Going to church with littles is not easy. Yes, this is old news. For a lot of us, many Sundays look like this and this.
Likewise, Family Devotion time is yet one more firestorm of defeat.
But as I wrote about last week, for the Christian parent, life in the Church, prayer and teaching our babies the faith are serious matters. Priorities. These are greater than anything else our children will need in their lives.
So, we continue in dragging ourselves and our loud, fussy babies to church every week. We continue in etching out sometime in our day or our week to speak God’s Word into their ears, to pray for something, to sing a few lines of our faith.
We fail again and again. We yell again and again. We give up, we start over and we hope. We trust God to be faithful to His children despite how many times we forget, drop the ball, throw our hands or angrily send everyone off to bed in the middle of a hymn.
Our babies need to be in church as much as we mothers do. As a Mama who weekly considers whether or not this is “worth it,” I found these posts to be helpful and encouraging.
Steadfast Moms “The Divine Service is especially meant for mothers with young children! A mother with small children during a church service needs to teach by example about what is happening. Jesus is talking to us! The Sunday morning Church Service is the high point of the week for the Christian family. The Christian family goes to Church to be welcomed as God’s children through baptism, to repent of their sins, to receive forgiveness for their sins, for wisdom, comfort, encouragement, and strength so that they can face another week in the sinful world that threatens to destroy and tempt them away from Jesus. The Christian family is the sheep and lambs who learn and listen to their Good Shepherd. If the Christian family fail to listen and learn to their Good Shepherd they are likely to wander and lose their way from the pasture that feeds them with the marks of the Church.”
Getting Kids to Behave in Church “Basically the whole issue of getting kids to behave in church boils down to this: From the very beginning, teach them why they are there in the first place. Remove as many distractions as you can. Model how to behave in church. Expect them to do the same. Children will live up or down to your expectations.” — I’ll tell you, I break most of her rules. The adults are heavily outnumbered in our pew on Sunday. She speaks the ideal, and I’d love to have that, but reality is a little different. I bring books, coloring and snacks for the 2 and under crowd but I’m trying to get away from so much of that with the bigger ones.
The Secret to Church Growth “If church isn’t a priority for you, it won’t be for them either. If you go to church casually and do little at home to pray, learn Bible stories, memorize Bible verses and the catechism, chances are they’ll follow suit. Like I said, this is serious business. So what’s a parent to do? Teach your kids Bible stories from the time they are babies. Read age appropriate devotions with them. Ask them for prayer requests and pray with them often. Teach the catechism so that when they get to confirmation class the memory portion is review. ”
Family Devotions: A Work in Progress “Remember, you’re not a terrible mother if your kids don’t know the entire catechism by heart. We (and our families) are all works in progress. Don’t compare your own family devotions to those of other families. Do what is manageable, and rest in the confidence that God works through His Word, however imperfect our efforts to read it.”
Nurturing our Children with the Language of Luther “Luther packed a lot of punch; he filled his catechism with rich teaching into relatively short statements. Do we believe that even the youngest children should hear the richest expression of our faith as found in the catechism and creeds? Yes. Emphatically, yes.”
God help us in this great task!
Great roundup of articles. Thanks, Aubri!
We protested loudly when the “only time” for Sunday school was during worship at our former congregation. The congregation’s response was that we could all attend worship earlier or later if we so desired and that there was “plenty of time” for the children to “learn to worship” after Confirmation! We’re very glad that we don’t have to deal with that mentality anymore and we’re hoping that we can continue with that once John has his own perish. The battles we fight that shouldn’t be!
Thanks so much for this post!
Lea
You’re welcome ladies! 🙂
Lea, that would be frustrating to deal with. A lot of misunderstanding what children need.
Good thoughts Aubri. We all need the reminder every once in a while…or every week? “Angrily sending everyone off to bed in the middle of a hymn” At least we tried, right? That always makes me so sad when that happens. Like, that’s not what I want my kids to remember at the end of the day or think about when they think of hymns. I also do not force it like I used to. Some nights there are no devos. If I know I just can’t do it that night, I will skip it, if it will let the night end peacefully. One of those long obedience things, marathons, not sprints, adding up to the race of a life.
Yes Rebekah, the race of a life. I think that’s the key here, it’s a lifestyle, slow and steady, unfortunately in our house not everyday, but enough that our children know God’s Word is important and I pray one day all this will be easier!
Well said, Aubri! We struggle a lot with this during nightly devotions and divine services. It seems especially frustrating when it appears everyone else’s children are better behaved, listen better… too. Not too long ago Caleb showed me the Steadfast Moms blog. It has many good things to say. I like the idea of teaching them why they are in church and not just trying to keep them quiet, although my kids can still be loud and fussy at times! I had not seen the other blogs you put up, but I enjoyed reading what they had to say too! We went back and forth for a long time about having drinks (other than water) and/or snacks during divine service. Ultimately, a miss-communication led us to have a “water only” policy. It also helped that it was our first Sunday back in the sanctuary after a long sanctuary restoration project including new floors. We told the kids that food and drink was no longer allowed, except water.
Carrie, one thing that has helped me a lot is leading by example. Instead of constantly micromanaging and shushing the babies, I try to keep my head up and eyes on what’s going on around the pulpit/altar. Of course, I still have to grab [legs, ears, airplanes made from the prayer request cards], but not constantly responding to their busy-ness seems to give them the “marathon” idea that we pay attention and participate in church, even if the “sprint” moment is a little louder than I’d like.
It’s easy when they learn to read; you stick a hymnal in their hands.
Thanks, Katy! Always good to hear suggestions. We are currently doing a lot more leading by example and less micromanaging/shushing. It seems to be helping a lot! I’m looking forward to the time when our oldest can read. Right now, he’s working on memorizing the service. He by no means has all of it memorized, but I’m impressed with how much he does.