Follow Me

We have some seriously good music at our church--music that makes you forget who's around you and focuses your full attention on God. On a certain Sunday, I had tunnel vision. It was just God and me. I was singing with everything I had. I may not have been singing beautifully, but I was making a joyful noise to the Lord. I had one hand raised in surrender and praise to God. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed my son raising his hand and stealing glances at me. I lost my concentration a bit the rest of the service. I couldn't help but smile every time I raised my hand; my son raised his, too.

After the service, I asked him why he was raising his hand during the service since I'd never seen him do that before. He responded, "I was just copying you."

I asked, "Do you know why I raise my hand sometimes during the service?" He did not. That led to a conversation about all the different ways people worship God. I had the opportunity to share with him the idea of outwardly showing that we agree with the words of the song, raising our hands in praise to God.

What a privilege we have as parents to lead our children to praise God . . . to lead them to be followers of Christ!

“Dear brothers and sisters, pattern your lives after mine, and learn from those who follow our example.” ‭‭Philippians‬ ‭3:17‬ ‭(NLT‬‬)

“And you should imitate me, just as I imitate Christ.” ‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭11:1‬ (‭NLT‬‬)

Kids follow our example even when they don't understand why we do what we do. This is not just an amazing privilege, but also a huge responsibility.

I am a child of the 80's. As a teenager, I was in love with Bon Jovi. Posters of the band covered my walls. I could run pretty fast from anywhere in the house (or even outside) when I heard the first notes of one of the songs blaring from the TV which was tuned to MTV from the moment I got home from school. (Yes, I was a latchkey kid.)

At a basketball game, "You Give Love a Bad Name" played over the arena during a time out. Out of the recesses of my memory, the words started pouring out of my mouth without any effort on my part. My son gave me a questioning look. "Bon Jovi. I used to love this song," I said.

Out of all the bands I liked in the 80's, Bon Jovi was probably the most harmless. (I was not a Christian back then.) Unfortunately, my son just learned how to use Pandora. What station did he create? 80's Rock radio. Let me first say that I am not one of those people that believes all secular music is evil. However, some of the lyrics to classic rock songs are . . . ummm . . . not very uplifting. Case in point: I was playing tag with the boys and a Blondie song popped in my mind--"I'm Going to Getcha." The only words to the song that I can remember are, "One way or another, I'm going to find you. I'm gonna getcha, getcha, getcha." [Repeat over and over.]

I googled the lyrics to the song out of curiosity. Blondie was a serious stalker. Good grief! (I realize that other artists have redone this song, but the original version is always better.)

I digress. My point is that since I loved (and still do love) Bon Jovi, my son is now interested in bands like ACDC. What have I done?!

Parents, this is a cautionary tale. Be careful. Your child's (or in my case, teenager's) eyes are watching you. They follow your example, even when they don't realize it or understand it. If we follow closely to Christ, though, we can lead our children as well as others to Christ.