morning worship hour

[T'smom]

In a thread yesterday, Hunter briefly mentioneed that she does a morning worship hour. I am very intrigued and woiuld like to hear all I can about this practice. It seems more involved than simply reading a passage or doing a devo book. If anyone who does this would like to tell me more, I'd bevery appreciative. Thank you.

[Staceyshoe]

We don't have a worship hour, but we start our day with prayer and hymn study (including some singing). It just takes a few minutes, and the hymn study has had so many unexpected benefits. Making time with God a part of our daily routine is priceless.

[Another Lynn]

Bumping up for Hunter because I love to read her posts. :D

[Hunter]

Weeeell....what I did with my boys is quite a bit different than what I do now. I was an ultraconservative Christian, and now I have no faith in a diety or much of anything. People have tried to shame me for this very common Post Traumatic reaction but I refuse to feel guilty about it anymore.

 

In the past Morning Worship time was always over an hour, and I was hard pressed to even keep it under an hour and half, when my oldest would start blowing his top. It's funny because today he says that Morning Worship was the single most important part of his childhood, despite the fact that he was never a Christian. He was married in a church last year and totally confused the pastor when he told him that he fully supported his Christian wife, and knew he couldn't possibly raise his children right with JUST church attendance, but that his children would be at EVERY event. He is really worried about he will be able to give his children what he wants them to have, without being a Christian himself.

 

As part of my Post Trauma therapy I have flirted around with most religions. Also my grandmother and some family members are/were witches. My mom raised me ultra-conservative Christian after leaving the Catholic church when I was 6, when she divorced my dad and moved to this country. Over time I'm understanding more how much her pagan background affected her understanding of Christianity even though it was her attempt to totally reject it. The more I've learned about paganism and other religions, the more I understand what Paul was cautioning against, and the errors that have arisen in the modern church.

 

I believe that all humans are spiritual beings. To be healthy we need to attend to the mind, body and soul. None can be neglected without catastrophic repercussions. I believe different religions are merely different languages all attempting to go the same place. I believe that within each religion are power hungry people that quickly figure out that people need spirituality as much as they need food and water, and seek to control access to this essentiality for selfish reasons. This is where each religion gets off track.

 

Now that I said all that, I'll get into what a typical morning was like at out house, but...I'm going to wait and do that in another post, later on tonight, or tomorrow :-)

[FloridaLisa]

I'll chime in. ;) We've always started our day with a Bible study time. It's not an hour, but it's probably a good half hour. It consists primarily of Bible study, prayer and Scripture memory. At times, we've added in a hymn or song. For Bible study, we've not used anything formal. We read through the Bible pretty slowly -- maybe a chapter a day. With younger children, I like to read through a history like Genesis, Exodus, Samuel, 1 & 2 Kings, Ruth, Acts. I expound on our daily reading as God leads that day, according to whatever He is teaching me. It's amazing the insight we get as we just read through Scripture together!

 

We always have a long passage of Scripture we are memorizing together. Hands-down, this is one of the best things we've done over the years. We've memorized passages like Ps 23, Ps 19, John 1, John 15, The Ten Commandments, Phillipians 2 and others. We will usually add hand motions or sign language to help us remember. When all of my kids were younger, they would earn dollar store prizes once they were able to recite the passage from memory. They still talk about that and what a thrill it was! It's the little things I guess. :001_smile:

 

After memory work, we take turns praying. One year, we created index cards with the names of all of our extended family, church staff, missionaries and friends that we particularly wanted to pray for. We would take the top index card and pray for that family that day. Other times, we have used Windows to the World for Kids, but our prayer most days has been less organized.

 

Every now and again, we'll add in a hymn we are working on. I actually love this; love to hear the harmony as the kids grow and develop their voices. But, sigh, we usually have much time invested at this point and need to turn our attention to academics.

 

Last year, my dh passed away suddenly in the wee hours one morning. No warning or symptoms. I was so, so grateful for all of those years of Bible study that we had done together as a family and the foundation that was laid. The kids and I have drawn on that foundation all year. It's an investment of time you will never regret and will pull your family together as you school, work and live together.

 

Hope that helps,

Lisa

 

P.S. Do what feels comfortable and natural for you. If reading through a devotional book will make it happen, do that. It's looked a bit different as my kids grew but I always resolved to do Bible time first every day. Some days, it was hard when math or a needy phone call was waiting. Do what works for your family.

Edited July 30, 2012 by FloridaLisa

[Another Lynn]

<snip>

Last year, my dh passed away suddenly in the wee hours one morning. No warning or symptoms. I was so, so grateful for all of those years of Bible study that we had done together as a family and the foundation that was laid. The kids and I have drawn on that foundation all year. It's an investment of time you will never regret and will pull your family together as you school, work and live together.

 

Hope that helps,

Lisa

 

P.S. Do what feels comfortable and natural for you. If reading through a devotional book will make it happen, do that. It's looked a bit different as my kids grew but I always resolved to do Bible time first every day. Some days, it was hard when math or a needy phone call was waiting. Do what works for your family.

 

:grouphug: What a beautiful post! So sorry for your loss.

[Hunter]

I'm going to post some links without much explanation, because I don't want to take the chance of losing my text if the computer crashes.

 

Voice of the Martyrs Magazine

 

Operation World

 

Bedell Curriculum

 

Shorter Catechism

 

The Scottish Psalter

 

Instructions for singing the Scottish Psalter by John Brown Hadding

 

The Genevan Psalter

 

Joyful Noise Scripture Songs

 

Now I'm going to watch some olympics :-) I'll be back.

[T'smom]

Hunter, thank you for posting- I'm really looking forward to hearing more about it. I just have littles and we do bible stories, memory verses, etc. But when I read "morning worship hour" it just really stuck out to me that we're studying more than worshipping. Our worshipping is really lacking. Actually, the study has also slacked off over the summer, but I feel like that's something I can handle. I was raised in a household that was really big on the theology but did not really push the 'relationship' aspect..... Well, they tried- but I want to do better than they did and I'm not very comfortable expressing myself about spiritual things (though I know my beliefs backward and forward and upside down......I can argue my point, but I have a really hard time with the "be still" part. I know I'm not wording this very well.....maybe that I'm good with the head knowledge but not the heart knowledge. And that's really something I want to change.

 

FloridaLisa, I'm so sorry.....:grouphug::grouphug::grouphug: I was thinking in church this morning that dh should really be a part of it, but I don't know how to work that out since he leaves before 6 am. But it really is something I want to make a priority.

 

I'm looking forward to hearing anyone else's ideas/experiences.

[FloridaLisa]

T'sMom,

 

Actually, my dh was rarely part of our weekday Bible time. He left for work pretty early and traveled some. He did lead in many other ways, just not our weekday Bible time together. In fact, the kids loved to recite verses they were working on when he would come home. Precious times together. :001_smile:

 

Lisa

[Lori D.]

While our 35-45 minute morning Bible time included Bible study and reading from various works (inspirational biographies, devotionals, "Christian living" books, worldview and apologetics, etc.), we always started with worship. It was starting with singing aloud together a hymn or praise song. Then we had a prayer time that started with praising the Lord for who He is and what He has done. We then prayed for family needs and lifted up others in need, and included prayer for leaders (a different one each day of the week -- our President/country leaders; local political leaders; church leaders; Youth group leaders; and other leaders). Taking turns reading aloud a short passage from Scripture (often from the Psalms) was also meaningful. We ended our worship time with each of us listing at least one thing we were grateful for, to help us keep our focus on the Lord, and to help us have an attitude of gratitude.

I personally find the acronym ACTS helpful in personal prayer as a way of aligning my heart and mind with the Lord's, and we loosely modeled our worship/prayer time this way:

Adoration (first focus on the Lord, who He is and all He has done)
Confession (focus on the Lord leads me to see where I have fallen short, and I confess that)
Thanksgiving (confessing where I have fallen short leads to thanksgiving for what Christ did on my behalf to restore me to relationship with the Lord)
Supplication (now in right relationship with the Father, I can confidently bring my needs and the needs of others before the throne of my Heavenly Lord and Father)

I miss our family devotional time now that DSs have graduated! Hope you will find that which is meaningful for your family! Warmest regards, Lori D.

PS -- ETA:
I find that verse "Be still and know that I am God" is VERY helpful in deepening relationship with the Lord. It is very helpful to just still your heart and mind and be listening for what the Lord wants to say. So we had silent time in our worship time after the singing and as the start of our prayer time. It's a little awkward to start with, but take a few deep slow breaths, close your eyes, still your body, and purposefully quiet the "spinning mind". It really helps to also send up a quick prayer as you start to be silent, "Lord, we come now and lay all our burdens and plans down so we can sit quietly at your feet. Help us all to quiet our bodies, our mouths, and our minds; Holy Spirit, open our ears and our hearts to hear the Father's words and heart." I think teaching your children to be able to be still and listen for the Lord is a wonderful gift in our frantic-paced culture that is never quiet -- always music, TV, or something sounding in the background to prevent us from just being still.

Okay -- ETA again:
I just remembered this lovely past post with wonderful ideas on from so many moms:
What has given your children a heart to know God and to live for Him?

Edited February 22, 2021 by Lori D.
ADDED info and a link

[Hunter]

One of the things I really focused on with my boys was home worship, which is quite different than public worship. Today there are so many more home worship resources available.

 

As well as to worship, we used hymns, Psalms and choruses to study church history, theology, literary technique, phonics/spelling and music. Just last night I found this "reader" based on the Scottish Psalter.

 

This is the combined Psalter and Bible we used for family worship. I preferred that everyone attending used the same Bible that I kept a set of in the dining room.

 

The John Brown Haddington Psalter and certain editions of matthew Henry include psalm singing instructions. We also had a concordance of the Scottish Psalter and some topical indexes.

 

Most memory work was KJV, but we memorized the Psalms in the Scottish Psalter version.

 

I required my boys to learn to sing a variety of Psalms and Hymns and Choruses with a focus on the Psalms. I required them to prepare for leadership positions during hard times. Since most Western people turn to Christianity during hard times and often don't have the background to do so, they seek out people who learned these things as children. I felt it was my responsibility to prepare them to lead a small group meeting.

 

Worship is the area I think most small group leaders feel the most inept at leading. Less is more in small meetings. The Scottish and Genevan Psalters were designed for small group worship by persecuted people. They are...a bit dull maybe :-0 BUT they can become an acquired taste.

 

It's fairly easy to find hymns and music in "C" and to just teach children to sing and play an instrument in "C".

 

http://www.volcano.net/~jackmearl/

 

http://www.amazon.com/Easy-Hymn-Fake-Book-Songs/dp/0634047361/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1343675535&sr=1-1&keywords=fake+hymns

 

More later.

[Hunter]

Morning Worship is the perfect time to cover a lot of geography and history. Hymns span the entire last 2000 years and the entire world. There are links above to Operation World and the Martyr's magazine. Jesus Freaks covers a LOT of countries and history. Missionary biographies cover many subjects. There is this one year missions unit study that has tons of resources. There used to be a website with vintage sermons we used a lot.

 

I listed the link to Bedell, above. Bedell covers so many subjects, especially social studies and science.

[foster_sk]

Hunter, I appreciate the links. You have some good ones there!

 

I really like this version of a reformed catechism for young children: http://www.reformed.org/documents/index.html?mainframe=http://www.reformed.org/documents/cat_for_young_children.html

 

My children love memorizing the catechism questions and answers. This CD has also been super helpful for us: http://www.amazon.com/Ask-Me-Whooo-Vol-1/dp/B003BMZ9T6/ref=sr_shvl_album_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1343764822&sr=301-1

 

We also use CDs with scripture set to music to help with memorization.

 

I love the idea of a hymn study, too...

 

Thanks for the ideas, ladies!

[Hunter]

Hunter, I appreciate the links. You have some good ones there!

 

I really like this version of a reformed catechism for young children: http://www.reformed.org/documents/index.html?mainframe=http://www.reformed.org/documents/cat_for_young_children.html

 

My children love memorizing the catechism questions and answers. This CD has also been super helpful for us: http://www.amazon.com/Ask-Me-Whooo-Vol-1/dp/B003BMZ9T6/ref=sr_shvl_album_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1343764822&sr=301-1

 

 

That's an awesome resource!

[tuzor]

Hunter' date=' thank you for posting- I'm really looking forward to hearing more about it. I just have littles and we do bible stories, memory verses, etc. But when I read "morning worship hour" it just really stuck out to me that we're studying more than worshipping. Our worshipping is really lacking. Actually, the study has also slacked off over the summer, but I feel like that's something I can handle. I was raised in a household that was really big on the theology but did not really push the 'relationship' aspect..... Well, they tried- but I want to do better than they did and I'm not very comfortable expressing myself about spiritual things (though I know my beliefs backward and forward and upside down......I can argue my point, but I have a really hard time with the "be still" part. I know I'm not wording this very well.....maybe that I'm good with the head knowledge but not the heart knowledge. And that's really something I want to change.

 

FloridaLisa, I'm so sorry.....:grouphug::grouphug::grouphug: I was thinking in church this morning that dh should really be a part of it, but I don't know how to work that out since he leaves before 6 am. But it really is something I want to make a priority.

 

I'm looking forward to hearing anyone else's ideas/experiences.[/quote']

 

T'sMom,

 

Actually, my dh was rarely part of our weekday Bible time. He left for work pretty early and traveled some. He did lead in many other ways, just not our weekday Bible time together. In fact, the kids loved to recite verses they were working on when he would come home. Precious times together. :001_smile:

 

Lisa

I am thinking of creating a weekly template on my computer and sending it to my hubby and it will have the highlights of what we learned during the week. Generally, Friday is family night and we play games where dad quizzes us on various things. If he has the template he can create the quizzes around our studies plus it will help him feel more involved.

[Hunter]

I wanted to talk a little about prayer today. I never required my boys to pray outloud, but they were required to sit respectfully while I prayed. And since I was the only one praying...it took awhile to cover everything that needed to be prayed about :tongue_smilie:

 

One of the things we did was pray for their future spouses. Every day. I didn't get into lots of discussions about abstinence with them. I just prayed for their future wives daily. It got the message across.

 

We also prayed for a country everyday, using Operation World, and any particularly disturbing human rights violations going on. So much geography got covered this way.

 

I never cancelled Morning Worship when the boys had a sleep-over. Part of the condition of a sleep-over was that all child guests would attend Morning Worship no matter how late they had stayed up, and what condition they were in.

 

A crew of teens would stumble down the stairs, still under the influence of cookie coma, and all night video game playing. Hair sticking up and orange Cheeto dust in their teeth. If I didn't have their full attention they learned I was likely to trick them. I did things like, have things for them to read aloud or sing, that were shocking. They quickly leaned it was unsafe to sing or read anything without being awake and interested enough to skim it first. Hymns from the 1700s include things like children being eaten by bears after making fun of a bald prophet. In my studies I collected "tricks" as the boys called them. And I used them on unsuspecting sleepyheads who were not paying attention.

 

At first my older son was embarrassed and troublesome, but he was soon hushed by his guests who thought Morning Worship was interesting and fun and surprising. The boys started looking forward to it as part of the sleep overs. One of my nephews particularly was fascinated by the slooooooow Amish hymns that were written that way to prevent onlookers from dancing to the tunes while the martyrs sang them as they burned to death.

Edited August 2, 2012 by Hunter

[Hunter]

I also wanted to say about husband participation. Traditionally Family Worship is held twice a day, and Evening worship is always led by dad. It's often shorter and doesn't include teaching, but does include worship and a devotional reading and prayer.

 

We didn't have Evening Worship as that just wasn't possible with my husband in the house. The boys hid upstairs in the evenings. I had my own private devotional time. Sometimes all we can do is set an example.

[Hunter]

And last, but not least, now that I am not a Christian, I still believe in the importance of a daily spiritual practice. Humans are intrinsically spiritual and need attention to mind, body and soul to be healthy. This is all so much deeper than Christianity. At this forum, Christianity might be the most commonly used language to connect with, but not being a Christian doesn't mean you can't have Morning Worship.

Edited August 2, 2012 by Hunter