From the Lips of Children…

In April of 2006 I was blessed to become a father.  Over the last 14 months or so I have learned many lessons from my young daughter Scarlet, and one recent lesson was in how to worship.  My wife Rachel has taken Scarlet into the sanctuary in Ballard to hear the worship bands play almost every Sunday since she was born, but as I am often playing in one of the bands I don’t get to see her in action.I just hear reports about how she cheers and waves her hands and yells “dada.”
   
A couple weeks ago I got the opportunity to hold her in during the closing set on a Sunday and was blown away.  She raised her hands, clapped, bobbed her head, and tried her best to sing.  Being the natural skeptic I figured she was just imitating someone around her, but looked around and didn’t see anyone in our proximity doing the same thing.  I almost cried.my deepest prayer for my daughter is that she know and worship Jesus, and though she is very, very young I knew she was doing just that, even if she still doesn’t completely know what that means.  I remembered Jesus quoting from Psalm 8:2, ‘From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise’ (Matt 21:16), and thought how pleased God must have been with her.  But though my heart was full of joy I also felt convicted.  What an uptight snob I’ve been about how I praise my Lord!  How often have I been dispassionate in fear of appearing awkward or showy!  How I’ve been so much more concerned with worshipping “correctly”!
 
This also reminded me of how Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.” (Matt 11:25), and “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matt 18:3). 
It has been a prayer of mine that God would teach me things through my children, beginning with Scarlet, and already He most certainly has.