By Grace Fox

MAYBE my memory fails me, or perhaps I was otherwise preoccupied in Sunday school class as a kid. Whatever the case, I have no recollection of learning about the power of praise in my growing up years.

It wasn’t for lack of a spiritually-based upbringing. My family attended church services not just once, but twice each week. I attended mid-week kids’ club and later joined the church youth group.

I heard about David and his five smooth stones, Jonah and his whale of a tale, and Moses and his super-highway through the Red Sea. I saw flannelgraphs featuring Adam and Eve and the infamous tree, Noah and his floating zoo, and Joseph with his funky multi-colored coat.

Those stories were a vital part of my spiritual upbringing and I still value their lessons today. But it wasn’t until I hit mid-life and had three children of my own that I learned about the practice of praising God and began discovering its life-changing effect.

That’s when I took steps to ensure that my kids’ spiritual training would include not only stories, but also the teaching about praise so they could benefit from its power, too. The method was simple.

Using a Bible concordance, I looked up words that described God’s character. These included terms such as love, faithfulness, mercy, power, wisdom and holiness.

Then I wrote several dozen of the corresponding scripture verses, one each on a single strip of paper. Finally, I placed the papers in an empty jam jar and set the jar in the centre of our kitchen table.

Every morning on a rotation basis, one child selected a paper and read its verse aloud. Either my husband or I explained briefly what it meant, and then each family member said a one or two sentence prayer of praise based on that day’s character quality.

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For example, one child might have drawn a verse that read, “Nothing can separate us from the love of God (Romans 8: 38).” To ensure that our kids understood that scripture’s relevancy to everyday life, we explained it in their terms:

“God’s love is so big that nothing can stop it from reaching us. We might do poorly on a test or have a misunderstanding with a classmate. We might catch the flu and feel lousy for a week, or our sports team might lose several games in a row. No matter what happens, God will always love us.”

And then we took turns saying brief praise prayers such as, “Dear Father, we praise you for being a God who loves us no matter what.”  

Reading scriptures revealed truth about the character of God to our children.

Discussing that truth helped them understand its relevancy to their lives. And verbally turning those truths into expressions of adoration built a foundation of trust in their all-wise, all-powerful, all-loving heavenly Father.

Practicing praise taught them to keep their focus on the one who never changes rather than on shifting circumstances, and that fueled their faith.

I recently asked my 20 year old daughter to describe the impact that the exercise had upon her life. Without a moment’s hesitation she said, “It totally helped me understand what God was like. And when I began understanding what he was like, I realized that I could trust him with every detail of my life.”

The ability to trust God with every detail of one’s life brings joy, peace, and courage. Those are qualities most parents want their kids to possess, and they’re attainable through the practice of praise. Now that’s a facet of spiritual training we dare not omit!    

Grace Fox is an international speaker and author of four books including 10-Minute Time Outs for You and Your Kids (Harvest House 2007). Her latest release, Moving From Fear to Freedom: A Woman’s Guide to Peace in Every Situation will be available in August.

August 2007