February~ Reverence and Worship (HAH meeting notes)

It's interesting how things work out sometimes! Our homeschool meeting was scheduled for Monday, and I had had a headache since Sunday afternoon (I often get these three day headaches... blech!). I wasn't really raring to go, but the headache was background enough that I decided I'd survive. ;) 

I had emails from other regular attenders, letting me know that they had sick children and wouldn't be attending, so I had decided to reduce our topic from "History/Unit Studies" to simply "History" so that they wouldn't miss out on requested topics. :) T'was rather ironic to me then, that this meeting consisted of the hostess, myself, a stalwart veteran of the group, and one new "considering" mom. Not exactly huge numbers to warrant dragging my head out of the house, right? Well... that would be Earthly thinking, not Heavenly wisdom. ;)

After a little fellowship/chatter around the table, we start off our meetings with a devotional. Now my story becomes a little convoluted... but I'll try to make it follow a logical order. :) 

 Earlier in the day my daughter had shared a video from youtube with me that had shown up in her facebook feed. "How to write a worship song (in 5 minutes or less)"
 

Definite elements of truth, presented tongue in cheek. It was well-timed in that she had brought up for discussion on Sunday how many of today's "worship songs" sound the same, feel the same, aren't terribly memorable~ a general sense of "Something's missing."

Now, don't get me wrong, my husband and I have been leading worship for decades, and we enjoy leading the congregation in choruses AND hymns, both. We've also done a little song-writing ourselves, so I definitely get both sides of the picture. However, with so many of the contemporary Christian artists jumping on the worship band wagon, there is bound to be a fair amount of, dare I say, unexceptional songs being written and offered as praise to our King.... 

The next happenstance was that I opened an email from Sally Clarkson's blog I Take Joy and the topic was "Cultivating a Sense of Sacredness in the Heart of Your Child." I decided this would be an excellent read for our devotional, after sharing the youtube video (click the link, to read it yourself). Voila' ~ Our meeting emphasis changed with just those two sparks~ to a discussion on worship, respect, and reverence. 

I came away with the sense that we need to be offering our respect to the Lord, and others as well~ 
In our Sunday worship 
In our homeschools
In our "presentations" in general (Of songs, performances, etc...) 
In our conversations with others who deserve respect 

Yes, it is OK to be relaxed and casual much of the time, but we seem to have forgotten how to show awe and respect to the sacred in life. Thoughts?  
 

Blessings~