What Is Worship?

From Christine Harvey

Yesterday morning I decided to go to a morning worship service. There’s a lot to do on Christmas Eve morning, but I always feel inspired by going to a service on Christmas Eve. And because it fell on a Sunday this year, I was able to go to a morning service and not wait for the candlelight service in the evening. An added bonus was that I would be able to take my granddaughter who just turned four, to play in the nursery.

To my surprise, there was no nursery yesterday. Normally the children leave after the first hymn, but on this occasion there was no mention of the children leaving, and so Felicia just sat there in her chair snuggled up next to me. I wondered how this would go – a wiggly four year old listening to an hour long, grown up service.

The subject of the day was: ‘What is worship?’ After a passage was read, the subject was opened up for discussion. A microphone was passed around so that all could hear. Numerous people raised their hands and shared their thoughts at length, circling around the subject, trying to grasp it’s totality. One woman even said at the end of her message, “I can’t quite put my finger on it, but I think you see what I mean.” Suddenly I saw Felicia’s hand go up and down and wave around. I thought, “Oh, my goodness, she’s bored, we’ll probably have to leave soon.” But no, to my surprise she reached up to whisper in my ear, “I want to say, ‘Thank you for our blessings.’”

“That’s a wonderful thought,” I told her. “You should say that.” She had to pursue her hand raising efforts, but finally someone said, “I think the little girl wants to say something.” When her message came out, people were spell bound. A lot had been said that morning about the importance of having gratitude, but nothing quite summed it up as clearly as that. “Thank you for our blessings.”

This whole experience has lead me to a lot of reflection over the last 24 hours. Several things occur to me, and I wonder what occurs to you. For me, first is this question: How often do we not listen to children intently, especially our own, and yet ‘Out of the mouth of babes...’

Secondly, how often do we not listen to ourselves or others? Often the answer is right in front of us, and yet we don’t recognize it. We don’t recognize the source. We’re expecting the answer to come in a different way, or not at all! Several nights ago I was watching a DVD with my family called ‘The Secret.’ I remember it’s message - that we can manifest whatever we want in life, but here’s where most of us go wrong. It’s in NOT being open to receiving. Not truly believing it’s possible. When we lack believe that it’s possible, we certainly don’t see the answer right in front of us.

But how do we overcome it? The first step is thankfulness for the blessings we have already, no matter how small. Yes, Felicia had captured it. Often even a four year old can see what we can’t see - ‘Thank you for our blessings.’

Recently I went to a Maui Mastermind event, and a lot was said about the importance of ‘mind set.’ After one of the break out sessions, a thought struck me. It was one that I had heard several years ago, and had filed away at the back of my mind. It was manifestation taken one step further - ‘Everything we want in life is in fact ALREADY there, waiting for us to discover it. It’s only our reluctance to be open to receiving that blocks us.’

What are your thoughts? You can email us at liz@womenforwealth.com