**During the month of October, The Family Discipleship Blog will highlight a 4-part blog
post by Denise Hardy (Women’s Ministry Director) about Sunday Worship with Children.
You can find Part One titled, “A Time to Teach Self-Control Below”

SUNDAY WORSHIP WITH CHILDREN – PART ONE

A Time to Teach Self-Control

“…Rather train yourself for godliness” 1 Timothy 4:7b

When I was raising my children, there was always a children’s church in the morning service.
Our church also had an evening service, and it was during that service that I struggled with keeping
my children engaged. As I’ve gotten older, I realize I wasn’t prepared to bring my children into
an adult worship service. Being prepared for worship is important for adults as well as children.
Let’s look at some ways you can prepare your children to be in worship service so that they
benefit from it.

Self-control doesn’t come easy to adults, so why do we think that it should just happen in
children. We have to work at our prayer time, personal Bible time, exercise, nutrition, etc.
Children have to be taught self-control. They are used to being entertained. It’s the age of
technology. We have to deliberately take time to train our children in self-control.

A time to…

1. Sit Still
Starting with five or ten minutes a day, practice sitting still at home without the TV.
Read the Bible to the children as they sit still and listen. Talk to them about what the
verse or verses mean.

2. Sing
Sing praise songs at home with them to get them used to some of the songs sung in the
worship service. Have a time of listening to praise and worship songs together. Dance
and have fun with them.

3. Pray
This is an opportunity to teach children to pray. Begin by using short sentence prayers
when you pray with them and then encourage them to pray as well. This is a wonderful
time to teach a reverence for God as you speak to him.

4. Listen
When you read any book or story to your children, make sure that you take the time to
ask them what was read. It’s important to understand what they understood from the
story. This will be preparation for a good practice of asking your children about what
they heard in the worship service. In teaching them to listen, seek to train them in
listening with their whole bodies. This is a time to keep their bodies under control,
which contributes to good listening.