When we come to this Table, we are not just coming to it, but rather learning how to come to it. This is particularly true of your children. The law of prayer is the law of belief. Lex orandi, lex credendi. The way we worship shapes the way we think. And the way we grow up worshiping shapes the way we will live for the rest of our lives.
As we have told you many times before, your baptized children are welcome to the Table here, provided that you as their parents instruct them carefully each time we partake, and they are capable of tracking with the instruction. We know that a one-year-old comes with a different level of maturity, but he should be coming the same way we do, in accordance with his ability.
When they come to the Table, our children should be doing the same basic thing that the rest of us are doing. All of us are participating in the entire service, worshipping the Lord. So if your child is asleep, do not wake them up just in time to receive the elements. They are learning by what they are doing and how they are doing it—and what they are learning this way is that coming to the Supper is no big deal, and that thoughtless, unprepared approaches to the Lord are just fine.
At the same time, you remember their frame. It is not a problem if a little one falls asleep—but if he does, they should be awakened in time to do what the rest of us do. That is, reflect, sing, hear the Word, and take the elements. If your child sleeps in the sermon, that is fine (provided he is not sixteen), but they should be awakened shortly before the end of the message. You should teach them why, which is that the Word is always to accompany the sacrament, and a thoughtless, disheveled approach to the Table is never appropriate.
If he is exhausted, then let him sleep through the Lord’s Supper also. If, upon waking, he would be really distressed at having missed it, then wake him up in time to hear a part of the message. He is learning, not just by what we do, but also by what he does.