Encouraging Worship In Our Children's Lives

Our faith is really important to us here at the cottage and worship at home and at church is a big part of that.

We wanted to instill strong roots of faith in the girls young and encourage their growth and devotions and always wanted to make sure the children, even the littles before they were old enough to take notes on a sermon got the message of the sermon.

I didn't send the girls to children's church but kept them with us. I really wanted them to experience the true essence of our faith and if the gospel was good enough for the first-century believers, why was it not also good for our children. I know that children are very important to Jesus and I doubt very much he had a special gospel just for them. We started out very young just reading the bible to them and this we did their whole childhood. I brought them with us into the sanctuary of the church and there they learned how to behave themselves in public and how to glean from the Word of God. I bought special drawing pads and a small package of colored pencils that we only used for church. We had a special bag we took to church with us on Sunday. Once we got settled I would take out the drawing pad and pencils and would have the children draw the sermon. I was always amazed at the depth of their understanding and how it really made them remember what had been taught that week.

Another way we reinforced faith was what the girls watched. We got a lot of good programming online and ordered cd's from places like "Nest Entertainment" and "Our Story Hour". We filled their shelves with sweet books that talked about faith and people of the bible and when they got older we bought deeper books. Ones like Foxes Book of Martyrs, Jesus Freaks, Books by C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity, Books Like a Case For Faith and a Case for Christ and others to nurture their faith and give them a firm foundation and a reason for the hope that is within them.

Related Article: Why My Kids Skipped Children's Church

We would surround them with positive music choices and great books on tape while we traveled near and far or just shut off the radio and talk and listen. They really have such amazing insight if we will just stop and listen