Raising Rooted Children
Recently I took my six-year-old daughter to her first Christian concert. I had received two tickets to the Chris Tomlin concert in Dallas, Texas, for Christmas and we were excited to say the least! In fact, Savannah scheduled for an entire mommy-daughter day—complete with a trip to her favorite store and restaurant. What a wonderful memory.
We arrived at the concert early, bought unbelievably expensive snacks and drinks and made our way to our seats. We waited, talked and laughed as other attendees shuffled in and right on time, the concert started. The anticipation built during the opening act…and finally…it was time!
Chris Tomlin was on and for the next hour people stood listening, singing, praising, worshipping. It was quite an hour.
About halfway through his concert he sang "Jesus Messiah." Savannah and I stood in worship together. When he got to the chorus, as if on cue from a rehearsal earlier in the day, Savannah's hands lifted into the air in praise and worship. It was a moment I will never forget. She hadn't looked at me to see what I was doing. She wasn't trying to draw attention to herself. She wasn't doing it because people around us were pressuring her to raise hands.
Perhaps this doesn’t seem like such a big deal. There's only been one constant prayer in my life regarding my kids. It's been that they know Jesus from an early age. I don't mean that they just ask him into their "heart" and that's it…I mean I want them to begin knowing HIM in a growing relationship while they are still young. I long for them to worship our God in an uninhibited way from an early age. I hope they learn nothing they can ever do will separate them from God's unconditional love. I want them to know that no matter where they are, HE is available, willing and able to take care of them. I desire for them to grow in the understanding of their salvation.
In that moment of worship and total consumption of our Jesus, Messiah, my heart was touched to tears as I realized to some degree, Savannah is on her journey to know Jesus more. Her total liberty and passionate worship overflowed to me and even to those around us, as she unassumingly lifted her hands in praise and worship to our Jesus Messiah.
PRAYER: Father, help my heart to be tender in uninhibited worship of You. Make me less concerned with what’s going on around me and more aware of Your magnitude.
“I pray that according to the wealth of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner person, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, so that, because you have been rooted and grounded in love, you may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and thus to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God,” Ephesians 3:16-19 NET.
By Gina Stinson
