In many churches, children never worship with the adults in worship services. Others whisk them away before the sermon begins. Some may provide other options during worship for children, but only during the school year. A few congregations only offer worship activities for infants, while children remain in worship.
Personally, I think we can learn a lot from how children were treated in the Old Testament. From what we can tell, often the Law was read in front of the entire population – including children. To me, it seems the best place to learn how to worship God is by worshipping Him with your family. For many children the only time God and their family are together is in the church building. As a result, the only time children can worship with their family is during worship service at church. Even if you also worship with your kids at home during the week, there is a special emotional connection that happens when families worship together in a church worship service.
Regardless of how you feel about your kids being in the worship service with you (and I strongly encourage you to arrange that no matter what is available), you will find yourself at some point with your children on the pew next to you in worship service. So what can you do that will allow you to worship and teach your children to worship at the same time? There are probably plenty of things you can do, but here are some of my favorite tips.
As your children enter their teen years, you may begin to feel a sense of urgency in your parenting. You only have a few years remaining when you will see your child daily and have hours a day to help build their spiritual foundation. By your child’s senior year of high school, even the most proactive Christian parent can feel a sense of panic. What have you forgotten to teach? What more do you need to say?
If you have ever homeschooled your child, I am sure you have had this conversation many times. You mention you homeschool and the other parent very quickly says “I could never do that. It’s too hard. (Fill in excuse.).” Now most parents aren’t quite that brave about admitting 100% Christian parenting is too hard, but you can tell they are thinking it. Or that’s it really not that necessary to “try so hard” or “do so much”.
It seems like every day another young person commits suicide. There are many different reasons some children choose such a drastic route to end their pain. One reason that is often cited is an intense feeling of loneliness, sometimes caused by the rejection of peers and others. Young people can be surrounded by peers, live in an urban area with millions of people and still feel as if they are all alone.
If you have lived in or visited a major urban area recently, you may have noticed a sign that read “See Something, Say Something”. Designed to encourage citizens to report information that could help authorities prevent a terrorist attack, the phrase could also be the best Christian parenting advice I can give you.