It is the time of year when most churches start lighting the Advent candles and worshipping God through the celebration of Christ’s birth. Recently I have been convinced that our children need to be taught the true meaning of worship as I have noticed the apathy of teenagers toward the things of God.. Worship is not spending an hour per week at church, it is something that affects the whole of life. The English word "worship" really comes from two words "worth ship"; "ship" is an English suffix denoting character or condition. Children gain their sense of values by watching what their parents consider worth while. When Jesus was born a star appeared in the sky and wise men from the east started their journey to worship the one for whom the star was given:

The star in the sky caused them to abandon their studies and to seek out the baby Jesus. The wise men felt that the one for whom the star was a sign, was of greater importance then their pursuit for wisdom. Consider the shepherds: when Christ was born they left their sheep on the hillside and came to see the baby; they worshipped him. The Bible doesn’t actually say they worshipped baby Jesus, yet when the angel appeared he said:

When the shepherds stopped what they were doing, diverting their attention to the baby, they counted him of greater worth then the task at hand and so did worship him. If we consider the time invested as being a indication of something’s worth, consider this: some who profess to believe in Christ spend only an hour at Christmas and Easter for their worship of Christ, that is 2 hours out of the 8,760 hours that are in one year. Other Christians spend an additional hour per week at the Sunday morning worship service; that still only amounts to 54 hours out of 8,760. If we compare these numbers to the amount of time spent on sports or watching television, what will our children think is of greater worth ship? What we serve with our time is true worship. In fact the Greek word "latreia", can be translated both as worship or service and is used when we read:

Our total dedication to Christ as living sacrifices is our spiritual worship. People need to see our lives focused around Christ, as this is true spiritual worship. When they see us diverting our attention from things Satan uses to distract us, to placing a greater worth on Christ, they will gain a new worth of Christ. Then instead of the apathy, we will see a change in people's attitude, being excited about the things of God.