Shall I Force My Children To Go To Church?

[genealogynut]

"Shall I make my child go to church?"  Yes, and with no further discussion about the matter. Are you startled?  Why?  How do you answer Junior when he comes to breakfast on Monday morning and announces to you that he isn't going to school anymore?  You know!  Junior goes!!  How do you answer him when he comes in very smudged and says: "I'm not going to take a bath."  Junior bathes, doesn't he?

Why all this timidity then in the realm of his spiritual guidance and growth?  Going to wait and let him decide what church he will go to when he is old enough?  Quit kidding.  You didn't wait until you were old enough.   You didn't wait until he was old enough to decide whether he wished to remain dirty or be clean.  Do you wait until he is old enough to decide if he wants to take medicine when he is sick?

What will you say when Junior announces he does not like to go to church?  That's easy to answer.  Just be consistent.  Tell him, "Junior, in our family we all go to church and that includes you!!"  Your firmness and examples will furnish a bridge over which youthful rebellion travels into rich and satisfying experiences in personal religious living.

The parents of America can strike a telling blow against the forces which contribute to our juvenile delinquency, if our mothers and fathers will take their children to worship our Lord regularly.

                                                             -----------J. Edgar Hoover

[Janet Harrington]

Hallelujah and Amen!

[flo]

something I heard by a minister many, many years ago.  Never send your children to church....... take them.

[Janet Harrington]

That is exactly right, Flo.  Going to church here in Howard, I have seen many children come to Sunday School and then stay for church without a parent in sight.  I guess they expect the adults in the church to watch out for their children, but who is supposed to make them behave?

[emptynest]

I saw this once on a billboard......"Don't let the hearse be the 1st one to take you to church."   Kinda scary, huh?

[flo]

the point being by my remark is that children learn by example. 

[emptynest]

Flo, you are right. Children do learn by example. The sad thing is that so many children don't get the chance or right to choose.  It is already chosen for them.  Some of the children that are in church alone are because someone is trying to intervene in their lives and give them a chance to get to know that God loves them and that they are children.  I guess as far as the behaving part---it will be up to those of us who are there to set that example.  I am saddened mostly by the children who never get the chance to know that they are loved by a Greater God.  They never know there's a saving grace....a power greater than anything they will ever encounter.  It seems not fair that they don't even get to know......because their parents choose not to know or walk the life of faith.

[Janet Harrington]

Extremely well said, emptynest.