Saturday, July 24, 2010

Zumba Discipleship

As a mentioned in a previous post, everything we do is spiritual. As parents we are responsible for raising our children to be spiritually well rounded people.

One of my favoritest (ya, I just said favoritest) things to do is worship God with kids. Specifically, I mean worshiping with music. Honestly, I would rather worship God with them than adults. Often I find that in adult worship we sing about dancing or clapping our hands, or bending our knees in worship but we are standing (or sitting) stiff as boards. Seriously? Ugh...with the kids there is no holding back. We worship God with our entire bodies (and often get a work out in the process.)

One time David danced so crazy (with all his might) that his underwear was showing and his wife got pretty mad. David responded, "I will become even more undignified than this." (Check it in 2 Samuel 6) The Israelites were bringing the Ark of the Lord back and this caused David to celebrate. Um, excuse me...but I think we have something bigger to celebrate! Jesus is alive! We are forgiven! Our sin has been wiped away! Don't just stand there! Dance and celebrate with all of your might!

By the way...Michal (David's wife) didn't have any children after that little escapade and that's the biggest disgrace a woman could have at that time.


I was recently introduced to Zumba. Holy moley! That is fun AND a great workout. It might be kind of disgraceful when you are swinging your fanny in the air, but I think God will make an exception for this like he did for David. The great thing is that Zumba can totally be kid friendly. I learned like 4 moves and realized that it fits in really well with some of the new worship songs for kids...like "Oh Happy Day." This is so much fun to do with your kids.

In lieu of a video, here are a few of the Zumba moves I know:

Beto: This is kind of like the "Egyptian" move. One hand is up, palm facing in, other hand is hand is down, palm facing out. You step and move your hips, "pushing" your hands out while alternating them. She does it in this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbDcnhb3DwQ

Sleepy lay: This one has both hands up, each arm in a "v" shape (like saying "I don't know?"), and palms toward the ceiling.  While you are moving your hands up and down, you swing your hip way up. Take a few steps and then change hips and directions.

I don't know what this one is called, maybe Morraccas: Pretend like you have morraccas in your fists. Shake your fists above your head as you jump forward. Then jump back and shake your fists down low. Repeat. (It's a fun one)

Of course there is always "shaking" (shaking your hips back and forth) and free style.

This might not make sense, you might just go to a Zumba class.

Anyway, here is a link to some videos you can watch on your computer with some great kids songs. My four year old loves them.

http://www.worshiphousekids.com/song-tracks/18623/Happy-Day


Regardless of how silly or "disgraceful" you look (or feel)...you are teaching your kids two things. 1- It is important to take care of your body. 2- You can use your body to glorify and praise Jesus too.

HAVE FUN! :)

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