship God, you don’t think about yourself. You only think about Him. And no matter what you sound like, He loves your worship from the heart. He just wants to hear you.”
That still gets me today.
There was a moment when my husband and I were about to move to San Antonio. I had a moment in the bathroom praying like Hannah in the bible for a son, (because I was leaving my nephews who I was living with at a time,) and I told God that if he was to bless me with a baby, that I would give my baby to Him and raise it to know God in every way. One of those ways was to know the heart of worship.
See, my parents never made me feel uncomfortable about worshipping, I just created an insecurity with vulnerability in my head that allowed me to hold off from releasing the Holy Spirit that wanted to worship in His fullness rather than my own. I became a stumbling block in my worship session, especially when I knew the Spirit wanted to break out and be released. I held back from it, especially being fearful of “tongues” and catching the Holy Ghost, but it’s crazy because after some time, in those seven months after his passing, I was on fire for God and PRAYED for that experience to come over me, and it did!
I say all this to say. It is easy to show your kids the world that we live in. I mean, there are people everywhere living their lives full of explicit sinful nature exposed to our children, that we Mamas try to protect our children from, but it’s all out and everywhere. Sin is so natural and easy to get entangled in and hard to break out of on your own. And I mean sin of every kind that does not glorify God. But the life I promised God to give to my children is the life that is all about God, because He is naturally in everything.
Because I have a heart of worship that has never left me since my childhood, one that I still vividly remember, including the emotions I felt, I want to be a Kingdom Citizen to expose my children to the truth. To keep my promise and raise them up, seeing what the heart of worship looks like. To have our days look almost different, depending on when we feel led to have random worship sessions or deep prayer.
I want us, Mamas, especially those of us who are stay-at-home Mamas, to dedicate our time and lives to creating a comfort zone where our children can freely worship God in the ways the Holy Spirit calls them to worship. To let them feel comfortable in their own home, to cry out to God anywhere and everywhere, and to pray like warriors that they are. Let’s normalize this dynamic in our relationships with our children. Let’s normalize our children seeing us, Mamas, vulnerable on our knees, crying out to God, or praising God, and also praying out loud with the authority that has been given to us. Let us normalize putting Holy hands on our children and anointing them through the Holy Spirit, guiding them in the right direction with their calling faith.
God says that when one is saved, the whole household is saved. He says that He chose us and predestined us with a sealed promise that we are His. Let us, Mama, not rob our children of life, and I mean real life. Life here on earth with the Spirit, and Eternal life where our children will not see death, but will live forever. My only prayer for my children here on earth is that when they get to Heaven, God will know them. That He will know their name. And that will be because the relationship that my children formed through the Holy Spirit encounter and fellowship in our daily lives.
True and False Disciples
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’
Matthew 7:21-23
I will say this, because this is something done in our home, I will forever be grateful for the random praying sessions that my cubs do, especially during worship, and the Holy Spirit is on them. That to me is my reward. The ways we as parents raise them up in God will not depart from them ever. I declare it in Jesus’ name!
Start children off on the way they should go,
and even when they are old they will not turn from it.Proverbs 22:6
*Remember, what you play in your home matters. It’s literally the music to your children’s ears that steers them in the direction of the Spirit that is chosen from your music. Good or bad. Choose wisely on what feels your children up and what lyrics you want them to sing from their heart to God’s throne.
#Normalize Heart Of Worship
#Normalize 24/7 Prayer
#Take Back What The Enemy Stole
#SAVE OUR BABIES!
# Step Up & Show Out
#Mama’s Mirror The Heart Of Worship That You Want Your Children To Have
Scriptures
Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Ephesians 5:19
Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe
Hebrews 12:28
“Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
John 4:21-24
Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
Do not quench the Spirit.
1 Thessalonians 5:16-19
Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’
Luke 4:8
I cried out to him with my mouth;
his praise was on my tongue.
Psalm 66:17
They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.”
Acts 16:31
Praise the Lord.
Praise the Lord, my soul.
I will praise the Lord all my life;
I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.
Psalm 146:1-2
