“Happy Birthday, Daddy” – What My 3-Year-Old Taught Me About Worship

 

 

Sometimes it amazes me to see how much my young children can teach me about genuinely worshipping with a pure heart.

The other day my three-year-old son was babbling as I rolled him through Wal-Mart in my grocery cart.  We had just celebrated his birthday, and I guess you could say he was on a “birthday high.”  He kept saying, “Happy Birthday to me!” and reliving those fun moments of celebration.

All of a sudden something clicked inside his young mind, and he started singing the tune to Happy Birthday, Jesus.  Then, in all seriousness, he grinned at me and sang at the top of his lungs, “Happy Birthday, Daddy!”

I’m afraid those poor Wal-Mart attendants had to mop my melted heart off the floor!  My son was completely sincere – his birthday song had made him so happy that he wanted to give me a birthday song and make me that happy, too.

And it totally worked.

I wondered if this was a tiny glimpse of what our Heavenly Father feels when His beloved children present Him with loving prayers and songs of praise.

And then I asked myself, “Do I praise God with this same innocence and purity of heart?  Is my sole motivation in worship to make God happy, just because He deserves it?”

My son may be very young, but I’m beginning to think I have a lot to learn from him.

 

 

“May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in Your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.”

Psalm 19:14