Brent Thomas talks about what a blessing kids are…and I take a rant-tangent. Tell me about it. Try going anywhere with four kids. It doesn’t cause hysteria in restaurants but it’s amazing how rude people can be. It’s so bad sometimes that even the kids notice it. And that ticks me off. We’re not even talking about a fancy restaurant. I’m talking about IHOP.
Realistically, I expect that from the world, I don’t expect it from the church. Here’s what I’m talking about: I’ve gotten all kinds of dirty looks from folks because we insist on keeping our kids with us during the worship service rather than sending them to children’s church. We put the baby in the nursery because, well she’s a baby. Babies ARE loud and WE want to hear the sermon. But the older kids need to be in church so they can learn to worship. Where else are they going to learn it?
We move them from the nursery to extended session to children’s church to the youth ministry…no wonder they want something else when they get out of High School. It was convenient, but its hard to reverse 18 years of training them to leave the adults alone while they worship God. ‘Big Church’ ain’t a peach folks. It’s not FUN.
It’s not supposed to be. It’s worship. It’s submitting yourself to the Word of God in public and in front of those who ought to know you best. I’m sure the youth group IS more fun, but why is it like that? Are we ministering to the kids or just keeping them out of the way?
Motives matter. Think about it.
Stumble it!
Stumble it!