Blessings in the Body of Christ Part Two

In Blessings in the Body of Christ Part One, we discussed the benefits to the family integration model within the church. We also began to address some challenges, and promised to share some tips we have gathered along the way. My prayer is that the Lord would use these tips to help encourage you as you disciple your children in the pew : )

1. We began incorporating family worship (singing, Bible reading, and prayer) daily with our children. As we did so, we saw our children grow in their ability to actively listen to the word being taught, songs sung, and prayers prayed. When we first began doing family worship, there were many days when we needed to stop and train their behavior. I would go as far to say that was the norm and not the rarity. It helped all of us to grow in patience. The hubby would often remind me that parenthood is a marathon and not a sprint, and that they were learning things, even if it didn’t to be the theological lesson of the evening.
2. Scripture memorization-The children and I began memorizing scripture together. Although some of our children were more verbal at younger ages than others, we met them on their level and began training them to memorize scripture using audio cds like, “Hide em’ in Your Heart,” “A to Z bible verses”, Seeds kid worship cds. I also resourced the Truth and Grace Memory Books.
3. Preparing Sunday Morning clothing on Saturdays– Who hasn’t been on a shoe search when needing to head out the door? Or perhaps had a child meltdown because they had a different desired outfit than you had picked for them? I know I have! Getting everything ready on Saturday night has made everything so much smoother for our family : )
4. Early to bed early to rise-What a difference it has made in our family to have early bedtimes on Saturday evening. Even in our family of children 12-18, everyone is to head to their rooms and begin winding down at 7:30pm. On a rare occasion, there is an event on a Saturday evening that leaves us heading to bed late and dreading that alarm clock on Sunday. However, the general rule is that the Sabbath starts on Saturday night and we eagerly await church in the morning!

Along with the weekly prep, we have been given some great tips that helped us greatly on Sunday mornings:

In the midst of the training, be patient with your children and your spouse. This can be messy work. Discipleship and child rearing is one of the most difficult, yet most blessed callings God has placed on our lives. We need to persevere through successes, failures, and re-takes. It can be exhausting, and may even feel like you are making little to no progress week to week. However, it is well worth the effort and the consistency. You are making disciples of Jesus. You are showing them the true treasure that is found in the local body and weekly celebration of the Lord’s Day! And don’t forget that the Holy Spirit is always working beyond your abilities. God and God alone can save your children, giving them hearts to love Him. He will lead you, guide you, strengthen you, uphold you, and sanctify both you and your children through your diligent discipleship at home and within the context of the local body. You are doing kingdom work! Stay encouraged! Having your children worship alongside you will eventually be one of your greatest joys in life!

• Early to rise: This was such a game changer for us as well. Who enjoys feeling the anxiety of feeling rushed? None of us. By getting up much earlier than needed, we are able to enjoy a more relaxed preparation for our worship service. This also allowed us to get to church early and get everyone pottied, seated, and settled before the worship service began. Now, we have praise team practice before church, so we get there earlier and have some extra time at church to prepare our hearts for worship.
• Eat a healthy, filling breakfast: We all can focus so much better with a full belly! Have you ever been in a worship service and had the grumblies? It sure makes it difficult to pay attention. With a full belly, we are able to be less focused on ourselves, more focused on the service, and allow us to make it through the service without desiring a snack. With that said, the little puff snacks for babies and toddlers were such a favorite of ours. They kept 0-2yr olds content on my lap during the services and didn’t cause a loud noise when I opened and closed the package. Also, it seems like they can never fill up on those things and the organic grain free ones are quite nutritious!
• Worship and Train in the Car: On our way to church, we like to listen to the songs for the service that day. You may not know what songs will be played, but listening to songs similar to the worship songs in the service will begin to ready everyone’s hearts. We also pray for the service and all those involved, especially the Pastor or Speaker of the day. Going over what we would be doing during the service is something we tried to do each week when they were little.
• A) We are going to see lots of familiar faces at church today, and maybe even some new ones. One way we worship is by smiling and showing others that we are glad to see them in church! B) We are going to sing songs to the Lord. You may not know all of the words to the songs, but listening to the words and thinking about them is just as important as singing! We show respect to the Lord by standing and actively worshipping him. C) Pastor/Mr is going to pray for our offering and missions. The money that we give to the church is called an offering. We give an offering of money to the church to support our church and the missionaries we support who tell other people about Jesus around the world. When we pray, we close our eyes and fold our hands so we are not distracted by anything or anyone around us. It helps us to stay focus on God. D) We will listen to Pastor give a sermon. You may not understand all that he is talking about, but I would love to hear all about your favorite thing he said after the service. You can take notes or draw pictures that will help you remember what he said. We want to make sure that we are focused on the Lord so that we and the others around us can remain focused on the Lord. We stay facing forward with our eyes on the Pastor or our Bible or notebooks E)When the Pastor finishes preaching, he will pray. This is a very important prayer. Sometimes after people hear the Pastor speak, they need to spend time thinking and praying about what he said. God may even be drawing someone’s heart to be saved! F) After he prays, we will sing the last song. We have another opportunity to listen to beautiful words about God and sing along or pray. G) After church we get to fellowship with our friends. You are welcome (children who have learned to have self-control) to sit and visit with your friends, or play with them in the nursery. Although it is tempting to run in the church, we don’t want to do that. God’s house is a special gathering place, and during church services, we show reverence and respect by walking.-This is one we go over still. Our church is one space and it is difficult for the children to have the same reverence for our building as they would a formal sanctuary. It takes a lot of grace and a lot of repetition, but we trust we will get there. Our boys love to be active, so encouraging them to play football outside or congregate on the porch has been a big help : )
• Disciple during the service: Training our children takes so much consistency. These little ones haven’t been alive very long, and therefore haven’t had much time to become acclimated to the worship service. I used to get very discouraged when my children were continuing to fall short of the expectation I had of them during the service. I hadn’t adequately prepared myself in realizing that I would likely not be able to focus well on the sermon, but would instead be focused on the encouragement and training of my children. I left feeling discouraged and frustrated that I wasn’t able to fully participate in the service as I had hoped.
• Shifting my focus to the worship service being a training/discipleship hour and a wonderful opportunity to see areas of growth needed in myself and my children, was monumental for me. It wasn’t always convenient to have to take them out and discipline them, but it was necessary to get us to the goal of them not only sitting thru, but actively participating in the service. This took more time for some of my children than others. Sitting close to the quiet room or exit door made my exit much more inconspicuous. The goal was always to discipline and return to try again, but if the child (hey or me sometimes ha) couldn’t get it together, we “practiced” while we were away. I would read books and require them to sit on my lap until the book was complete. This helped to aid in their ability to lengthen their focus time.
• Remember that most churches have either a livestream or the sermon recorded. Take advantage of that wonderful resource!
• Fellowship after the service: Enjoy the fellowship! Encourage your entire family to get to know people in the church. It is such a gift to have so many ages represented! When the children are still learning self-control, keep them in eyesight while you visit to ensure their safety and disciple any social issues that may arise for them.
• Family Discussion on the ride home: Discuss what your favorite parts of the service were. What was each person’s favorite song? Was there anything that you didn’t understand? What was one thing you learned? Who can we be praying for this week?

I hope that these tips are as much a blessing to your family as they have been to us.

For those who don’t have small children, please prayerfully seek to encourage the lives of these young children. Let them know how thankful you are to see young life in the church! Recognize the growth that the Lord is doing in each and every person in the body. HE is using this shoulder to shoulder pursuit of Him for everyone’s good and His glory! He is growing us in our ability to focus on the word being taught despite distractions that come with the training process. That laser focus is part of the sanctifying work of our good and gracious King! Press on church!