Dear Parent:

One of the core values of First Baptist Arlington is that God designed the family as the primary place for discipleship. The Faith Journey initiative exists to partner with you as you guide your child’s spiritual journey one step at a time. Age-appropriate kits have been created to help you leverage the best faith formation strategy for your child’s stage of development. In this Worship kit you will find practical ideas and suggested resources to help you teach your child how to adore God.

Getting Started

To help you get started, I encourage you to buy a frame and dry erase marker for the God You Are card included with this kit. Use it to begin a routine of worshipping God with your child right away. A small step like this can help start a habit of worship in your everyday conversations.

We hope you find this kit helpful in the process of forming the faith of your child at home. Feel free to visit fbca.org/faithjourney to learn more or to determine if your child/children are ready for other Faith Journey markers.

Blessings,

The Young Families Ministry Team

What is Worship?

Worship is our response to the greatness of God. Many Christians limit the concept to singing songs in church. We need to help our children understand that worship involves much more than attending a weekend service. Worship is both an action and an attitude. Scripture says that true worship begins in the heart of the believer (John 4:23). Worship involves taking the focus off of ourselves and directing our attention toward God, who He is and what He has done. We may be great multi-taskers who can accomplish multiple things at once, but real worship only occurs when we give God our complete and sole attention.

Personal Worship

Actually, children don’t need to be taught how to worship, but whom to worship. Most kids idolize heroes from the world of sports, music and television. They memorize every statistic and detail about this or that celebrity. In other words, they “worship” in the purest form by focusing their complete attention on someone they admire rather than on themselves. It is our job to help them see the wonder of our awesome God. The best way to teach your child how to worship God on a personal level is by doing it yourself, modeling a life of worship with your words and actions. Allow your child to experience the “wow” of who God is. Intentionally point out the amazing things that God has done and is doing.

CORPORATE WORSHIP

It is also important to spend time worshipping together at home and at church. Create family worship experiences using songs, prayer and scripture. Make public worship a priority by gathering with other believers to focus on God through the same elements.

WAYS TO WORSHIP

Make it a priority to help your child discover real worship. Use any of the following ideas to get started:

Spend a few minutes around the table or in the car as a family taking turns saying something about who God is and what He has done. Try to avoid mentioning yourselves; focus completely on Him.
Make worshipping as a family a priority by talking about God and committing to regularly attend a church service where you praise Him and study His Word together.
Play songs of worship or make music together using instruments to create a fun time of family worship in song. Psalm 100:20 says to “Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs.”
Declare specific days like “Worship Wednesdays” to make a point of worshipping together. This could be as simple as taking time on the way to or from school or before bed to each say one thing about God you observed during the day.
Ask your child questions about God’s character or His creation. Help him or her focus on how amazing God is.
Frame the God You Are card included with this kit to start or end the day with a worship fill-in-the-blank

Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; worship the LORD in the splendor of his holiness. ·Psalm 29:2