For twelve years I served as a Children’s Choir director at our church while living in Japan many years ago and then upon returning to the USA. I loved teaching worship, whole life worship, to children and found them up for the challenge.
Worshiping God
In John 4:24 we read, God is worship and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth. Children can be taught to sing but what a difference when they understand who they are singing for. Whatever we do, we must do it whole heartedly unto the Lord and not unto men. Lesson 1 involved helping children understand that they were not singing for mom and dad, or to show off to others, but they were singing out of love for Jesus and when they did so, it became an offering of worship. I loved watching the transformation. I remember being asked by school choir teachers, how do you get all 50 children to sing so passionately? And my answer was always the same, they know why they are singing and who they are singing for.
Singing and Prayer
From a restricted nation comes this testimony from a 13 year old boy. I am 13 years old. I love to sing. I especially want to worship my Lord and in our church Choir. One week in my Sunday school class our teacher was teaching us from the The Prayer Covenant book about “Worship” I felt God presence. At that time, I prayed to God that I always wanted to serve Him with my singing whole heartedly to glorify His name. The Prayer Covenant lesson on “Worship” gave me more strength & courage to sing and affirm my commitment to the Lord. Thank you, Prayer covenant.
Children can be used to by God at any age to minister to others. We used to take the choirs into nursing homes so they could bless them with music and pray for them. It was a special time and I believe had a great impact on the little ones as well as the seniors.
Prayer Mentorship is Important
As we mentor our children, it’s always great to recognize their unique gifts and help them understand that they must steward those gifts because they were entrusted to them by God. Some children have an extraordinary singing voice and it’s so easy to fall into the trap of “performing” sometimes showing off their talents vs. recognizing they were given to them for the purpose of glorifying God. This applies to not just musical gifts. Any talent must be carefully stewarded. So encourage your children, yes, bless them but help them understand the greatest impact will come from offering that gift to Jesus and allowing him to bless through them
