“Blessed be the name of the Lord” is the first sentence of my kids’ favourite song at church, and we love to sing it in the car. Our youngest, especially—our 5-year-old—can really sing it with all her heart, soul and body. She dances, she claps, she sings as loud as she can, and she gives her everything in it. At church she loves to stand on the chair (or on stage with the worship team!) to sing this song.

Some people might think that’s a bit too much, but I love to see her worship like that. I wish I would dare to do that too—to let go and give it all to Him. Isn’t it great to really be able to express how amazed and overwhelmed you are with His love and power and how that fills you with joy?

“He raises the poor from the dust.”
I have seen with my own eyes how God blessed the poor during my 2 years in Colombia, living among the poor. When we (my parents and sisters and I) would ask people living on the street, trying to earn some coins by carrying heavy bags all day at the market, “Who is looking after you? How do you survive?” they would give us a big smile and point up. They didn’t need to explain, use many words, or use that opportunity to evangelise. No complaints about how bad their life was, how they wish it would be different, why life is so unfair. Their faces, their smiles and that one movement so honest and direct was the “proof” of God’s existence. That made a huge impact on me, being 11 years old and brought up in a wealthy country in Europe.

“He honours the childless wife in her home; he makes her happy by giving her children.”
I know He doesn’t always answer our prayers, or in the way we want Him to. In a way we all have children as we all have the same Father, so we are all one big family. I always wanted to have lots of children, more than three. But now, being part of a church, it feels like I have lots of children as all the children feel a bit “mine.”

When I praise the Lord through worship I realise that often all the questions I had, the worries and pain, seem to diminish, to vanish. A day that goes by without time to praise Him feels like a day where I didn’t do Him right—where I didn’t allow myself to be recharged with His love and Holy Spirit.

How about you? Do you even realise that He is the one “who tells the sun where to stand in the morning?” (another favourite song from our family!) And my best tip: worship before you go to sleep so you will wake up with your favourite worship song in the morning. A great and blessed start of your day!