Sunday Series: The Concept of Worship

I had a thought today, about what "worship" actually is. It is, of course, important, but what does it really mean? What are its connotations, and why do we do it (besides that God has commanded us to)? Worship has always been a very abstract idea in my mind, some nebulous word describing the method by which we pay homage to God. And yet today, worship was on my mind, and I wanted to know what it really meant. So I looked the definition up.

This is the definition of "worship" from dictionary.com

I especially love definition #3, specially since it most easily expresses the ideas that ran through my mind today.

"Adoring reverence or regard"

By this definition, we worship a lot more things than just God. We adore a lot of things in this world. But the most important connection to this definition (in my opinion) is parents. Do we not all treat our parents with adoring reverence or regard? (outside of certain extenuating circumstances such as abuse). We love our parents and look up to them. I know I certainly do.

And then, with that connection established, is it not notable that God has asked us to call Him Father?

What, then, is worship, than the regard of a child to their parent? An all-powerful, all-knowing, infinite parent, for sure, but the idea is much the same. 

Young children absolutely adore their parents. They hang onto their every word, and everything that their parents tell them must be right. Have you ever heard the phrase "That's what Daddy/Mommy told me!" (or variations on it)? Young children do regard their parents with "adoring reverence [and] regard."

“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy might, mind, and strength; and in the name of Jesus Christ thou shalt serve him” (D&C 59:5)

“O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our maker. For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand” (Ps. 95:6–7)

Don't these scriptures seem to say the same things? Love God, view Him with the greatest reverence, as a mighty Being, and someone infinite, eternal, and wonderful. View Him as a young child views their parents. And have we not been told to become like little children?

I feel like I better understand worship now. I understand what it means, and why we worship. He is our Father- He is everything we can become and so much more than we are now. And we view Him with adoring reverence and regard, for He is our everything.