Sometimes, when I teach, I like to scan the audience while the kids sing during worship. Frequently, I will find kids that are getting into the music. But I also find the one or two faces that clearly do not have their “worship face” on.
The thing I love about kids is they are honest. When they feel lousy, they won’t hide it. There is no facade when a first grader is having a lousy day.
The key isn’t to shame or tease someone into pretending they are happy and everything is okay. When broken people pretend they are perfect, then nobody can be honest. I’ve always found it ironic we’re encouraged to deceive others about how we feel.
No our goal in worship cannot be to pretend everything is great. Our goal is to give God all our junk, our brokenness and acknowledge He can fix it. The results may look identical in the end but can make such a big difference.
I drew this cartoon in 2014 for Kidzmatter Magazine.